CLIMATE CONSIDERED BY A BOTANIST
SHELDRAKE, Timothy.
The Causes of Heat and Cold in the several Climates and Situations of this Globe, so far as they depend upon the rays of the sun, considered in order to shew that the difference of heat and cold in other countries may be nearly ascertained by a thermometer. As it was read to the Royal Society by T. Sheldrake, author of the Herbal.
London, printed for and sold by the author … and by M. Cooper, 1756.
8vo, pp. [6], 42, [2 (advertisements)], with copper-engraved plate as frontispiece; a very good, clean copy, disbound.
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The Causes of Heat and Cold in the several Climates and Situations of this Globe, so far as they depend upon the rays of the sun, considered in order to shew that the difference of heat and cold in other countries may be nearly ascertained by a thermometer. As it was read to the Royal Society by T. Sheldrake, author of the Herbal.
First edition, rare on the market, of this work on climate by the botanist Timothy Sheldrake (c. 1691–c. 1759) evidencing his interest in tropical plants.
‘As we have no certain rule for determining the heat that exotic plants may require in summer, nor unless by dear-bought experience what degree of cold they could with safety bear in winter, I was led to consider whether it might not be possible to discover some method for determining how much less the cold of the winter in more southern climates might be, than in ours, and in what proportion their heat also might probably exceed that of our summers, by adjusting a thermometer so as to ascertain the difference; that if it were possible we might, by the assistance of good green-houses, thermometers and stoves, have the pleasure of seeing exotics here in almost the same beauty and perfection as in their native countries’ (p. 3).
The attractive frontispiece by Sheldrake, explained on pp. 39–42, shows ‘rays of the sun’ striking the earth’s surface, with the relative positions of London in summer and winter marked thereon.
ESTC T81689.
