THE 



OEIGIN OF FLOEAL STEUCTUEES 



THBOUGH INSECT AND OTHER AGENCIES. 



CHAPTER I, 



GENERAL PRINCIPLES. 



Introductory. — Mncli has been written on the structure of 

 flowers, and it might seem almost superfluous to attempt to 

 say anything more on the subject ; but it is only within the 

 last few years that a new literature has sprung up, in which 

 the authors have described their observations and given 

 their interpretations of the uses of floral mechanisms, more 

 especially in connection with the processes of fertilisation. 



Moreover, there is a considerable amount of scattered 

 literatnre on special points which seems never to have been 

 collated, so as to show the reletive significance of the dif- 

 ferent classes of observations to which the authors have 

 devoted themselves respectively. The consequence is, that, 

 good as each in itself may be, it often requires the help of 

 other classes of facts to enable one to fully elucidate any 

 question to be discussed. 



Now, the primary object of the first really scientific study 

 of plants was their classification, and no longer with the 

 sole view of ascertaining the real or imaginary medicinal 

 uses of herbs ; as had been the case in Gerarde's time, when 

 a botanist and a herbalist were one and the same. 



