82 TALKS AFIELD. 



one, for in most cases the anthers and stig- 

 mas do not ripen simultaneously, or there is 

 some impediment in the way of the simple 

 falling of the pollen upon a contiguous 

 stigma. Linnaeus, and his successors for 

 over half a century, taught that the pollen 

 fertilized the stigmas in the same flower. 

 Koelreuter, about 1761, appears to have 

 been the first to recognize the aid of insects 

 or other external agencies in the transfer of 

 the pollen ; but the first observer who made 

 definite investigations and who caught any 

 glimpse of the plan of nature in fertiliza- 

 tion was Conrad Sprengel, a German. In 

 1787 he studied the flowers of the wild gera- 

 nium, and, attracted by the delicate hairs 

 borne on the interior of the corolla, and im- 

 pressed with the idea that " the wise Author 

 of Nature would not have created even a 

 hair in vain," and becoming convinced that 

 these hairs protect the honey from rain, he 

 came to the conclusion that all minor organs 

 and appendages of the flower subserve some 

 important end. He continued his studies, 

 and six years later published a small treatise 

 upon the subject, wherein was laid the first 

 stone in the magnificent science which has 

 since been erected upon the mutual relations 



