On the Origin of Fantasies

"The Battle of the Fruit and Vegetable Soldiers," shown above, is a little-known illustration on one of the 28 surviving pages of the original manuscript of Darwin's On the Origin of Species.

...remember that Darwin and his wife Emma... had a huge family of ten children. Scholars believe that a young Francis Darwin, the naturalist's third oldest son, drew this on the back of Darwin's manuscript for On the Origin of Species.

Personally, I prefer this one, with its fanciful butterfly:

Additional examples, including the scrawling of a toddler, are shown at the article at The Appendix.  A big tip of the hat to reader Andrew for alerting me to the existence of this "quarterly journal of experimental and narrative history."

Image: Cambridge University Library

Reposted from 2014 in recognition of Darwin Day.