Due volumi in 8vo (cm 24); mezza pelle coeva con angoli, dorso con nervetti, fregi e titolo in oro (cerniera del piatto anteriore del secondo volume un po’ debole); pp. XII, 648 + pp. XIV, 752 con 12 tavole in cromolito fuori testo e 340 figure nel testo. Lievi fioriture a poche pagine, per il resto ottima copia.
PRIMA EDIZIONE di questa importante opera, «in which he described in detail his work on segregation laws, on phenomena of variation, and on plant mutations. The book made him famous, and he was recognized as one of the foremost botanists of his time» (D.S.B., XIV, pp. 95-105).
«In 1900, De Vries, professor of botany at the University of Amsterdam, discovered the fundamental but long-unrecognized work of the Austrian monk, Gregor Mendel (1822-1884), who in 1866 had advanced a theory of genetic recombination and species variation which De Vries recognized as essentially identical to his own. De Vries gave full credit to Mendel but was able to add an observation of his own: the sudden, sometimes radical, changes in characteristics of certain plant species, which subsequently breed true, played an important role in the evolutionary mechanism, a view later supported by a wealth of evidence. The present work is De Vries’ definitive treatise on mutation» (Heirs of Hippocrates, Iowa, 1980, p. 425, nr. 1094).
Garrison-Morton, 240. Norman Collection, 2169. H.D. Horblit, One hundred books famous in science, New York, 1964, nr. 73b. € 600,00