Kunstformen der Natur

Abstract

IT is not a simple matter to form a conjecture as to what has prompted the selection of the thirty plates contained in this “Second, abbreviated edition “out of the hundred contained in the first edition of Haeckel's monumental work “Kunstformen der Natur.” By no means all of the most striking and beautiful plates in that edition are here reproduced. The explanation given by the publishers in their foreword introducing this volume, five years after Haeckel's death, and in honour of the ninetieth anniversary of his birth (Feb. 16, 1924), is that “the necessity of the times compels curtailment,” but it may well be that in twenty years many of the plates have become damaged or deteriorated. It is explained that this edition is confined to plates bearing upon Haeckel's special study, the lowest forms of life.

Kunstformen der Natur.

Von Ernst Haeckel. Zweite, verkürzte Auflage. Niedere Tiere. Pp. iii + 12 + 30 Tafeln. (Leipzig: Bibliographisches Institut, n.d.) 16s. 4d.