Variation and Evolution in Plants
Variation and Evolution in Plants is a book written by G. Ledyard Stebbins, published in 1950. It is one of the key publications embodying the modern synthesis of evolution and genetics, as the first comprehensive publication to discuss the relationship between genetics and natural selection in plants. The book has been described by plant systematist Peter H. Raven as "the most important book on plant evolution of the 20th century" and it remains one of the most cited texts on plant evolution.[1]
Origin
The book is based on the Jesup Lectures that Stebbins delivered at Columbia University in October and November 1946 and is a synthesis of his ideas and the then current research on the evolution of seed plants in terms of genetics.
Contents
The book is written in fourteen parts:
- Description and analysis of variation patterns
- Examples of variation patterns within species and genera
- The basis of individual variation
- Natural selection and variation in populations
- Genetic systems as factors in evolution
- Isolation and the origin of species
- Hybridization and its effects
- Polyploidy I: occurrence and nature of polyploid types
- Polyploidy II: geographic distribution and significance of polyploidy
- Apomixis in relation to variation and evolution
- Structural hybridity and the genetic system
- Evolutionary trends I: the karyotype
- Evolutionary trends II: External morphology
- Fossils, modern distribution patterns and rates of evolution
Significance
The 643-page book cites more than 1,250 references and was the longest of the four books associated with the modern evolutionary synthesis. The other key works of the modern synthesis, whose publication also followed their authors' Jesup lectures, are Theodosius Dobzhansky's Genetics and the Origin of Species, Ernst Mayr's Systematics and the Origin of Species and George Gaylord Simpson's Tempo and Mode in Evolution. The great significance of Variation and Evolution in Plants is that it effectively killed any serious belief in alternative mechanisms of evolution for plants, such as Lamarckian evolution or soft inheritance, which were still upheld by some botanists.[2]
Legacy
Stebbins book Flowering Plants: Evolution Above the Species Level was published in 1974 and was based on the Prather Lectures which he gave at Harvard. It is considered as an update to Variation and Evolution.
In January 2000 a colloquium was held in Irvine, California, to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of Variation and Evolution in Plants.[3] A 16 chapter book entitled Variation and evolution in Plants and Microorganisms: Toward a New Synthesis 50 Years After Stebbins (ISBN 0-309-07099-6) was released to mark the occasion.
References
- ^ Raven, P. 1974. "Plant systematics 1947-1972." Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 61:166-178
- ^ Smocovitis, V. B. and Ayala, F. J. 2000. George Ledyard Stebbins. Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences 85:290-313
- ^ Raven, P. H. 2000. "G. Ledyard Stebbins (1906–2000): An appreciation". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 97:6945-6946
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disciplines
- Agriculture
- Biogeography
- Bryology
- Cladistics
- Comparative anatomy
- Cytology
- Economic botany
- Ethnobotany
- Floristics
- Forestry
- Genetic engineering
- Horticulture
- Lichenology
- Molecular phylogenetics
- Mycology
- Natural history
- Numerical taxonomy
- Paleobotany
- Palynology
- Phycology
- Phytochemistry
- Phytogeography
- Plant anatomy
- Plant ecology
- Plant genetics
- Plant morphology
- Plant pathology
- Plant physiology
- Pteridology
- Historia Plantarum and Causes of Plants of Theophrastus c. 300 BC
- De Plantis of Nicolaus of Damascus c. 1st century BC
- De Materia Medica of Dioscorides c. 60 AD
- Naturalis Historia 77–79 AD
- De Vegetabilibus of Albertus Magnus c. 1256
- Herbarum Vivae Icones 1530
- Libellus De Re Herbaria Novus 1538
- Kreütterbuch of Hieronymus Bock 1539
- De plantis libri XVI of Caesalpino 1583
- Stirpium Historiae 1583
- Herball, or Generall Historie of Plantes 1597
- Prodromus Theatrici Botanici 1620
- Pinax theatri botanici 1623
- Anatome Plantarum 1675
- Anatomy of Plants 1682
- Historia Plantarum of John Ray 1686–1704
- De Sexu Plantarum Epistola 1694
- Éléments de botanique 1694
- Vegetable Staticks 1727
- Systema Naturae 1735
- Genera Plantarum 1737
- Philosophia Botanica 1751
- Species Plantarum 1753
- Systema Naturae, 10th ed. 1758–59
- Familles des Plantes 1763–64
- Experiments Upon Vegetables 1779
- Die Metamorphose der Pflantzen 1790
- Traité d'Anatomie et de Physiologie Végétale 1802
- Recherches Chimiques sur la Végétation 1804
- Beyträge zur Anatomie der Pflanzen 1812
- Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis 1824–1873
- Nepenthaceae
- Die Vegetabilische Zelle 1851
- Vergleichende Untersuchungen 1851
- On the Origin of Species 1859
- Experiments on Plant Hybridization 1865
- Die Vegetation der Erde 1872
- Plantesamfund 1895
- Pflanzengeographie auf Physiologischer Grundlage 1898
- Variation and Evolution in Plants 1950
- Ontogeny and Phylogeny 1977
- An Integrated System of Classification of Flowering Plants 1981
concepts
figures
- Theophrastus c. 371–287 BC
- Pliny the Elder 23–79 AD
- Pedanius Dioscorides c. 40–90 AD
- Otto Brunfels 1464–1534
- Hieronymus Bock 1498–1554
- Valerius Cordus 1515–1544
- William Turner 1515–1568
- Rembert Dodoens 1517–1585
- Andrea Cesalpino 1519–1603
- Cristóbal Acosta 1525–1594
- Gaspard Bauhin 1560–1624
- Joachim Jungius 1587–1657
- John Ray 1623–1705
- Nehemiah Grew 1628–1711
- Marcello Malpighi 1628–1694
- Joseph Pitton de Tournefort 1656–1708
- Rudolf Jakob Camerarius 1665–1721
- Stephen Hales 1677–1761
- Bernard de Jussieu 1699–1777
- Carolus Linnaeus 1707–1778
- Michel Adanson 1727–1806
- Jan Ingenhousz 1730–1799
- José Celestino Mutis 1732–1808
- Félix de Azara 1742–1821
- Joseph Banks 1743–1820
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1749–1832
- Carl Ludwig Willdenow 1765–1812
- Nicolas-Théodore de Saussure 1767–1845
- Alexander von Humboldt 1769–1859
- Aimé Bonpland 1773–1858
- Thomas Nuttall 1786–1859
- Joakim Frederik Schouw 1789–1852
- Matthias Jakob Schleiden 1804–1881
- Alexander Braun 1805–1877
- George Engelmann 1809–1884
- Asa Gray 1810–1888
- August Grisebach 1814–1879
- Joseph Hooker 1817–1911
- Gregor Mendel 1822–1884
- Nathanael Pringsheim 1823–1894
- Wilhelm Hofmeister 1824–1877
- Julius von Sachs 1832–1897
- Eugenius Warming 1841–1924
- William Gilson Farlow 1844–1919
- Andreas Franz Wilhelm Schimper 1856–1901
- Nikolai Vavilov 1887–1943
- Barbara McClintock 1902–1992
- G. Ledyard Stebbins 1906–2000
- Eugene Odum 1913–2002
- Arthur Cronquist 1919–1992
- Botanical garden
- Herbal
- Plant taxonomy
- History of plant systematics
- Systems of plant taxonomy
- Herbalism
- History of agricultural science
- History of agriculture
- History of biochemistry
- History of biology
- History of biotechnology
- History of ecology
- History of evolutionary thought
- History of genetics
- History of geology
- History of medicine
- History of molecular biology
- History of molecular evolution
- History of paleontology
- History of phycology
- History of science
- Natural philosophy
- Philosophy of biology
- Timeline of biology and organic chemistry
- Category