The Different Forms of Flowers on Plants of the Same Species.: With Illustrations.

London: John Murray,, 1877. Presentation copy inscribed in Darwin's own hand First edition, presentation copy, inscribed on the title page, "With the compliments of the author". Most unusually for a Darwin presentation, the inscription is in Darwin's own hand rather than one of Murray's clerks. Different Forms of Flowers was published in a first edition of 1,250 copies on 9 July 1877. There was only a single issue, with the publisher's catalogue dated either January or March 1877, here the latter, without priority. Darwin explained in his autobiography that "this book consists chiefly of the several papers on heterostyled flowers originally published by the Linnean Society, corrected, with much new matter added, together with observations on some other cases in which the same plant bears two kinds of flowers. As before remarked, no little discovery of mine ever gave me so much pleasure as the making out the meaning of heterostyled flowers" (Life and Letters I, p. 78). Freeman remarks that, "had Darwin not chosen such genetically complex examples, he might have approached more nearly to an understanding of the laws of particulate inheritance". Regardless, it remains a seminal text on plant reproduction, adaptation, and evolution. It was translated into French and German during Darwin's lifetime, followed by four further languages after his death. Presentation copies of any of Darwin's books with the inscription written in the author's hand are notably uncommon: the usual procedure was for such inscriptions to be written by one of Murray's clerks on Darwin's behalf. We have handled just two other first editions of Different Forms of Flowers inscribed by the author, both of which had the March publisher's catalogue, as here. At auction, we count between two and four further authorial presentation copies, the range due to the inexact nature of some of the early 20th-century descriptions. Octavo. Original green cloth, spine lettered in gilt, decorative bands at ends in gilt, covers blocked in blind, dark brown coated endpapers, Simpson & Renshaw binder's ticket on rear pastedown. Housed in a dark green quarter morocco solander box by the Chelsea Bindery. 15 woodcut illustrations and 38 tables within text. Publisher's 32-page catalogue dated March 1877 at rear. Spine ends gently bumped, cloth bright, binding very discreetly restored and recoloured, endpapers slightly faded, previous ownership signature on dedication page subsequently erased, a handful of neat pencil marks (annotation to p. 1 translating the title into French, marginal crosses and lines to a few other pp.), faint semicircular damp mark running through upper margins of first c.140 pages, else the contents notably clean, publisher's catalogue lightly foxed towards end: a near-fine copy. Freeman 1277; Norman 602. Francis Darwin, ed., The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin, 1887.