Abstract
AT the close of the last century, Conrad Sprengel published a most valuable work on Flowers, in which he pointed out that their forms and colours, their scent, honey, and general structure, have reference to the visits of insects, which are of importance to Flowers in transferring the pollen from the stamens to the pistil. Sprengel's admirable work, however, did not attract the attention it deserved, and remained comparatively unknown until Mr. Darwin devoted himself to the subject. Our illustrious countryman was the first to perceive that insects are of importance to Flowers, not only in transferring the pollen from the stamens to the pistil, but in transferring it from the stamens of one flower to the pistil of another. Sprengel had, indeed, observed in more than one instance that this was the case; but he did not appreciate the importance of the fact. Mr. Darwin's remarkable memoir on Primula, to which I shall again have occasion to refer more than once, was published in 1862; in this treatise the importance of cross-fertilisation, as it may be called, was conclusively proved, and he has since illustrated the same rule by a number of researches on Orchids, Linum, Lythrum, and a variety of other plants. The new impulse thus given to the study of Flowers has been followed up in this country by Hooker, Ogle, Bennett, and other naturalists, and on the Continent by Axell, Delpino, Hildebrand, and especially by Dr. H. Müller, who has published an excellent work on the subject, bringing together the observations of others and adding to them an immense number of his own.
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Common Wild Flowers Considered in Relation to Insects * . Nature 10, 402–406 (1874). https://doi.org/10.1038/010402a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/010402a0