Abstract
PROF. NICHOLAS IVANOVITCH VAVILOV'S most important work has been on the origin of cultivated plants. His method was to make well-planned expeditions to those regions where cultivated plants grow wild, and he obtained strong evidence that countries where a large number of varieties of a particular plant occurs are the actual areas of origin. Conditions favouring genetical instability would, he argued, probably lead to the formation of a new species. It is remarkable how narrow is the belt along which cultivated plants arose. Mexico and Central America are the source for the New World, and Abyssinia, Persia, Afghanistan and an extension of this zone across Northern India into China, furnished the Old World with its crops. Prof. Vavilov has discussed the close relations between the origins of ^cultivated plants, of animals, and of ancient civilizations. He is, however, no mere collector. His was taken back to Russia and there grown and studied in detail. He has become the leading taxonomist of cultivated plants, and he has also done valuable plant-breeding work and made important contributions to genetical science. He is well known to British and American scientific workers, having studied at the John Innes Horticultural Institution and visited various research centres, such as Rothamsted arid others in Great Britain and also in the United States; and his complete command of the English language and lively humour and social gifts have always made him a welcome guest. His election to this new distinction will cause much satisfaction to many in Great Britain.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Prof. N. I. Vavilov. Nature 149, 727 (1942). https://doi.org/10.1038/149727b0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/149727b0