This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 10/20/2022
[SCIENCE]. DARWIN, Charles (1809–1882). The Power of Movement in Plants. London: John Murray, 1880. 8vo. Half–title, 2 lines of errata at bottom of p. x, 196 woodcuts throughout. Lacking ads at end. Original blindstamped green cloth, gilt–lettered spine (lower cover cracked, partially protruding through pastedown, front hinge cracked after title–page, renewed endpapers). Provenance: Clinton Hall Association, New York (rubberstamp on title–page and few other leaves, call number also on title–page). FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE with errata which is later corrected in the second thousand of the same year. One of Darwin’s scarcer titles; only 1,500 copies were printed, and it sold the fewest copies of any of his works. “The book was an extension of Charles Darwin’s work on climbing plants and it showed that the same mechanisms can be observed in plants in general. By extending the idea of irregular circumnutation the Darwins analysed the growth movement of plants in response to factors of the environment such as light, gravity, and wounds. In addition, they demonstrated that the mechanism of curvature in both roots and shoots was the result of differential growth rates. They could also confirm that the effect of the stimuli on the growth movement was indirect and that light and gravity act on some substance in the tip of the root and the shoot, which is transmitted to other parts of the plant. Francis Darwin later refined some of the experimental techniques and modified their theoretical conclusions” (ODNB). Freeman 1325.