170 



AMERICAN HONEY PLANTS 



through the genius of the Swedish master that his followers seized on it 

 with eagerness, and it was a long time before a mind of original habits 

 and impulses broke loose from the train. 



The man who possessed this originality was Darwin, the promulgator 

 of the now universally accepted idea of organic evolution. To him has 

 been ascribed the introduction of a new teleology into natural science, 

 recognizing that structures and functions are because they are or have 

 been of use— not of use to man necessarily, though man may turn them to 

 account— but to their possessor. 



Fig. 99. Ant acacia 



This was Sprengel's conclusion as to the nectar of geranium flowers, 

 which he found led to their fertilization. The essential difference between 

 his way of seeing it and Darwin's is that he thought the entire mechan- 

 ism has been specially made by the Creator as a means to an end, while 



