The Uiscovcrics of Four Great botanists 



at such pains to attract the insects when by a differ- 

 ent arrangement of their internal economy they 

 might, as other blossoms frequently do, fertilize 

 themselves ? 



'' Let us not underrate the value of a fact ; it will 

 one day flower in a truth." The defects in Spren- 

 gel's work were, after all, not actual defects. The 

 error lay simply in his interpretation of the facts 

 which he had been at such i)ains to gather. 



He and his followers heard faint whisperings of 

 the truth which would have solved all difficulties. 

 But they heard whisperings only — they never real- 

 ized the whole of the deep-laid plan. 



DAR irJX S REVELA TIOXS 



It was not until the inspired insight of Darwin, 

 as voiced in his "Origin of Species," contemplated 

 these strange facts and inconsistencies of Sprengel 

 that their full significance and actual value were 

 discovered and demonstrated, and his remarkable 

 book, forgotten for seventy years, at last appre- 

 ciated for its true worth. Alas for the irony of 

 fate ! Under Darwin's interpretation, the very " de- 

 fects " which had rendered Sprengel's work a failure 

 became the absolute witness of a deeper truth 

 which Sprengel had failed to discern. 



One more short step and he would have reached 



