X Preface. 



them, — the fruitful recognition of the fact and its 

 establishment by convincing evidence is to be found 

 for the first time in this treatise of Kerner. To him 

 exclusively will be due the merit of having interpreted 

 the meaning of a vast number of floral structures, which 

 before he wrote were passed over as purposeless. 



It is curious, however, to note that so long ago as 

 in the last century, Erasmus Darwin, in his Loves of 

 the Plants, should have remarked on the protective 

 function of one of the appliances described by Kerner, 

 namely, of the water-cups formed by the connate leaves 

 of the teasel ; and should even have alluded to the 

 nectar as one of the treasures to be thus guarded.^ 

 As this writer was of course quite ignorant of the true 

 relations between insects and flowers, which have been 

 made known to us by his grandson, it is not easy to see 

 why he should have supposed that the nectar required 

 protection, or indeed what use at all he can have 

 ascribed to this secretion. It is in a later and quite 

 recent author that we find the first clear anticipation 

 of Kerner. Mr. Belt, in his charming work on Nica- 

 ragua (p. 131-3); distinctly recognises the fundamental 

 point in this essay of Kerner. "Many flowers," he 

 says, " have contrivances for preventing useless insects 

 from obtaining access to the nectaries;" and after 

 illustrating this statement by a detailed account of the 



^ See Mr. Francis Darwin : Quart, Journ. of Micros. Science, 

 xvii, 269. 



