1839.] FERTILISATION OF FLOWERS. 433 



tions." It remained for my father to convince the world 

 that the meaning hidden in the structure of flowers was to 

 be found by seeking light in the same direction in which 

 Sprengel, seventy years before, had laboured. Robert 

 Brown was the connecting link between them, for it was 

 at his recommendation that my father in 1841 read Spren- 

 gel's now celebrated ' Secret of Nature Displayed.' * The 

 book impressed him as being '^ full of truth," although 

 " with some little nonsense." It not only encouraged him 

 in kindred speculation, but guided him in his work, for in 

 1844 he speaks of verifying Sprengel's observations. It 

 may be doubted whether Robert Brown ever planted a 

 more beautiful seed than in putting such a book into such 

 hands. 



A passage in the 'Autobiography' (vol. i. p. 73) shows 

 how it was that my father was attracted to the subject of 

 fertilisation: "During the summer of 1839, and I believe 

 during the previous summer, I was led to attend to the cross- 

 fertilisation of flov/ers by the aid of insects, from having come 

 to the conclusion in my speculations on the origin of species, 

 that crossing played an important part in keeping specific 

 forms constant." 



The original connection between the study of flowers 

 and the problem of evolution is curious, and could hardly 

 have been predicted. Moreover, it was not a permanent 

 bond. As soon as the idea arose that the offspring of 

 cross-fertilisation is, in the struggle for life, likely to con- 

 quer the seedlings of self-fertilised parentage, a far more 

 vigorous belief in the potency of natural selection in mould- 

 ing the structure of flowers is attained. A central idea is 

 gained towards which experiment and observation may be 

 directed. 



Dr. Gray has well remarked with regard to this central 



* ' Das entdeckte Geheimniss der Natur itn Baue und in der Befnich* 

 tung der Blumen.' Berlin, 1793. 

 43 



