 First edition | |
| Author | G. Ledyard Stebbins |
|---|---|
| Genre | Non-fiction |
| Publisher | Columbia University Press |
Publication date | 1950 |
Variation and Evolution in Plants is a book written byG. Ledyard Stebbins, published in 1950. It is one of the key publications embodying themodern synthesis ofevolution andgenetics, as the first comprehensive publication to discuss the relationship between genetics and natural selection in plants. The book has been described by plant systematistPeter 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]
The book is based on theJesup Lectures that Stebbins delivered atColumbia 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.
The book is written in fourteen parts:
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, areTheodosius Dobzhansky'sGenetics and the Origin of Species,Ernst Mayr'sSystematics and the Origin of Species andGeorge Gaylord Simpson'sTempo and Mode in Evolution. The great significance ofVariation and Evolution in Plants is that it effectively killed any serious belief in alternative mechanisms of evolution for plants, such asLamarckian evolution orsoft inheritance, which were still upheld bysome botanists.[2]
Stebbins bookFlowering Plants: Evolution Above the Species Level was published in 1974 and was based on the Prather Lectures which he gave atHarvard. It is considered as an update toVariation and Evolution.
In January 2000 a colloquium was held inIrvine, California, to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the publication ofVariation and Evolution in Plants.[3] A 16 chapter book entitledVariation 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.
