CHAP. I. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 7 



see its full importance, as may be perceived by any- 

 one who will read his observations carefully ; and he 

 consequently mistook the meaning of various struc- 

 tures. But his discoveries are so numerous and his 

 work so excellent, that he can well afford to bear a 

 small amount of blame. A most capable judge, H. 

 Miiller, likewise says :* "It is remarkable in how very 

 many, cases Sprengel rightly perceived that pollen is 

 necessarily transported to the stigmas of other flowers 

 of the same species by the insects which visit them, 

 and yet did not imagine that this transportation was 

 of any service to the plants themselves." 



Andrew Knight saw the truth much more clearly, 

 for he remarks,! " Nature intended that a sexual in- 

 tercourse should take place between neighbouring 

 plants of the same species." After alluding to the 

 various means by which pollen is transported from 

 flower to flower, as far as was then imperfectly known, 

 he adds, " Nature has something more in view than that 

 its own proper males should fecundate each blossom." 

 In 1811 Kolreuter plainly hinted at the same law, as 

 did afterwards another famous hybridiser of plants, 

 Herbert.* But none of these distinguished observers 

 appear to have been sufficiently impressed with the 



* Die Befruchtung der Blu- J Kolreuter, Mem. de 1'Acad. 



men,' 1873, p. 4. His words are : de St. Pe'tersbourg,' torn. iii. 1809 



" Es 1st merkwiirdig, in \vie zahl- (published 1811), p. 197. After 



reichen Fallen Sprengel richtig showing how well the Malvaceae 



erkannte, dass durch die Besuch- are adapted for cross-fertilisation, 



enden Insekten der Bliithenataub he asks, " An id aliquid in recessu 



mit Nothwendigkeit auf die Nar- habeat, quod hujusoemodi flores 



ben nnderer Bliithen derselben nunquam proprio suo pulvere, sed 



Art iibertragen wird, ohne auf die semper eo aliarum suse specie! 



Vermuthung zu kpmmen, dass in impregnentur, merito quajritur ? 



dieser Wirkung der Nutzen des Certe natura nil facit frustra.** 



Insektenbesuches fur die Pflanzen Herbert, ' Amaryllidacew, with a 



eelbst gesucht werden miisse." Treatise on Cross-bred Vege 



t ' Philosophical Transactions,' tables,' 1837. 

 1799, p. 202. 



