8vo (190 x 125 mm). Half-title; numerous in-text wood engravings after Darwin.  Original publisher's green cloth, covers decorated in blind, spine gilt (hinges just starting, some light wear to spine ends). Provenance: Rowland Ward (1848-1912), British taxidermist and founder of Rowland Ward Limited of Piccadilly, London (bookplate).

FIRST EDITION, third thousand, with an updated errata slip. "These meticulous studies form a minor contribution to the evolutionary series by the study of the adaptations of such plants to impoverished conditions" (Freeman p.149).  Rowland Ward's firm specialized in taxidermy work on birds and big game trophies, and he was a well-known publisher of natural history books and big-game hunting narratives.  His father, Edwin Henry Ward, was also a taxidermist who traveled with John James Audubon.  Ward prepared bird skins for Audubon, which were later used in The Birds of America. Freeman 1219; Norman 601. A BRIGHT COPY.