Abstract
IN No. 823 of your valued paper is an article by Mr. W. Botting Hemsley on the new edition of Grisebach's “Vegetation der Erde,” closing with a reproof to editor and publisher for offering the public an old book as new. For my part I have to say that it was my strong desire to have a really new edition of Grisebach's classical work, which was no longer to be had in the booksellers, by one of our geographical botanists of the first rank. This, however, proved unattainable. Seeing I was bound by contract to the family of Grisebach, and the son of the deceased, Dr. Edward Grisebach, German Consul in Milan, insisted on bringing out the “new” edition himself, all entreaties, representations, and explanations were of no avail. He declared he would never trust the work of his father to other hands and that he felt himself called upon to prepare a new and improved edition. I had therefore but the alternative of seeing the work completely disappear or committing the task of a new edition to the hands of Dr. E. Grisebach, and I think no one will reproach me for choosing the first. At the worst I could only look forward to the new edition being a nearly unchanged copy of the old work (what in point of fact it is), and this seemed to me a far less evil than the complete disappearance of the work, an opinion which friendly and competent judges shared with me.
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ENGELMANN, W. Grisebach's “Vegetation of the Earth” . Nature 32, 366 (1885). https://doi.org/10.1038/032366a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/032366a0
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