“The Vegetable Individual, in its relation to Species.” [Pp. 297–318 in:] The American Journal of Science and Arts, Second Series, No. 57—May, 1855.

Alexander Braun on the Vegetable Individual and Species, 1855

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First American journal appearance of Alexander Braun’s seminal 1855 essay on plant morphology and the nature of the species concept. Braun, one of the foremost German botanists of the nineteenth century, here challenges simplistic definitions of the “vegetable individual.” He argued that a plant is not merely a single specimen or shoot, but a recurring “series of formations” in which buds and branches form a continuous morphological whole. Braun’s publication stands out in the context of nineteenth-century debates about what constitutes biological individuality, especially among plants.

Alexander Braun (1805–1877), professor at the University of Berlin, was a leading figure in plant morphology who sought to unite natural history with philosophy. His work on plant individuality and the species problem influenced a generation of botanists and fed directly into the wider debates on variation and evolution that culminated in Darwin’s Origin of Species (1859).

Very scarce in its original printed wrappers.

Price: $250.00