(SCOTT, John).   SCOTT'S ORCHARDIST,   Or Catalogue Of Fruits, Cultivated At Merriott, Somerset.       London: H. M. Pollett, n.d. (ca.   1873).          Second Edition, substantially enlarged and improved. Scott operated a nursery in Crewkerne, Somerset where he assembled the largest collection of fruit trees in Britain at that time, including 1100 varieties of apple and 1800 varieties of pear. His ORCHARDIST was, essentially, the commercial catalogue for this enormous stock. It provides surprisingly detailed descriptions of nearly all these varieties, as well as numerous other types of tree and bush fruit. A portion of the text, however, is also devoted to general pomology and cultural advice. In his "afterpiece," included at the head of the section on additions and corrections at the end of the volume, Scott writes: "I think I may claim this much, that I have collected into one volume a greater number of sorts of fruits than has ever been done by any Pomologist in this country... My first procedure was to procure all the hardy fruits that I could get, and with them to form a living school, out of which I could learn their true characters and histories; this was a task of twenty years duration, and the pages that precede these observations are the result of twenty years study of the fruits collected together by me at Merriott." Uncommon.   8vo (20.5 x 13.3 cm); (vi) + 608 pp.            Original pebbled cloth with decoratively gilt spine; front inner hinge mended, otherwise a fine copy. ***Presentation inscription on front fly leaf, signed and dated by the author. $500.00

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