8vo. Portrait frontispiece, folding color map, numerous tables, graphs, etc. Original green cloth, gilt-lettered spine (a touch of rubbing to extremities). Provenance: J.M. Kirschner (ownership signature).

FIRST EDITION. Concerned by Darwin's focus on domesticated species, Wallace used this work to document variations in wild species through innovative diagrams and charts. Drawing from decades of research and his Lowell lectures, he presented new arguments supporting Darwin’s theories, closely aligned with his own—Wallace even coined the phrase “survival of the fittest.”