75/2167 [Botany]. Tournefort, J. Pitton de. Institutiones rei herbariae. Paris, "E typographia regia", 1719, 3rd ed., 3 vols., text vol.: (14),XXXII,(16),695,58p., engr. title-vignette, 2 other vignettes, 2 initials; plate vols.: 2 engr. titles, 489 plates by C. AUBRIET, contemp. unif. gilt calf w. mor. letterpiece, 4to.

- Trifle yellowed. A (very) fine set.

= Nissen, BBI 1977; Hunt p.450: "(...) The significance of Tournefort to eighteenth-century botany, and to that of today, lies in him having classified all plants into genera. (...) it was Tournefort who first set the genera and their component species apart, treating the genus as the smallest practical unit of classification, and considering the species as variants of the genus. To this day he is known among botanists as the father of the generic concept. Hundreds of the generic names coined or accepted by him were later adopted by Linneaus and are in use today. (...)".