On Naval Timber and Arboriculture

On Naval Timber and Arboriculture is an 1831 treatise by Patrick Matthew (1790-1874), the Scottish landowner and fruit-grower, ostensibly about growing timber for shipbuilding. Buried in its appendix is a clear statement of natural selection, written nearly three decades before Darwin’s Origin of Species, a priority Darwin himself later acknowledged. The book is remembered today not for its forestry but for that startling anticipation of evolutionary theory. It remains a curiosity prized by historians of science. Free PDF download available on BDeBooks.