The Pollination of Flowers

London: Collins, 1975. First reprint, 1975. Illustrated, octavo, pp 418, a tiny neat signature and date on the front endpaper, otherwise exceptionally clean internally, green cloth with slight fade to the lower marginal edge otherwise in very good condition. In the publisher's film protected dustwrapper, not price-clipped, the spine rather age-toned. Bernhard & Loe NN54B, who mention the paper being slightly inferior to that of the firts edition - in this case there is a very slight colour difference throughout the book. [ The methods by which pollen grains reach a stigma, enabling fertilization and seed production to take place, include some of the most varied and fascinating mechanisms in the whole world of living things. The role of insects in pollinating flowers is today a commonplace - so that it is easy to forget that its discovery is little older than the invention of the steam engine: before that, we imagined that the concern of bees with flowers was simply a matter of collecting honey. But the methods by which pollen grains reach a stigma, enabling fertilization and seed production to take place, include some of the most varied and fascinating mechanisms in the whole world of living things. This book, an important addition to the New Naturalist series and to scientific literature, is a clear and thorough account of all the ways in which pollination is effected - by wind, water, even bats; but principals, in many curious ways, by a diversity of insect species. Illustrated with 134 of the authors' own drawings, with 19 photographs in colour and 180 in black and white, the book offers a unique introduction to a complex yet easily accessible subject of great fascination.] . Cloth. Very Good/Very Good.