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NATURAL SCIENCE. April, 



and more and more forced into the seclusion in which we have already 

 seen him. He was beloved, however, by his pupils. 



On Sundays he usually conducted botanical excursions to the 

 country round Berlin ; any one might join these trips on payment of 

 two or three groschen. On these occasions Sprengel was not merely 

 a botanist, but would give instruction in anything that turned up. 

 " He explained equally well the inscription on a tombstone, the con- 

 struction of a windmill, the course of the stars, or the structure of a 

 plant. . . . Knowing the country well, he led us always to places 

 where rare or remarkable plants were to be found. There were few 

 places where he had not himself found something new, or noticed 

 something special, and he gladly took the opportunity of leading us 

 thither. Thus he showed us at one place the divided sexes of Mentha 

 aquatica,^ which he had noticed there first, and afterwards observed 

 in other species of Mentha. ... In the Zoological Garden the 

 Scrophularia gave him opportunity to explain dichogamy (see below). 

 He was firmly convinced of the fertilisation of most flowers by insects, 

 and he could, on this theory, so clearly explain the structure of 

 flowers that it was a pleasure to watch and to listen to him. . . . 

 The commonest plant became new by what he had to say about it ; 

 a hair, a spot, gave him opportunity for questions, ideas, investiga- 

 tions. Much remained a mystery to him ; he was most exercised 

 over the structure of Parnassia. Here he was unable to catch nature 

 in the act." 



Towards the end of his life he abandoned botany and devoted 

 himself entirely to languages ; he took up English, and was full of its 

 great advantages. " He often said that Linnaeus did not understand 

 Greek, and had brought many errors into the nomenclature. He also 

 blamed Willdenow for introducing the long and incorrect name 

 Pelargonium, which should have been Pelargimn." He died in Berlin 

 in 1816 at the age of 66. 



The chief interest of Sprengel's life centres in his famous book 

 " Das Entdeckte Geheimniss der Natur im Ban und in der Befruch- 

 tung der Blumen " (The Secret of Nature discovered, in the structure 

 and the fertilisation of flowers). This was published in 1793 as a 

 quarto volume of 222 pages, with 25 large copper plates, the latter 

 being wonderfully accurate and well executed. In this volume 

 Sprengel gives details of his observations on most of the wild flowers 

 round Berlin, and many cultivated ones, all leading to the general 

 conclusion that flowers are, mostl}^ adapted for fertilisation by 

 insects. He shows how the insects are attracted, rewarded for 

 coming by the honey, &c., and how almost every minutest structure 

 in the flower, down to hairs and spots on the corolla, can be explained 



1 This plant is gynodicccious, i.e., bears upon some plants large hermaphrodite 

 flowers, and on other plants smaller female flowers with aborted stamens. The 

 same phenomenon is seen in many other plants of the order Labiatas. 



