DARWIN MEMORIAL. 75 



But Darwin's chief investigation into insect life were in its rela- 

 tions to plant life, and his work "On the Various Contrivances by 

 which British and Foreign Orchids are Fertilized by Insects, and 

 on the good effect of crossing," as also that on "Insectivorous 

 Plants," are monuments of skill, industry, and lucid exposition. 



Entomologists had often noticed the pollen masses of orchids 

 attached to the proboscis of various moths, and in commenting 

 upon the fact had pronounced it "curious." Darwin in this, as 

 in so many other cases, gave meaning to the curious, and brought 

 light out of darkness. 



Before his time we find frequent reference to the injury caused 

 to plants by insects, and Sprengel, Gaertner, Herbert, and others 

 had shown that insects were, also, in many cases, beneficial and 

 even necessary to plants, the color, form, odor, secretions, and 

 general structure of which have reference to their necessary insect 

 pollinizers. 



Yet their writings had produced but slight impression outside of 

 a limited circle. It remained for Darwin to impress the world with 

 a broader sense of the actual interrelation, between the two, and to 

 inspire a number of observers in this field, in all parts of the globe, 

 who are now constantly adding to the rich store of facts we already 

 possess on the subject. I need only refer to the work of Hooker, 

 Bennet, Axell, Delpino, Hildebrand, H. Muller, and others abroad, 

 and to that of Dr. Gray, and Mr. Wm. Trelease at home. 



The importance of insects, as agents in cross-fertilization, Avas 

 never properly appreciated till after Darwin's remarkable work on 

 Primula, and his researches on Orchids, Linum, Lythrum, etc. 



He established the principle that "nature abhors close fertiliza- 

 tion," and though some less careful observers in this country — 

 exaggerating the importance of their isolated and often inaccurate 

 observations — have opposed his views, the scientific world has been 

 convinced alike by the force of his logic as by the eloquence of 

 his innumerable facts. 



We all know how palaeontology has verified many of his anticipa- 



