one of the most important books in the history of genetics

First English language edition of a foundational text in genetics, the book that posited that inherited characteristics are transmitted on particles specific to each trait, called pangenes (later shortened to genes). Uncommon in the dust jacket, this copy from the library of evolutionary biologist Ernst Mayr, with his bookplate. Originally published in German in 1889.

Hugo de Vries (1848-1935) independently rediscovered Mendel's laws of heredity while studying evening primrose plants, and his work played an important role in the birth of genetics alongside that of Carl Correns, William Bateson, and Thomas Hunt Morgan. The theory of intracellular pangenesis laid out in this volume was partly inspired by Darwin's own theory of pangenesis, and it was one of the first steps in explaining why new traits became statistically significant in populations rather than melting back into the genetic mix. The paper on fertilisation and hybridisation was originally titled 'Befruchtung und Bastardierung' and first published in 1903.

The former owner of this copy, Ernst Mayr (1904-2005) was an ornithologist and one of the 20th century's leading evolutionary biologists, a major contributor to the modern synthesis of Darwinian evolution, taxonomy, and genetics. His two great contributions, which have since influenced every aspect of biology, were the definition of species as a population that can only breed within itself, and the corresponding theory of peripatric speciation, which explains that speciation can occur when populations are isolated from each other and therefore take different evolutionary paths.

First English language edition; 8vo; bookplate of Ernst Mayr, pencilled underlining on the first page and erased from succeeding pages, contents fresh; original red cloth, titles to spine in gilt on black label, top edge gilt, upper corner bumped, cloth a little rubbed at the extremities with a few small spots and marks, a very good copy in the tanned and chipped jacket with loss from the edges and spine panel; 270pp.

Garrison-Morton, A Medical Bibliography 241.