Ch. XVI.] FERTILISATION OF FLOWERS. 309 



remarks for reviews, such as ' Mr. Darwin's bead seems to have 

 been turned by a certain degree of success, and he thinks that 

 the most trifling observations are worth publication.' " 



He wrote too, to Asa Gray : — 



"Your generous sympathy makes you over-estimate what 

 you have read of my Orchid-book. But your letter of May 

 18th and 26th has given me an almost foolish amount of 

 satisfaction. The subject interested me, I knew, beyond its 

 real value ; but I had lately got to think that I had made 

 myself a complete fool by publishing in a semi-popular form. 

 Now I shall confidently defy the world. ... No doubt my 

 volume contains much error : how curiously difilcult it is to be 

 accurate, though I try my utmost. Your notes have interested 

 me beyond measure. I can now afford to d — my critics 

 with ineffable complacency of mind. Cordial thanks for this 

 benefit." 



Sir Joseph Hooker reviewed the book in the Gardeners* 

 Chronicle, writing in a successful imitation of the style of 

 Lindley, the Editor. My father wrote to Sir Joseph (Nov. 12, 

 1862) :— 



" So you did write tho review in the Gardeners' Chronicle. 

 Once or twice I doubted whether it was Lindley ; but when I 

 came to a little slap at K. Brown, I doubted no longer. You 

 arch-rogue I I do not wonder you have deceived others also. 

 Perhaps I am a conceited dog ; but if so, you have much to 

 answer for ; I never received so much praise, and coming from 

 you I value it much more than from any other," 



"With regard to botanical opinion generally, he wrote to Dr. 

 Gray, " I am fairly astonished at the success of my book with 

 botanists." Among naturalists who were not botanists, Lyell 

 was pre-eminent in his appreciation of the book. I have no 

 means of knowing when he read it, but in later life, as I learn 

 from Professor Judd, he was enthusiastic in praise of the 

 Fertilisation of Orchids, which he considered " next to the 

 Origin, as the most valuable of all Darwin's worksL" Among 

 the general public the author did not at first hear of many 

 disciples, thus he wrote to his cousin Fox in September 1862 : 

 " Hardly any one not a botanist, except yourself, as far as I 

 know, has cared for it." 



If we examine the literature relating to the fertilisation of 

 flowers, we do not find that this new branch of study showed 

 any great activity immediately after the publication of the 

 Orchid-book. There are a few papers by Asa Gray, in 1862 and 

 1863, by Hildebrand in 1864, and by Moggridge in 1865, but 

 the great mass of work by Axell, Delpino, Hildebrand, and 



