Paris, Muséum d'Histoire naturelle de Paris, 1865. Two parts in two. Large 4to (32.0 x 25.0 cm). 152 pp. [numbered 25-176]; nine lithographed plates of which eight in chromolithography of which one finely finished by hand. Rebound with printed title in embossed rectangle on the front board. Original front and rear wrappers of the Nouvelles Archives bound in.

Important contribution ("Naudin's foremost contribution" [DSB]) to the knowledge of hybrids, hybridization, and heredity among flowering plants. With some splendid illustrations, including a hybrid poppy. The author, Charles Victor Naudin (1815-1899) has been regarded as a predecessor to both Charles Darwin and Georg Mendel: "Both Charles Darwin and Gregor Mendel studied his work, which is considered a precursor of modern genetics" (Wikipedia). "De Quatrefages and De Varigny have maintained that the botanist Naudin stated the theory of evolution by natural selection in 1852. He explains very clearly the process of artificial selection, and says that in the garden we are following Nature's method. 'We do not think that Nature has made her species in a different fashion from that in which we proceed ourselves in order to make our variations.' But, as Darwin said, 'he does not show how selection acts under nature'" (Thomson). The text and most plates published in two parts in the Muséum's Nouvelles Archives, section Mémoires. The plates were subsequently numbered 1, 4, 9; 7, 8; 2, 3, 5, 6; with the last four first published in a third part of the Mémoires]. Uncut. With the widest possible margins. On the front wrappers a dedication to the "Académie royal de Sciences" in Madrid. Minimal foxing to a few plates, otherwise a very good, clean copy. Rare. DSB IX, pp. 618-619; J. A. Thomson, Darwin's Predecessors. Neither in Nissen BBI nor in Pritzel, nor in Stafleu and Cowan.