PUBLICATIONS. 91 



der Natur.' For some years before 1862 I had 

 specially attended to the fertilisation of our British 

 orchids ; and it seemed to me the best plan to prepare 

 as complete a treatise on this group of plants as well 

 as I could, rather than to utilise the great mass of 

 matter which I had slowly collected with respect to 

 other plants. 



My resolve proved a wise one ; for since the ap- 

 pearance of my book, a surprising number of papers 

 and separate works on the fertilisation of all kinds of 

 flowers have appeared ; and these are far better done 

 than I could possibly have effected. The merits of 

 poor old Sprengel, so long overlooked, are now fully 

 recognised many years after his death. 



During the same year I published in the 'Journal of 

 the Linnean Society' a paper " On the Two Forms, or 

 Dimorphic Condition of Primula," and during the next 

 five years, five other papers on dimorphic and tri- 

 morphic plants. I do not think anything in my 

 scientific life has given me so much satisfaction as 

 making out the meaning of the structure of these 

 plants. I had noticed in 1838 or 1839 the dimor- 

 phism of Linum flavum, and had at first thought that 

 it was merely a case of unmeaning variability. But 

 on examining the common species of Primula I found 

 that the two forms were much too regular and constant 

 to be thus viewed. I therefore became almost con- 

 vinced that the common cowslip and primrose were 

 on the high-road to become dioecious ; that the short 

 pistil in the one form, and the short stamens in the 

 other form were tending towards abortion. The plants 



