Item #22548 The Power of Movement in Plants. Charles Darwin, Francis Darwin.
The Power of Movement in Plants
The Power of Movement in Plants
The Power of Movement in Plants

The Power of Movement in Plants

London: John Murray, 1880.

First Edition. A superb association copy of the first edition of this collaboration between Charles Darwin and his son, Francis, who worked together in the 1870s on studies of the growth and movement of plants in response to environmental factors. 8vo, pp. x, 592, with nearly 200 wood engravings in the text, bound in publisher's green cloth. Two lines of errata on page x and ads dated May 1878. Small blemish on lower spine, light rubbing to extremities; near fine. Inscribed in Francis Darwin's hand on the front flyleaf "Wallis Nash from Charles and Francis Darwin."

Wallis Nash (1837-1926), a prominent British attorney, was Charles Darwin's neighbor from 1873-1877 and remained his friend and correspondent afterward. In 1879, Nash moved to Oregon, where he helped found the Oregon Pacific Railroad and Oregon Agricultural College (now Oregon State University). In an 1880 letter to Nash, Charles Darwin wrote: "your life sounds very prosperous & I am delighted to hear that you are all well & happy" but lamented that Nash and his wife "will both ever be a heavy loss here." In his "Reminiscences of My Father's Everyday Life," Francis Darwin notes that "some pleasant recollections of my father's life at Down, written by our friend and former neighbour, Mrs. Wallis Nash, have been published in the Overland Monthly (San Francisco), October 1890." Later in life (1919), Wallis Nash published a book titled A Lawyer's Life on Two Continents that included a chapter on his relationship with and memories of Darwin.

The Power of Movement in Plants expanded on Charles Darwin's earlier work on climbing plants and 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.

Item #22548

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