The seeds of Stebbins' lifelong passion for nature were planted on walks with his mother, who taught her children the names and songs of birds, and with his father, who took the children prowling through Atlantic tide pools. At Harvard University in 1925, Stebbins was introduced to Darwin's theory of evolution. As a junior the following year, he decided to become a botanist. Darwin's theory was undergoing rigorous testing at the time, and in the 1930s and '40s, scientists from many disciplines developed modifications that satisfied most of them. Its architects were some of the best scientific minds of the time, and Stebbins was one of them.
Evolution is the study of how living things change over time.
Stebbins figured out how broad evolutionary principles applied to plants. Certain things happen in plants that don't happen, or happen to a lesser degree, in animals. In 1952, Stebbins was elected to the prestigious National Academy of Sciences. Over time, he continued to expand his thinking about evolution and plants in other books and important papers. His whole life was evolution and evolutionary botany.