METHODS OF RESEARCH IN FLOWER POLLINATION — 201 
After some experience it is possible without apparatus to catch many insects 
during their visits to flowers, for these guests are usually so busily employed in 
consuming the nourishment offered them, that they can be taken from the flowers 
by means of the fingers. Even the Syrphidae, which even with the help of a net are 
very difficult to catch when on the wing, may easily be taken on flowers’. Other 
insects such as the Muscidae—as already mentioned—are very shy, so that they are 
secured with difficulty. 
An observer should never omit to draw—in their various stages of development 
—the flowers of the inflorescences with which he has occasion to deal. Should his 
first few attempts fall short of complete success, practice will soon give him a 
sufficient amount of skill. It has always been very interesting to me to compare the 
first almost clumsy drawings of Hermann Miller with the later ones executed by him, 
which must be regarded as works of art. We may compare, for example, the almost 
diagrammatic outlines in his first work (‘ Fertilisation’), on p. ror (Nasturtium sylvestre 
R. Br.), p. 107 (Teesdalia nudicaulis R. Br.), p. 132 (Cerastium arvense Z.), p. 256 
Fic. 78. (1) Nasturtéum sylvestre, R. Br. (from Hermann Miller, ‘Fertilisation,’ p. 101). (2) Zowz- 
cera nigra, L. (from Hermann Miller, ‘ Alpenblumen,’ p. 394). 
(Lythrum Salicaria Z.), p. 426 (Lycium barbarum Z.), p. 386 (Hottonia palustris Z.), 
p. 300 (Galium Mollugo Z.), and so on, with the finely executed and beautiful 
illustrations in his second great work (‘Alpenblumen’), e.g. on p. 394 (Lonicera 
nigra Z.), p. 395 (Lonicera alpigena Z.), p. 406 (Phyteuma), p. 470 (Valeriana 
montana Z.), and so forth (see Fig. 78). 
I have tried to photograph inflorescences, and this kind of reproduction has the 
advantage over a drawing that it gives a convincing picture which is true to nature. 
But an observer cannot always have photographic apparatus with him, nor can 
he everywhere perform the necessary operations. Besides which there are so many 
1 Knuth, ‘ Uber bliitenbiologische Beobachtungen,’ Heimat, Kiel, iii, 1893, Part 5-6, pp. 8-9. 
