Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
DARWIN, Charles. Insectivorous Plants. John Murray, London, 1875.
Price: US$510.02 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: pp x, 457. Some illustrations. Third Thousand. Original green cloth binding. Light foxing to page edges. A very nice copy.
Seller: Anah Dunsheath RareBooks ABA ANZAAB ILAB, Auckland, NZ, New Zealand
Darwin, Charles. INSECTIVOROUS PLANTS [1st Edition, 1st issue]. London John Murray 1875, 1875.
Price: US$577.47 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: 1st Edition, 8vo, (18.5cm), iii-x, 462pp. Recent half green calf, with fresh plain brown endpapers. Bound without half-title. 30 text woodcuts Binding sound. Some toning to edges. Occasional smudge, but generally very clean internally. Several very small ink marks to lower text block. A very presentable Darwin first edition. "These meticulous studies form a minor contribution to the evolutionary series by the study of the adaptations of such plants to impoverished conditions. The book was published on 2 July 1875, in a standard binding without inserted advertisements. It is stated that 3,000 were printed, of which 2,700 were sold to the trade at once. This cannot be strictly true because both the second and third thousands of the same year stated their thousands on the title pages" (R. B. Freeman). Freeman F1217
Seller: Gilleasbuig Ferguson Rare Books ABA ILAB, Isle of Skye, United Kingdom
Charles Darwin. Insectivorous Plants. John Murray, London, 1875.
Price: US$641.63 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Second thousand. Freeman 1218, with errata slip. Two previous owners stamps. Spine and corners bumped.
Seller: Scarthin Books ABA, ILAB., Cromford, United Kingdom
Darwin, Charles. Insectivorous Plants. John Murray, London, 1875.
Price: US$834.12 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: John Murray, London, 1875 First edition 2nd thousand. Original green cloth, backstrip very slightly darkened, trivial rubbing to head of spine and corners but overall a very bright and square copy. Internally much cleaner than is often the case with this work, free from foxing and staining.
Seller: Finecopy, Westbury, WILTS, United Kingdom
Charles Darwin. Insectivorous Plants. John Murray, London UK, 1875.
Price: US$885.45 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: A very good early edition of Invectivorous Plants with illustrations. With errata insert in chapter one. Original green boards with bright gilt lettering on the spine. Wear and small tears to the spine ends. Clean end papers and contents.
Seller: Rare And Antique Books PBFA, Exeter, DEVON, United Kingdom
DARWIN, Charles.. Insectivorous Plants. With Illustrations.. London: John Murray, 1875, 1875.
Price: US$2566.53 + shipping
Description: First edition, first issue. Darwin consulted leading physiologists and chemists in this experimental work to show that carnivorous plants adapted to trap and digest insects, enabling them to survive in poor soil. Two of the woodcuts (figures 7 and 8) are after drawings by Darwin himself, while several are after drawings by his sons, George and Francis. Darwin started researching insectivorous plants in 1860 after observing a sundew while resting in Sussex. "During subsequent years, whenever I had leisure, I pursued my experiments, and my book on 'Insectivorous Plants' was published in July 1875 - that is, sixteen years after my first observations. The delay in this case, as with all my other books, has been a great advantage to me; for a man after a long interval can criticise his own work, almost as well as if it were that of another person. The fact that a plant should secrete, when properly excited, a fluid containing an acid and ferment, closely analogous to the digestive fluid of an animal, was certainly a remarkable discovery" (van Wyhe). The finished book discussed the whole range of such plants, their adaptations and evolutionary relationships, and their specialized digestive processes. Insectivorous Plants "was published on July 2, 1875, in a standard binding without inserted advertisements. It is stated that 3,000 were printed of which 2,700 were sold to the trade at once. This cannot be strictly true because both the second and third thousands of the same year stated their thousands on the title pages. It was not printed again in Darwin's lifetime, but a second edition, edited by Francis, appeared dated 1888" (Freeman). Freeman 1217; Norman 601. John van Wyhe, "Insectivorous Plants", Darwin Online. Octavo. Original green cloth, spine lettered and decorated in gilt, covers panelled in blind, brown coated endpapers. With 30 woodcuts in text. Bookplate of one K. G. Go on half-title verso. Extremities bumped and worn, joints and spine ends repaired, recased, inner hinges cracked, endleaves foxed, pp. 172-3 browned else contents generally clean: a good copy.
Seller: Peter Harrington. ABA/ ILAB., London, United Kingdom
Darwin, Charles. Insectivorous Plants.. John Murray, London, 1875.
Price: US$3000.00 + shipping
Description: First edition of this classic work by Darwin. Octavo, original green cloth with gilt titles to the spine, woodcut illustrations by Darwin and his sons, George and Francis Darwin. In very good condition. Bookplate and Henry Southeran's bookseller ticket to the pastedown. Darwin states in the opening pages to this comprehensive account: "During the summer of 1860, I was surprised by finding how large a number of insects were caught by the leaves of the common sun-dew (Drosera rotundifolia) on a heath in Sussex. I had heard that insects were thus caught, but knew nothing further on the subject." The book chronicles Darwin's experiments with various carnivorous plants, in which he carefully studied their feeding mechanisms Darwin tried several methods to stimulate the plants into activating their trap mechanisms, including feeding them meat and glass, blowing on them and prodding them with hair. He found that only the movement of an animal would cause the plants to react, and concluded that this was an evolutionary adaptation to conserve energy for prey and to ignore stimuli that were not likely to be nutritious. He also discovered that while some plants have distinct trap-like structures, others produce sticky fluids to ensnare their prey and concluded that this was an example of natural selection pressure resulting in various methods for food capture.
Seller: Raptis Rare Books, Palm Beach, FL, U.S.A.
DARWIN, Charles.. Insectivorous Plants. With illustrations.. London: John Murray, 1875, 1875.
Price: US$3849.80 + shipping
Description: First edition, first issue. "These meticulous studies form a minor contribution to the evolutionary series by the study of the adaptations of such plants to impoverished conditions" (Freeman). Darwin consulted leading physiologists and chemists in the experimental work, and several of the woodcuts are after drawings by his sons George and Francis, though two (text figures 7 and 8) are from drawings by Darwin himself. "The book was published on July 2, 1875, in a standard binding without inserted advertisements. It is stated that 3,000 were printed of which 2,700 were sold to the trade at once. This cannot be strictly true because both the second and third thousands of the same year stated their thousands on the title pages. The second has an errata slip of six lines, and in the third these six have been corrected, but another six have been found and again occur on a slip. The same slip is present in the fourth thousand of 1876. It was not printed again in Darwin's lifetime, but a second edition, edited by Francis appeared dated 1888" (Freeman). Freeman 1217. Octavo. Original green bead-grain cloth, spine lettered and decorated in gilt, covers panelled in blind, brown coated endpapers. 30 woodcuts in text. Ownership stamp of one George Joachim to half-title (perhaps the British economist, 1831-1907). Spine ends and corners bumped with tiny nick to cloth at head, extremities lightly worn in places, cloth bright and unmarked, contents crisp and generally clean with some faint foxing to endleaves, leaves A2-3 and B2 a little shorter at lower edge. A very good copy in the original cloth.
Seller: Peter Harrington. ABA/ ILAB., London, United Kingdom
Darwin, Charles.. Insectivorous Plants.. London, John Murray, 1875., 1875.
Price: US$5510.33 + shipping
Description: 8vo. X, 462 pp. With woodcut illustrations in text. Contemporary full calf with spine gilt in six compartments, giltstamped green spine label, gilt inner dentelle, leading edges gilt. Marbled endpapers; all edges marbled. First edition. - Presentation copy from the library of the British architect William Cecil Marshall (1849-1921), inscribed to him on the half-title ("From the Author") by a clerk at the publisher's, and with Marshall's autograph ownership above that. Darwin and Marshall had corresponded over insectivorous plants the previous year (cf. Darwin Correspondence Project no. 9627F, letter dated 7 Sept. [1874]). In 1876 Darwin would engage the architect's services to build an extension to Down House on the north side (a billiard room with dressing room and bedroom above). - Extremeties worn; front marbled flyleaf weakened. Still an appealing copy.
Seller: Antiquariat INLIBRIS Gilhofer Nfg. GmbH, Vienna, A, Austria