112 MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS 



For a period of fifty years the progress of inter- 

 pretation was completely arrested. The flowers 

 remained without a champion until 1787, when 

 Sprengel began his investigations, based upon the 

 unsolved mysteries of color and markings of pet- 

 als, fragrance, nectar, and visiting insects. The 

 prevalent idea of the insect being a mere idle ac- 

 cessory to the flower found no favor with him. 

 He chose to believe that some deep plan must lie 

 beneath this universal association. At the incep- 

 tion of this conviction he chanced to observe in 

 the flower of the wild geranium {G. sylvaticum) a 

 fact which only an inspired vision could have 

 detected — that the minute hairs at the base of the 

 petal, while disclosing the nectar to insects, com- 

 pletely protected it from rain. Investigation 

 showed the same conditions in many other 

 flowers, and the inference he drew was further 

 strengthened by the remarkable discovery of his 

 " honey -guides " in a long list of blossoms, by 

 which the various decorations of spots, rings, and 

 converging veins upon the petals indicated the 

 location of the nectar. 



His labors were now concentrated on the work 

 of interpretation, until at length his researches, 

 covering a period of two or three years, were 

 given to the world. In a volume bearing the fol- 



