Some observations on the development of the karyokinetic spindle in the pollen-mother-cells of Cobaea scandens Cav.

San Francisco: California Academy of Sciences, 1898. First edition.

1898 FINE COLOR LITHOGRAPHIC PLATES DEMONSTRATING LACK OF CENTROSOMES IN KARYOKINESIS OF HIGHER PLANTS--INSCRIBED BY AUTHOR.

18.5x25.5 cm offprint, printed paper wraps, inscribed top cover, "Dr. M. A. Howe From the author", [1], [169-189], 4 color lithographic folding plates depicting the karyokinetic spindle. Age-toned, wraps loose, text and plates clean and unmarked. Very good in archival mylar sleeve.

ABERCROMBIE ANSTRUTHER LAWSON (1870 - 1927) was a botanist, foundation professor of botany at the University of Sydney. After a year at the University of Toronto, Lawson claimed to have studied medicine and botany at the University of Glasgow, Scotland, in 1895-96. Lawson graduated at the University of California, Berkeley (Bachelor of Science, 1897; Master of Science, 1898). After a year as assistant in botany Lawson spent 1901 at the University of Chicago with Professors John Merle Coulter and Charles Joseph Chamberlain in the new Hull laboratories and was awarded a Ph.D. (1901). Lawson returned to California and spent five years teaching at Stanford University under Professor D. H. Campbell. Lawson was appointed lecturer in botany at the University of Glasgow in 1907. Lawson produced "Memoirs on Synapsis, Nuclear Osmosis and Chromosome Reduction", which appeared in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1911-12. In 1913 Lawson became foundation professor of botany at the University of Sydney. Lawson was well versed in and strongly committed to the theory of Evolution. Insisting on adequate laboratory facilities, he rejected attempts to locate the department in the arts building and soon occupied a large part of the Macleay Museum. About 1925 Lawson formally introduced the study of ecology into the teaching program. His main research interest was in the origin and evolution of gymnosperms. Lawson was a fellow of the Linnean societies of London and New South Wales, and of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

PROVENANCE: MARSHALL AVERY HOWE (1867-1936) graduated from the University of Vermont in 1890. On leaving college, Howe taught for a year in the Brattleboro High School but left in the summer of 1891 to become an Instructor in Cryptogamic Botany at the University of California at Berkeley. At the end of the 1895-96 college year, Howe resigned to accept a fellowship at Columbia University where he studied Hepaticae with Lucien Underwood. He received his Ph.D from Columbia in 1898 and from 1898 to 1901 was Curator of the University Herbarium. During this time, the plans for the creation of the New York Botanical Garden were materializing and the Columbia University Herbarium was deposited at the NYBG. In 1901 Howe became a member of the NYBG scientific staff and in 1906 became curator. From 1901 until his death in 1936, Howe was associated with the NYBG being appointed Director in 1935. Member of NAS.