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FLOWER STRUCTURE AND POLLINATION SPRENGEL, CHRISTIAN KONRAD. Das entdeckte Geheimniss der Natur im Bau und in der Befruchtung der Blumen. 25 engraved plates with over 1000 subjects. [3] leaves, 444 columns, [2] leaves, including engraved title. 4to, contemporary 1/2 calf, rebacked retaining most of original backstrip; contents generally clean. Berlin: Friedrich Vieweg the Elder, 1793
first edition of sprengel's groundbreaking work on pollination, "a milestone on the road to the understanding the biology of flowers" (DSB), demonstrating for the first time the adaptation of the structure of nectar-bearing flowers for fertilization by insects. Sprengel also noted the phenomenon of dichogamy (the maturation of male and female organs at different times in the same plant, circumventing self-pollination) and concluded that it was not Nature's way for a flower to be fertilized by its own pollen. "This doctrine, together with the even more important view of the close integration of floral structures with insect visitation, was the first attempt to explain the origin of organic forms from definite relations to the environment." (DSB). Darwin was strongly influenced by Sprengel's observations and elaborated upon them in On the Origin of Species and his subsequent works on orchids and cross and self fertilization. DSB XII, 587-91; Garrison-Morton 104.1; Nissen BBI 1883; Norman 1990.
