The British Species of Angiocarpous Lichens, Elucidated by Their Sporidia by Leighton, W.A - 1851

London: Ray Society, 1851. First edition.

THE MICROSCOPY OF SPORES IN CLASSIFICATION OF LICHENS WITH 30 SPECTACULAR COLOR PLATES--BY CLERGYMAN/BOTANIST SCHOOLMATE OF DARWIN WHO SUBSCRIBED TO THE BOOK.

9 inches tall hardcover, green cloth binding, blindstamped design to covers, gilt initials of Ray Society to cover, gilt title to spine, [vi], 101 pp, 30 handcolored lithographic plates, 18 pp List of Subscribers (including "Darwin, C. esq. F.R.S., Down, Kent"), 3 pp Report of the Council of the Ray Society, Professor Henslow in the Chair. Spine faded, binding tight, armorial bookplate of Frederick DuCane Godman to front paste-down, scattered light foxing to text pages, plates bright and unmarked, very good in custom archival mylar cover. FROM THE INTRODUCTION: "Every botanist is fully aware how valuable and avail. able a character is afforded by the form and external markings of the seeds m very many species of Phsenogamous plants; the correct determination of the species frequently depending exclusively thereupon. Analogous reasoning leads us to the conclusion, that the form and septa of the sporidia in Cryptogamic plants would present similarly useful characters. Investigation proves the correctness of this conclusion. Owing, however, to the minuteness of the parts, the delicacy and care required in the manipulation, and the employment of high magnifyin# powers, these organs, in the family of the Lichens at least, do not seem to have hitherto received that attention which their importance really demands. ... The dissections were made under a large and powerful microscope of the best construction by Messrs. Powell and Lealand, opticians, of London."

WILLIAM ALLPORT LEIGHTON (1805 – 1889) was an English Church of England clergyman and botanist. He went to school at the Unitarian Manse on Claremont Hill, Shrewsbury, with Charles Darwin, who first encouraged him to be interested in plants. On the death of his father he abandoned the study of the law in favor of the church. He matriculated at St John's College, Cambridge, and graduated B.A. in 1833. Having been a pupil of John Stevens Henslow, Leighton on his return to his native town deferred ordination in order to draw up a flora of Shropshire. In 1843 he was ordained deacon and priest, and took on clerical duties in Shrewsbury until 1848, when he resigned his curacy at St Giles' Church, and thenceforward occupied himself entirely with botany. In 1841, he brought out his Flora of Shropshire, the etchings to illustrate some of the genera being his own. He then began working on the cryptogams, and in 1851 the Ray Society published his Angiocarpous Lichens elucidated by their Sporidia (offered here). From that date onward Leighton published widely in the literature on lichens, producing as his major work Lichen Flora of Great Britain in 1871. Leighton suffered from deteriorating eyesight, and soon after 1879 gave up his studies; he donated his collection to the national herbarium at Kew Gardens.

PROVENANCE: FREDERICK DUCANE GODMAN (1834 –1919) was an English lepidopterist, entomologist and ornithologist. He was one of the twenty founding members of the British Ornithologists' Union. Godman joined Trinity College, Cambridge in 1853, where he met Alfred Newton and Osbert Salvin. In 1876 Godman and Salvin decided to work on a project to document the fauna and flora of Central America. This monumental work Biologia Centrali-Americana (1879–1915) was to grow into a 63 volume encyclopaedia on the natural history of Central America. Godman and Salvin also collected numerous bird and butterfly specimens. These were presented to the British Museum in 1885, including nearly 520,000 bird skins alone. Godman was a fellow of the Zoological Society of London, and member of its council from 1902. He was elected to the Royal Society in 1882, received a gold medal from the Linnean Society in 1918, and was made a trustee of the British Museum.

THE RAY SOCIETY was founded in 1844, largely on the initiative of George Johnston and named after the naturalist John Ray (1627–1705). It is based at the Natural History Museum, London, and is a registered charity under English law. The Ray Society's publications are concerned with natural history, and have special but not exclusive reference to British flora and fauna. They include original monographs on particular groups and topics, facsimiles of historically important volumes and translations of existing works. During Charles Darwin's lifetime, the Ray Society published not only Darwin's two volumes on living barnacles (1851 and 1854) but also the work of many of the foremost British naturalists: Thomas Henry Huxley, William Crawford Williamson, John Blackwall, Albert Günther, and James Scott Bowerbank.