Darwin and His Flowers: The Key to Natural Selection by Mea AllanReview by: Barbara G. BeddallIsis, Vol. 70, No. 1 (Mar., 1979), p. 179Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of The History of Science SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/230909 .

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BOOK REVIEWS-ISIS, 70: 1 : 251 (1979) 179

m Nineteenth & Twentieth Centuries

Mea Allan. Darwin and His Flowers: The Key to Natural Selection. 318 pp., illus., gloss., bibl., index. New York: Taplinger Publishing Company, 1977. $14.50.

One might almost say that this is a book that has been waiting to be written; indeed it seems surprising that it has not been done before, for plants formed such an important part of Darwin's researches. Perhaps it is because much of his plant research took place after the publication of the Origin of Species that less attention has been paid to it than to the work leading up to the Origin. However, this disparity has now been at least partly redressed by Mea Allan's knowledgeable and informative study of Darwin and His Flow- ers: The Key to Natural Selection. Two other themes share equal billing, evolution itself and the physiology of plants.

Allan has skillfully drawn on Darwin's correspondence and publications, as well as on those of his contemporaries, to reveal and illuminate his intense and long-standing in- terest in living plants. Unfortunately, the book is almost without notes, making refer- ence back to the sources listed in the bibliog- raphy difficult, especially to any unpublished material. On the other hand, it is usefully and well illustrated with both photographs and drawings, and a Glossary of Botanical Terms is appended; the index is more than adequate. It is attractively produced and contains few errors.

Plants had both a theoretical and a practi- cal advantage to Darwin over animals in regard to his "theory," as Allan points out. The question of the volition of animals, which played a role in Lamarck's evolution- ary theory, was thus avoided altogether; and plants, unlike animals, were at hand, or could be obtained, to be grown experimentally as Darwin chose. Furthermore, they exhibited many differences from animals, enabling Darwin to pursue a wide range of biological problems. Many clues that came to him early in life were followed up by later experiments, either directly in support of his theory of evolution bv means of natural selection or to investigate various aspects of plant reproduc- tion and growth.

Allan traces Darwin's interest in plants from his early youth through his years with the Beagle and on to the publication of the Origin; Chapters 9 (The Quiet War) and 10 (The Great Migrations) contain an explana-

tion of his evolutionary theories. Darwin had not started out as a botanist, however ("I knew no more about the plants which I had collected than the Man in the Moon"), but had later patiently acquired his knowledge through experiment and observation, and from endless correspondence with botanists and horticulturalists the world over. The se- ven following chapters summarize the enor- mously detailed experiments that he pains- takingly carried out on orchids, climbing plants, insectivorous plants, plant reproduc- tion, and other topics. Among other things, Allan points out that had Darwin been more mathematically inclined, he would have been able to work out Mendel's laws from his own results.

A few errors should be noted: 1864 for 1853 (Hooker's "Introductory Essay to the New Zealand Flora"), page 179; Sir Robert Schomburgk was not the first to discover the water lily Victoria amazonica, page 202. "The most divergent offspring tend to survive," picture caption, page 174, misconstrues Dar- win's explanation: "the more diversified these descendants become, the better will be their chance of succeeding in the battle of life. Thus the small differences distinguishing var- ieties of the same species, will steadily tend to increase" (see On the Origin of Species, Cam- bridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1964; facsimile of 1st ed., p. 128).

In contrast to the more usual emphasis in historical treatments of botany on bibliogra- phic data or details about the discovery of various species, Allan's book, based as it is on Darwin's own researches and set within the framework of his theories, can be rated highly in terms of the botanical information it im- parts. Plants, though not the only key to natural selection, played a leading part in Darwin's thinking, and their role both before and after the Origin is clearly brought out in this welcome addition to the Darwin litera- ture. Although it lacks the notes that scholars will miss, it not only conveys a sense of the excitement and wonder of scientific investiga- tion but it also paints an attractive portrait of Darwin the man.

BARBARA G. BEDDALL

2502 Bronson Road Fairfield, Connecticut 06430

Juan Arechaga Martinez. La anatomia espa*ola en la primera mitad del siglo XIX. (Historia de la Medicina y de la Ciencia, Coleccion Monografica Universidad de Gra- nada, 50.) 244 pp., 21 plts., bibl., index. Gra-

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