Darwin, Charles On the Various Contrivances by which British and Foreign Orchids are fertilised by London: John Murray, 1862. 8vo in 12s, original maroon cloth (recased), spine and covers lettered and decorated in gilt and blind, brown coated endpapers, vi 365 pp., folding wood-engraved plate, wood-engraved illustrations in the text, 32 pp. advertisements dated December 1861, corners slightly bumped [Freeman 208]

Note: First edition, presentation copy of Darwin's first published work after the Origin of Species, inscribed 'From the author' on the initial blank in a clerical hand. 'Darwin called the book a "flank movement" on the enemy, meaning that it tackled the question of design in nature. He maintained that the ornate ridges and horns of orchid flowers, and the complex internal arrangements, were not beauty for its own sake, or created for the delight of humans, but adaptations to facilitate reproduction. They existed to ensure cross-pollination by insects. If they were regarded as functional flowers, rather than beautiful ones, natural selection could explain their origin' (ODNB). Some 2,000 copies were printed. Provenance: Professor Richard G. West FRS FGS (1926-2020), British botanist, geologist and palaeontologist, by family repute acquired by him from a bookseller in Cambridge c.1950.