Bary,A.H.de. Lot n° 1458

The Mycetozoa (slime molds). A contribution to the knowledge of the lowest organisms. 2nd ed. Leipzig, W. Engelmann 1864. 8°. XII, 132 p. with 6 copper plates. Hln. d. Zt. with gilt title on spine. (Bound edges somewhat bleached, some light margins). ADB XLVI, 225 ff. NDB I, 616, Stafleu 333, Volbracht 67 - Authoritative expanded edition of the book. - The work first appeared in Siebold and Kölliker's Zeitschrift für wissenschaftliche Zoologie in 1859. - The Frankfurt botanist A. H. de Bary (1831-1888) "described (here) exactly the course of development of these lower organisms. From the spore emerge ciliated plasma bodies, which, after they have proliferated without forming cell membranes, by division, merge into large plasma clumps, the plasmodia, to later form the familiar fruiting bodies, which are therefore not, as otherwise with the fungi, formed from a cellular hyphal network" (E. Wunschmann in ADB). - Bary "was the most important mycologist of his time; he treated morphology, history of development and physiology of the fungi in many works. He was the first to recognize lichen symbiosis. His 20 years of work on fungi had yielded excellent observations by following fungi as they invaded animal and plant hosts and spread. To produce reproductive organs, parts are often brought forth again outside the host. A pioneering observation for the future" (H. Ziegenspeck in NDB). - Stamped several times, good copy.