Unpublished paper, 'On leaf-arrangement' by Hubert Airy

Description

Airy writes: 'The question must have been suggested to many minds, -- can the theory of evolution give the clue to the right interpretation of the observed facts of leaf-arrangement?' He goes on to state that 'Mr Darwin has taught us to regard the different species of plants as descended from some common ancestor; and therefore we must suppose that the different leaf-orders now existing have been derived by different degrees of modification from some common ancestral leaf-order.'

Annotations in pencil and ink throughout. Marked on front as 'Archives June 19/73'. Contains eight pages of figures with one page of descriptions.

Subject: Biology / Botany / Mathematics

Received 21 January 1873. Read 27 February 1873. Communicated by Charles Darwin.

Written by Airy at 27 Dacre Park, Lee, London.

Whilst the Royal Society declined to publish this paper in full, an abstract of the paper was published in volume 21 of the Proceedings of the Royal Society as 'On leaf-arrangement'.

Reference number

AP/55/1

Earliest possible date

31 December 1872

Physical description

Ink and graphite pencil on paper

Page extent

58 pages

Format

Diagram
Manuscript