Tropical Nature and Other Essays

London: Macmillan and Co., 1878. 1st Edition . Hardcover. Good. 8vo - over 7¾ - 9¾" tall. xiii 356 pages, indexed, plus a page listing Alfred Wallace's other publications. Green cloth, with gilt print on spine. The tail's outer edge is chipped, with loss of cloth, on the front board; and the head of the spine strip lightly damaged. and both boards are lightly rubbed. There is a small bookseller's label on the front paste down and an ownership stamp on the title page and the half title page and the outer edge p.100; p162 has a neat annotation on the outer edge, and sadly there is intermittent mild foxing throughout the book. Overall a clean, unmarked copy in very good binding. Some"Wallace's Tropical Nature, and Other Essays' is a collection of essays including Wallace's observations on equatorial vegetation, animal life, and sexual. Alfred Russel Wallace was born on 8th January 1823 in the village of Llanbadoc, in Monmouthshire, Wales. Wallace was inspired by the travelling naturalists of the day and decided to begin his exploration career collecting specimens in the Amazon rainforest. He explored the Rio Negra for four years, making notes on the peoples and languages he encountered as well as the geography, flora, and fauna. While travelling, Wallace refined his thoughts about evolution and in 1858 he outlined his theory of natural selection in an article he sent to Charles Darwin. Wallace made a huge contribution to the natural sciences and he will continue to be remembered as one of the key figures in the development of evolutionary theory."