164 A. DeCandolle on the Life and Writings of Vaucher. 



sometimes too, and oftener, to the mode of the dispersion of 

 the pollen, to the different and successive movements of the 

 parts of the flower, and to the dissemination of the seeds. 

 Information of this kind is very precious, when accurate, in- 

 asmuch as thereby the descriptions of authors are rendered 

 more complete, some of whom have unfortunately neglected 

 this kind of facts, whilst others, describing from dried plants, 

 have not suspected certain phenomena of the life of plants. 

 Without herbaria we should hardly have any idea of the 

 40,000 or 50,000 species which grow out of Europe, and 

 which have never been cultivated ; they could never have been 

 referred to their genera and families, they could not have been 

 compared in the most essential relations, since they live in 

 distant countries or flower at different periods ; but we must 

 also add, without descriptions made from nature the very deli- 

 cate organs would be ill understood, the different secretions, 

 the mode of action of the pollen, the development of the ovules, 

 the diversities of colour, of consistence, of perfume, which also 

 have their value, would neither be remarked nor well compre- 

 hended. Besides, very many persons have not the patience 

 and skill necessary for dissecting fragments of dried plants 

 under a magnifying glass. I know experience proves that we 

 attain nearly everything by this means, and that the advantage 

 of immediately comparing the flowers and fruits which in na- 

 ture succeed each other at long intervals, compensates for 

 many difficulties ; but we also know that dried plants are not 

 very attractive, and that the study of living flowers possesses, 

 on the contrary, a peculiar charm. True botanists understand 

 and love both these means of observation, and use both as 

 opportunity or occasion serves ; they also will compare the 

 work of M. Vaucher, made from living nature, with works of 

 another kind, made in a great measure from herbaria. The 

 one will frequently form the completion (complement) of the 

 others. Science will not have been placed on new bases, but 

 will have been enriched by new facts. 



One point to which M. Vaucher often directs attention is 

 the function which he attributes to the nectar in the fecunda- 

 tion of the flower. He calls this liquid humeur miellee, honeyed 

 moisture, and notwithstanding the extreme diversity of origin, 

 which he carefully describes, he considers as one and the same 

 agent the liquids which proceed from the torus in many plants, 

 from the base of the petals in some others, from the tissue 

 of the stamens in rarer cases, or from that of the stigma a 

 little before the fall of the pollen. " The principal," says he, 

 " and indeed the only conclusion towards which all the facts 

 explained in this work converge is this, that the honeyed 



