Neu-Holland In Europa. Ein Vortrag, Gehalten Im StäNdehause In Winter Des Jahres 1861. Unger, Franz.

First edition of this comparative lecture outlining the similarities between the living flora of Australia and Eocene-era fossil plants from Europe, delivered by a pioneer of paleobotany. It is notable for the many delicately rendered illustrations of fossilized leaves, which were printed for Unger by Alois Auer, the celebrated innovator of nature printing. The Austrian botanist Franz Unger (1800-1870) practised medicine in Stockerau and Kitzbühel before becoming professor of botany and zoology and director of the botanic garden in Graz (1835-49) and then professor of plant anatomy and physiology at the University of Vienna (1850-69). An important figure in pre-Darwinian theories of evolution, Unger "used the methods of 'Humboldtian science' to reveal large-scale numerical relationships between environmental variables and species distributions over space or, in his paleobotanical work, over geological time. Foreshadowing Darwin, Unger argued that present-day biogeographic patterns demanded a historical, evolutionary explanation" (Gliboff, p. 181). He taught and published on a wide range of topics, including cell biology, species transmutation, and plant pathology; many of his works, especially the landmark paleontological text Die Urwelt (1851), were beautifully illustrated. His most famous student was Gregor Mendel, whose research shows the influence of Unger's developmental theory of evolutionary descent. In the present lecture Unger proposes a migrational connection between Australian and European plants, offering this as proof that the landmasses were connected during the Eocene period. Although Unger had previously opposed this thesis, he claimed priority over the discovery here, an assertion to which his colleague Constantin von Ettingshausen vehemently objected. Neu-Holland in Europa was translated into English for the Journal of Botany in 1865, but without the colour-printed illustrations contained in the original work. Unger's "popular lectures were models of what such lectures should be. His 'Sunken Islands of Atlantis' and 'New Holland of Europe' have been translated into almost every European language; and when the editor of this Journal [of Botany] asked permission to insert them in these pages, Unger not only cheerfully granted it, but also sent over to this country the woodcuts and electrotypes by which they were to be illustrated" (obit., p. 197). By taking its initial impression directly from the object itself - plants, rocks, embroidery, and so on - nature printing is able to finely and accurately reproduce natural textures far beyond that of typical engraving processes. Alois Auer, director of Austria's Imperial Printing Office (the kaiserlich-königlichen Hof- und Staatsdruckerei), is often credited with its invention. Neu-Holland in Europa is printed on this press, and the beauty of its illustrations stand as testament to Auer's advancement of the "Naturselbstdrucke" technique. Cave, p. 100; Ferguson 17490. Unger's obituary in The Journal of Botany, British and Foreign, nos. 85 & 86, January-February 1870; Sander Gliboff, "Evolution, revolution, and reform in Vienna: Franz Unger's ideas on descent and their post-1848 reception", Journal of the History of Biology, vol. 31, no. 2, 1998, pp. 179-209. Octavo (220 x 145 mm). Contemporary brown cloth, spine lettered in gilt. 30 botanical illustrations in text, 12 of which black and white engravings and 18 of which nature-printed in brown ink by k.k. Hof- und Staatsdruckerei in Vienna; numerous tables also within text. Cloth a little soiled and worn at extremities, endpapers lightly foxed, contents toned and occasionally spotted, a couple of leaves adhered to following leaf in gutter, some browning and offset from colour printing: a very good copy.