''Variation and Evolution in Plants'' is a book written by

G. Ledyard Stebbins George Ledyard Stebbins Jr. (January 6, 1906 – January 19, 2000) was an American botanist and geneticist who is widely regarded as one of the leading evolutionary biologists of the 20th century. Stebbins received his Ph.D. in botany from Ha ...

, published in 1950. It is one of the key publications embodying the

modern synthesis Modern synthesis or modern evolutionary synthesis refers to several perspectives on evolutionary biology, namely: * Modern synthesis (20th century), the term coined by Julian Huxley in 1942 to denote the synthesis between Mendelian genetics and s ...

evolution Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...

and

genetics Genetics is the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity in organisms.Hartl D, Jones E (2005) It is an important branch in biology because heredity is vital to organisms' evolution. Gregor Mendel, a Moravian Augustinian friar worki ...

, as the first comprehensive publication to discuss the relationship between genetics and natural selection in plants. The book has been described by plant systematist

Peter H. Raven Peter Hamilton Raven (born June 13, 1936) is an American botanist and environmentalist, notable as the longtime director, now President Emeritus, of the Missouri Botanical Garden. Early life On June 13, 1936, Raven was born in Shanghai, China ...

as "the most important book on plant evolution of the 20th century" and it remains one of the most cited texts on plant evolution.

Origin

The book is based on the Jesup Lectures that Stebbins delivered at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manha ...

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: #Description and analysis of variation patterns #Examples of variation patterns within species and genera #The basis of individual variation #Natural selection and variation in populations #Genetic systems as factors in evolution #Isolation and the origin of species #Hybridization and its effects #Polyploidy I: occurrence and nature of polyploid types #Polyploidy II: geographic distribution and significance of polyploidy #Apomixis in relation to variation and evolution #Structural

hybridity Hybridity, in its most basic sense, refers to mixture. The term originates from biology and was subsequently employed in linguistics and in racial theory in the nineteenth century. Young, Robert. ''Colonial Desire: Hybridity in Theory, Culture and R ...

and the genetic system #Evolutionary trends I: the karyotype #Evolutionary trends II: External morphology #Fossils, modern distribution patterns and rates of evolution

Significance

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, are

Theodosius Dobzhansky Theodosius Grigorievich Dobzhansky (russian: Феодо́сий Григо́рьевич Добржа́нский; uk, Теодо́сій Григо́рович Добржа́нський; January 25, 1900 – December 18, 1975) was a prominent ...

's ''

Genetics and the Origin of Species ''Genetics and the Origin of Species'' is a 1937 book by the Ukrainian-American evolutionary biologist Theodosius Dobzhansky. It is regarded as one of the most important works of the modern synthesis, and was one of the earliest. The book populari ...

'',

Ernst Mayr Ernst Walter Mayr (; 5 July 1904 – 3 February 2005) was one of the 20th century's leading evolutionary biologists. He was also a renowned taxonomist, tropical explorer, ornithologist, philosopher of biology, and historian of science. His w ...

's ''

Systematics and the Origin of Species ''Systematics and the Origin of Species from the Viewpoint of a Zoologist'' is a book written by zoologist and evolutionary biologist Ernst Mayr, first published in 1942 by Columbia University Press. The book became one of the canonical publications ...

'' and

George Gaylord Simpson George Gaylord Simpson (June 16, 1902 – October 6, 1984) was an American paleontologist. Simpson was perhaps the most influential paleontologist of the twentieth century, and a major participant in the modern synthesis, contributing '' Tempo ...

's ''

Tempo and Mode in Evolution ''Tempo and Mode in Evolution'' (1944) was George Gaylord Simpson's seminal contribution to the evolutionary synthesis, which integrated the facts of paleontology with those of genetics and natural selection. Simpson argued that the microevoluti ...

''. The great significance of ''Variation and Evolution in Plants'' is that it effectively killed any serious belief in alternative mechanisms of evolution for plants, such as Lamarckian evolution or

soft inheritance Lamarckism, also known as Lamarckian inheritance or neo-Lamarckism, is the notion that an organism can pass on to its offspring physical characteristics that the parent organism acquired through use or disuse during its lifetime. It is also calle ...

, which were still upheld by some botanists.

Legacy

Stebbins book '' Flowering Plants: Evolution Above the Species Level'' was published in 1974 and was based on the Prather Lectures which he gave at Harvard. It is considered as an update to ''Variation and Evolution''. In January 2000 a colloquium was held in

Irvine, California Irvine () is a master-planned city in South Orange County, California, United States, in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Irvine Company started developing the area in the 1960s and the city was formally incorporated on December 28, 197 ...

, to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of ''Variation and Evolution in Plants.'' A 16 chapter book entitled ''Variation and evolution in Plants and Microorganisms: Toward a New Synthesis 50 Years After Stebbins'' () was released to mark the occasion.

References

#Raven, P. 1974. "Plant systematics 1947-1972." ''Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden'' 61:166-178 #Smocovitis, V. B. and Ayala, F. J. 2000
George Ledyard Stebbins
''Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences'' 85:290-313 #Raven, P. H. 2000
"G. Ledyard Stebbins (1906–2000): An appreciation"
''Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences'' 97:6945-6946 {{History of botany 1950 non-fiction books Books about evolution Botany books Columbia University Press books Modern synthesis (20th century)

Origin

Contents

Significance

Legacy

References