The Various Contrivances by Which Orchids are Fertilized by Insects [Paperback]

Charles Darwin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 25, 2004

1885. With illustrations. A volume by Darwin the British naturalist who became famous for his theories of evolution and natural selection. In 1861, Darwin took a break from writing his book on animal domestication and went on holiday with his daughter, Henrietta, to Torquay on the Devon coast. While there he spent many an hour examining the way insects pollinate orchids in the fields around the town. He noticed that only certain insects pollinate one particular orchid variety. When he returned to Down House he immediately switched from breeding pigeons to raising orchids. During the Victorian era, orchids were all the rage, and as soon as word got out that Darwin was raising them he found himself being flooded with specimens from all over the country. What he set out to do was study how orchids used intricate petal designs to attract bees and moths to their pollen. How did such a relationship evolve? The subject fascinated him and the results are to be found in this work.

Product Details

• Paperback: 316 pages
• Publisher: Kessinger Publishing, LLC (June 25, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1417921560
• ISBN-13: 978-1417921560
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 1.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,726,844 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Do not buy this version of Darwin's Orchids, May 28, 2011

By 

Jesse Connor - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Various Contrivances by Which Orchids Are Fertilized by Insects (Paperback)

Be careful before your order this version of this book and do not do it! Read between the lines of the comment above, "This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book." What Nabu Public Domain apparently means by this comment is they can't be bothered making a clean copy, but hope you will still pay them more than twenty bucks for their shockingly careless work. Have you ever yanked out a page you are copying from the photocopier too quickly? Then you know what many of pages in this reproduction looks like. When I received my copy, I counted more than two dozen blackened and unreadable pages and at least another two dozen blurred and ugly pages. The copying looks like the work of a bored ten-year-old. Why can't Nabu be bothered hiring someone to do a good job at the copying? They aren't paying their world-famous author a dime. Nor do they have to pay the illustrator, proofreader, editor, or print-setter. All those jobs were done decades ago by people who are now long dead and no longer receive compensation. All Nabu had to do was copy the original cleanly and correctly; the imperfections are not in the original. Amazon is refunding my money, of course. Save yourself the trouble, however, and order a different reproduction of this wonderful book.