DARWIN, Charles (1809-1882). On the Various Contrivances By Which British and Foreign Orchids Are Fertilised By Insects. London: John Murray, 1862. 8vo (185 x 125 mm). Folding wood-engraved plate, numerous wood-engraved illustrations in text. (Without inserted advertisements found in some variants noted in Freeman.) Later half brown morocco gilt, top edge gilt, others uncut (slight rubbing to extremities). Provenance: Gordon Gray (1909-1982), government official in the Truman and Eisenhower administrations (gift inscription from Henry Shaun). FIRST EDITION of Darwin's work on the evolutionary interactions between insects and plants, which provided evidence supporting his theory of evolution through natural selection. Freeman 800; Norman 595.