20 INTRODUCTION 



46. Ranunculus type. 



Ranunculus, Eranthis; Anemone nemorosa, trifolia, Hepatica, and ranuncu- 

 loides ; Agrimonia, Fragaria, Rubus, Potentilla, Geum ; Hypericum perforatum, 

 humifusum, montanum, and others; species of Geranium and Erodium; Scilla 

 bifolia and autumnalis, and others. 



(e) Small-flowered open arrangements (Apparecchi aperti, brachipetali). 



47. Small-flowered type. 



Many Alsineae (e. g. Stellaria media) and Cruciferae (e. g. Capsella Bursa- 

 pastoris, Erophila verna), also Veronica, and so forth. 



These types of Flower Pollination established by Delpino, have been received 

 with a considerable amount of hostile criticism, especially by Hermann Muller 

 (*Weit. Beob./ HI, p. 20). This investigator describes them as to some extent quite 

 arbitrary, 'It is obvious,' he says, 'that we cannot escape the unnatural, if we 

 attempt to coerce the almost endless variety of floral forms into a definite number 

 of sharply circumscribed types.' Delpino, for instance, mentions the sixth or 

 hydrangea type as being specially adapted for Cetonia and other lamellicorns, and 

 yet numerous species of this type are chiefly visited by flies, bees with short 

 proboscides, and by butterflies. Again, Delpino adduces Solanum Dulcamara as- 

 a beautiful example of the borage type (bella espressione del tipo). With regard 

 to this, Hermann Muller speaks in somewhat the following way (op. cit., pp. 20-2) : 

 Borage is quite rightly regarded by Delpino as only adapted for pollination by 

 bees, since bees alone are capable of clambering up from below into the downwardly 

 turned flowers, and sinking the proboscis into the honey-bearing base of the 

 blossom. It may also be correct that in all other flowers in which the anthers 

 are borne upon short, stiff filaments, and enclose the conical style, bees are the 

 necessary agents of cross-pollination. Delpino, however, does not content himself 

 with establishing this, but brings together such varied flowers as Borago, Cyclamen, 

 Solanum, Galanthus, Leucojum, and several foreign species under this one type. 

 He explains away those instances where insects other than bees play an important 

 part in crossing, as e.g. pollen-eating hover-flies in the case of our native species 

 of Solanum, by affirming that their visits are purely accidental and without 

 significance. 



In contrast to this severe judgment of Hermann Miiller's, E. Loew very 

 properly contends {' Einfiihrung,' p. 191) that the establishment and characterization 

 of floral types by Delpino, must be regarded as one of the most suggestive and 

 brilliant attempts towards the solution of a problem which, owing to its nature, 

 must always remain open. Any hypothesis that may be advanced continually 

 requires improvement and extension, according to the standpoint of science for 

 the time being. 



Moreover, Delpino speaks like Knight, Darwin, and Hildebrand as to the 

 great law of Dichogamy or Cross-fertilization (la gran legge della dicogamia o 

 delle nozze incrociate). 



The work of Hermann Muller ^, ' Die Befruchtung der Blumen durch Insekten 



* Heinrich Ludwig Hermann Muller was born on September 23, 1829, at Miihlberg in 

 Thuringia, and was the son of a minister (cf. the note on p. 9). In 1847 ^^ attended the 



