RÉAUMUR, (RENÉ-ANTOINE FERCHAULT DE).

Description des Fleurs & des Graines de divers Fucus, & quelques autres Observations physiques sur ces mesmes Plantes. (+) Suite d'un Memoire...sur les Fleurs & les Graines de diverses Plantes marines. (2 Mémoirs).

(Paris, L'Imprimerie Royale, 1714). 4to. Without wrappers. Extracted from "Mémoires de l'Academie des Sciences. Année 1711" and "Année 1712. Pp. 282-302 and 3 large folded engraved plates. + pp. 22-44 and 5 large folded engraved plates.

First appearance of a classic paper on sea-weeds and marine alga.

"Examination for the reproductive structures had already started. In 1711, R.A.F de Réaumur gave an account of Fucus in which noted the two types of external openings in the thallus: the non-sexual cryptostromata (sterile surface cavities) and the conceptacles (fertile cavities, immersed but with a surface opening) containing the sexual organs, which he thought were female flowers. With a lens he was able to see the oogonoa (the female sex organs) and the antheridia (the male sex organs) within the conceptacles, but he interpreted these as seeds, correctly noting that each conceptacle had an opening externally through which they could escape."(A.G. Morton "History of Botanical Science", p. 245.

"Réamur was among the greatest naturalists of his or any age. In the breadth and range of his researches, in the patient detail of his observations, and in the brilliant ingenuity of his experiments, it would be difficult to name his equal. Thomas Henry Huxley has compared him favorably with Darwin."(DSB XI, p. 331).

Order-nr.: 44401