FLOWERS AND INSECTS 269 



statement of the case from the plant's standpoint. 

 From the insects' point of view, an abundance of 

 flowers is essential, for many of them live entirely on 

 a diet of honey or pollen, or both combined. We 

 have no evidence that insects ever visit flowers for 

 philanthropic or disinterested motives. They go bent 

 on the serious business of marketing, just as many 

 human beings go daily to the markets to obtain the 

 necessaries of life. 



These facts must always be carefully borne in 

 mind. They form the key to the origin of many of 

 the varied peculiarities in the form and structure of 

 the flower, to be met with in the Alps. The botanist 

 who first clearly noted these facts was Joseph Gottlieb 

 Kolreuter (1733-1806) of Karlsruhe. He was shortly 

 afterwards followed by Christian Konrad Sprengel, 

 to whom reference has already been made (p. 2). 

 Thus Kolreuter and Sprengel are the honoured Fathers 

 of the study of the manner of pollination of Flowering 

 Plants. 



There is no doubt whatever, from the evidence of 

 palaeontology, that insects existed long prior to the first 

 appearance of the Flowering Plants (Angiosperms). 

 It is conjectured that the earliest primitive flowers 

 were wind pollinated, but owing to the probability 

 that they were soon visited by insects, who robbed 

 them of their pollen, the plants appear to have 

 determined that, if they must suffer robbery, they 

 might as well make use of the insects in some way, 

 and consequently they hit on the happy idea of 



