Darwin Online: Power of Movement in Plants

The Power of Movement in Plants

This was an extension of the work on climbing plants to show that the same mechanisms hold good for flowering plants in general. It was another specialist book and seems to have sold fewer copies than any other, and was not reprinted in England after the year of Darwin's death until modern facsimilies appeared of the first thousand in 1966 and the second in 1969.

The first edition was published on November 6, 1880, and it is recorded that 1,500 copies were sold at Murray's autumn sale. It was in a standard binding and cost 15s. There are thirty-two pages of inserted advertisements dated May 1878; to have them more than two years earlier than the date of the book is unusual, but this is normal and they are present in Darwin's own copy, at Cambridge. In this issue there are two lines of errata on page x which are corrected in the second thousand of the same year. In this second thousand, the advertisements may be the same as those in the first, but are more often dated November 1880. In the third thousand of 1882, the last Murray printing, the preface is slightly altered. In all three, the spine title differs from the form on the title page, reading 'The movements of plants'.

It appeared in French, German and Russian by 1882, and in Italian and Romanian later.

Darwin, C. R. 1880. The power of movement in plants. London: John Murray. Text Image Text & image F1325

German

Darwin, C. R. 1881. Das Bewegungsvermögen der Pflanzen. Translated by J. V. Carus. Stuttgart: Schweizerbart. Image (Provided by http://www.biolib.de/) F1343

From: Freeman, R. B. 1977. The Works of Charles Darwin: An Annotated Bibliographical Handlist. 2^nd edn. Dawson: Folkstone.

NOTE: With thanks to The Charles Darwin Trust and Dr Mary Whitear for use of the Bibliographical Handlist. Copyright. All rights reserved. For private academic use only. Not for republication or reproduction in whole or in part without the prior written consent of The Charles Darwin Trust, 14 Canonbury Park South London N1 2JJ.

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File last updated 2 January, 2008