The illustrations on this page were presented by Nikolai Vavilov to Professor Richard Wellington during the 6th International Genetics Conference. They depict a variety of apples and pears discovered in central Asia and the Caucasus on Vavilov's plant-finding expeditions. We believe the final images were produced by J.S. Lawson from field drawings made by Vavilov; this is, however, conjecture based on the credits given on the illustrations.

According to a card of text accompanying the apples and pears, Vavilov believed they would not be published in his home country. This would indicate that even as early as 1932 - eight years before his arrest - the geneticist had begun the task of getting his work away from the Stalinist censors in the U.S.S.R..