HOFMEISTER, Wilhelm Friedrich Benedikt (1824-77). Vergleichende Untersuchungen der Keimung, Enfaltung und Fruchtbildung Hoherer Kryptogamen.

HOFMEISTER, Wilhelm Friedrich Benedikt (1824-77).  Vergleichende Untersuchungen der Keimung, Entfaltung und Fruchtbildung Höherer Kryptogamen (Moose, Farrn, Equisetaceen, Rhizocarpeen und Lycopodiaceen) und der Samenbildung der Coniferen. Leipzig: Verlag von Friedrich Hofmeister [colophon:] Druck von Breitkopf und Härtel in Leipzig, 1851. 4to (267 x 220mm). 33 engraved plates (spotted throughout, some light browning and staining). Contemporary half roan and marbled boards, spine gilt (extremities rubbed). Provenance: Bibliotheca Collegii Exaeten (old stamp on title); old, partly defaced, label on title; from the Collection of Peter and Margarethe Braune. EXCEPTIONALLY RARE FIRST EDITION of this milestone in the history of biology in which the author comes to the “revolutionary conclusion that all green land plants undergo a regular alternation of dissimilar generations in their complete life histories” (Norman) and which significantly contributed to the growth of phylogenetic and evolutionary ideas. "The amount of new information presented is immense; the errors are minor and do not affect the overall picture ... With this single publication, the core of botany passed from its Middle Ages to the modern period" (DSB). The American Journal of Botany stated that the author “stands as one of the true giants in the history of biology and belongs in the same pantheon as Darwin and Mendel.” Dibner Heralds 34 (citing only the English edition of 1862); Nissen BBI 902; Norman 1083; Waller 11538.