DARWIN, Charles (1809-1882). On the Various Contrivances by which British and Foreign Orchids are Fertilised by Insects, and on the Good Effects of Intercrossing. London: John Murray, 1862.

8vo (197 x 122 mm). Folding wood-engraved plate, numerous wood-engravings in the text; 32 pp. publisher’s advertisements at end dated December 1861. Original plum cloth decorated in gilt and blind, gilt-stamped with orchid device on upper cover [Freeman variant a] (recased with joints skillfully repaired); quarter morocco folding case. Provenance: Haskell F. Norman (bookplate, sold his sale, Christie’s New York, 29 October 1998, lot1021).

FIRST EDITION, PRESENTATION COPY, inscribed (in the hand of a publisher’s clerk) on the front flyleaf: “From the Author.” This work was the first of Darwin's works to publish extensive evidence supporting his theory of Evolution through natural selection. “In my volume ‘On the Origin of Species’ I have given only general reasons for my belief that it is apparently a universal law of nature that organic beings require an occasional cross with another individual… Having been blamed for propounding this doctrine without giving ample facts, for which I had not, in that work, sufficient space, I wish to show that I have not spoken without having gone into details” (Introduction). Freeman 800; Norman 595.

DARWIN, Charles (1809-1882). On the Various Contrivances by which British and Foreign Orchids are Fertilised by Insects, and on the Good Effects of Intercrossing. London: John Murray, 1862.