Pflanzen-Geographie auf physiologischer Grundlage
Publisher Information: Jena: Gustav Fischer, 1898.
Schimper, Andreas F. W. (1856-1901). Pflanzen-Geographie auf physiologischer Grundlage. xviii, 876, [2, errata]pp. 69 plates, 4 chromolithographed folding maps, text illustrations. Jena: Gustav Fischer, 1898. 153 x 171 mm. Modern quarter cloth, marbled boards, original printed wrappers bound in, top edges gilt. Wrappers a bit soiled, light toning, but very good. Some pencil notes in the margins.
First Edition of one of the foundation works of plant ecology. Based on two decades of Schimper’s own extensive research, as well as the work of Schenck, Stahl and others, Pflanzen-Geographie represents the culmination of a new approach to the subject “in which the distribution of plants was correlated with their physiological response to the environment” (Morton, History of Botanical Science, p. 433). A follower of Darwinian theory, Schimper wrote his textbook from an evolutionary standpoint.
"Although there are few specific references to natural selection in the body of [Pflanzen-Geographie], Schimper often implied selection theory quite strongly . . . The physiological point of view is clear and explicit throughout. The book begins with a long section (170 pages in the German edition) treating individual factors that affect plant distribution—water, heat, light, air, soil, and animals. Schimper examines each factor in its physiological detail, citing abundant examples from recent experimental work. Following a brief discussion of the major plant formations . . . Schimper then turns to an over-600-page discussion of the relationships between plants and environment in each of five major vegetation zones—tropical, temperate, arctic, montane and aquatic . . . The textbook as a whole represents a direct application of recent ecologically oriented work in plant physiology to the broad problems of plant distribution" (Cittadino, Nature as the Laboratory: Darwinian Plant Ecology in the German Empire 1880-1900, p. 114).
Schimper’s Pflanzen-Geographie introduced the terms “tropical rainforest” and “sclerophyll,” the latter term referring to a type of vegetation that has hard, thick, leathery leaves. An English translation of the work was published in 1903. Garrison-Morton.com 8536.
Book Id: 44587Price: $450.00