THE SECRET OF FLOWERS 



overlooked, are now fully recognized many years after his 

 death." 



In 1866 Darwin's Origm of Speciefi and his book on orchids 

 were read by Hermann Mueller, a young teacher at Lippstadt, 

 Germany, who thenceforth enthusiastically devoted the rest 

 of his life to the study of the pollination of flowers. Many 

 other investigators were also stimulated by these epoch-making 

 books to study the charming problems of floral structure, as 

 Delpino in Italy, Axel in Sweden, Hildebrand in Germany, Asa 

 Gray in North America, and Fritz Mueller in South America. 

 But they were all easily surpassed by Hermann Mueller, who 

 is still regarded as the foremost of floroecologists. In Thu- 

 ringia and in the Alps he examined many hundreds of blossoms 

 and recorded the visits of insects by thousands. He was the 

 first to collect and publish lists of flower-pollinators on an ex- 

 tensive scale, and the biology of flowers may thus be said in its 

 broadest sense to have been established by him. Never since 

 has this branch of botany been cultivated with equal success. 

 His book The Fertilization of Flowers ranks with the works 

 of Sprengel and Darwin, and marks the third great epoch in 

 the history of flower ecology. (Fig. 2.) 



Hermann and Fritz Mueller were the sons of the Evangelical 

 pastor at Muhlberg, in Thuringia. Fritz was born in IS'^^ and 

 Hermann in 1829. Hermann was deeply attached to his native 

 land, and often in his later life referred to it as "his dear Thu- 

 ringia." There with Fritz he explored the fields and streams, 

 and under the influence of his studious elder brother his love 

 for the plant world was awakened. 



After preparing himself for a teacher and also studying 

 medicine Fritz emigrated to Brazil, where he settled at Blu- 

 menau as a farmer. Afterward he went to the Lyceum at 

 Desterro, but, on being driven from office by the Jesuits, he 



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