CHAPTER V 



POLLINATION AND FERTILISATION 



BY many of those who write for the general public 

 Pollination and Fertilisation are used as synonymous 

 terms. This may have been natural when, over a 

 century ago (1793), Sprengel published his novel obser- 

 vations under the title of Das entdeckte Geheimniss 

 der Natur im Ban und in der Befruchtung der 

 Blumen (The Secret of Nature discovered in the 

 Structure and Fertilisation of Flowers). But at the 

 present day there is little excuse for such laxity. 

 Even Muller's classical work appears in its English 

 edition under the title of The Fertilisation of Flowers 

 by Insects. And yet on opening it we find that it 

 deals throughout with the transfer of pollen, and 

 the actual detail of the act of fertilisation is not 

 mentioned. It is well to be clear at the outset as 

 to the correct use of these words when applied to 

 the Higher Flowering plants. By pollination is 

 meant merely the transfer of pollen from the anther, 

 where it is produced, to the receptive surface of 



