G. Ledyard Stebbins. The ladyslipper and I

Published in December, 2007 this collection of fascinating autobiographical narratives, vignettes and insights narrowly missed formal coincidence with the celebration of the 150th anniversary of the reading of Darwin and Wallace's papers on Natural Selection at the Linnean Society in July 1858. This in a way is sad since G. Ledyard Stebbins' contribution to the elaboration and diffusion of evolutionary theory and its linked themes of biological diversity, speciation, classification and conservation deserves a corresponding celebration. This book, which does much to reveal the influences personalities and events that surrounded Stebbins' life and achievement, has a very modest tone and goes but part of the way. Nevertheless, the book still stands well in its own context and will, I'm sure, be enjoyed by many readers of the Annals who, like me, probably came to appreciate Stebbins via his seminal works on the basis of variation and diversity in the plant kingdom (Stebbins 1950, 1971) and, more saliently, his analyses of polyploidy, hybridization and apomictic complexes, which laid the ground for his contribution to the so-called ‘modern synthesis’ of evolutionary theory and much besides.

The unusual circumstances of the posthumous editing and publication of Stebbins' collection of autobiographical manuscripts are explained by his biographer, V. Betty Smocovitis, in a generally sympathetic Foreword. She reports on a long-term project in which episodic drafts were produced and shared with friends and colleagues under titles such as Descent from the Ivory Tower, and Getting There is Half the Fun. Later development of his manuscript was, she points out, greatly influenced and shaped by her more analytical writing of his biography, and became organized under the title The Ladyslipper and I. The work was not published in an accessible form in his lifetime, and it is now an edited version of his manuscript that is presented very appropriately as volume 69 in the series ‘Monographs in Systematic Botany from the Missouri Botanic Garden’. It appears 7 years after his death. Perhaps, in this light, we should regard the work as a hybrid of auto- and allo-biography, although it is very much a personal narrative and anchored in the first person. The editors should be congratulated in having sustained this voice while filling occasional explanatory voids and also reconciling the order of events and other conflicting detail in the original manuscript.

The work comprises some 33 chapters of bite-sized proportions arranged in roughly chronological sequence as a phased journey through his life from early childhood to his final activities in retirement. A relentless and inspiring thread throughout is one of compelling curiosity, exploration in natural landscapes and of warm human interaction. As he himself says, ‘ … . most important objective of my career. The first is curiosity about the intricacies of plant life, to which I was dedicated. I had already decided that I would be following in the footsteps of Charles Darwin with respect to plant life in a new effort to find out about the numerous causes of evolution and how they differ from one group of plants to another’. At the age of 4 he was fascinated by the ladyslipper, and it was that curiosity which got the better of him and he wandered off in the woods on a plant hunt and became lost. Despite the scare this experience seems to have set his path of exploration through plant diversity, ranging from acute observation during rambles and scrambles on foot or horseback with his friends to more formal fieldwork tracking his experimental subjects, of which many accounts are to be found in this volume. The accounts can be travelogue at times: arrived at X, met Y stayed with Z, but this leaves him poised to shoot off and delight the botanist with the investigation of local distributions of an introduced species here or the diversity of types in a terrain there (to the extent that a lengthy index of quoted flora is provided).

Along the journey we meet many outstanding scientists of his era as well as friends who, for instance, shared his love of music or the outdoor life. His treatment of them is invariably respectful and generous as he steps lightly through the formation of close personal ties or more formal professional ones. This is typified by his account of being caught and subsequently rescued from the doctrinal crossfire of his PhD supervisors during the submission of his thesis at Harvard.

Of particular interest is his account of his studies of the genomes and breeding systems of pasture grasses that he undertook with the ambition of contributing to the breeding of improved cultivars, especially in relation to water deficit. He was superbly equipped for this venture, which took him to many parts of the world sampling and characterizing the requisite diversity. That this practical ambition and the groundings for future breeders it furnished has not been more generally highlighted probably reflects the attention paid to his commanding engagement with evolutionary theory. His own account of the latter high-points reflects his personal modesty and concentrates on the generosity of those who provided him opportunities to expound his ideas. Similarly, his fellow colossi of the modern synthesis do not receive intensive treatment. The exception is Theodosius Dobzhansky, his great friend and zoological counterpart, to whom an individual chapter is devoted, entitled ‘Dobo at Davis’, which does bring insight to their relationship.

As a lifelong student of biology who was a direct beneficiary of Stebbins' determination to promote the effective teaching of evolution in American high schools (Stebbins participated with the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study Group, contributing to the evolutionary and systematics component of its famous ‘yellow’ textbook in the early 1960s), I have great enthusiasm for what he and his editors now offer us in this volume and recommend it to you. Botanists buy it! Anyone who can direct us to listening to string quartets as a means of resolving scientific quandaries is worth getting to know better.