Abstract
III.
On the co-existence of Irco forms of flowers in the same species or genus,—a more conspicuous one adaptred to cross-ferlilisalion by insects, and a less conspicuous one adapted to self-fertilisation.
SINCE Darwin, in his admirable work on Orchids,† had proved that the flowers of this family are endowed with an immense variety of comtrivances for cross-fertilisation by insects, it was almost generally admitted by botanists that cross-fertilisation is the rule throughout the whole vegetable kingdom. Darwin's well-known aphorism, that “Nature abhors perpetual seif-fertilisation” was exaggerated by his successors in this field of research, Hildebrand in Germany and Delpino in Italy, who, in their various elaborate memoirs on the fertilisation of flowers, repeatedly expressed their strong belief that nature abhors self-fertilisation at all. In direct opposition to this opinion, Axell‡ propounded the doctrine that the development of the fertilising arrangements in phanerogams has been always an advance, and still continues to advance, in one and the same direction, towards a perfection which affords more and more facilities for seif-fertilisation.
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MÜLLER, H. Fertilisation of Flowers by Insects * . Nature 8, 433–435 (1873). https://doi.org/10.1038/008433c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/008433c0