THE VARIOUS CONTRIVANCES BY WHICH ORCHIDS ARE FERTILISED BY INSECTS.

London: John Murray, 1899. Second edition, revised, sixth impression. With numerous illustrations. 8vo, original green cloth lettered in gilt on spine and blocked in blind on the covers. xvi, 300, Index + 32 ads. pp. A very fine copy, bright and clean and beautifully preserved. EARLY PRINTING IN VERY FINE CONDITION. One of Darwin's most important but often overlooked works. The LIFE AND LETTERS of Darwin (III, p. 274) quotes Asa Gray as saying that "if the Orchid-book (with a few trifling omissions) had appeared before the 'Origin' the author would have been canonised rather than anathematised by the natural theologians," and noted that a review in the 'Literary Churchman' found only one fault "that Mr. Darwin's expression of admiration at the contrivances in orchids is too indirect a way of saying, 'O Lord, how manifold are Thy works.'"
The book was concerned with working out in detail the relationships between sexual structures of orchids and the insects which fertilize them, their evolution being attributed to natural selection, and therefore was the first of the volumes of "supporting evidence" for his ORIGIN OF SPECIES. Although it was praised highly by botanists, it did not sell well (only about 6000 copies by the turn of the century).