570 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. 
readers. This has been all the more to be regretted, because 
Hermann Miiller, in Germany, and his brother Fritz Miiller, in 
Brazil, have done more to add to our knowledge of this ex- 
tremely interesting branch of biological study than any other 
naturalists, with perhaps the exception of Charles Darwin. Mr 
Thompson has therefore done an excellent service in preparing 
a translation of this work. The present work is not, however, 
merely a reproduction of the original German edition. Since 
“die Lefruchtung” was published (in 1873), great additions 
have been made to the literature of the subject by others as well 
as by the Miillers, and the translator has incorporated the gist 
of these along with Dr. H. Miiller’s most recent observations. 
A short preface by Charles Darwin, “ full of suggestion, full 
of kindly appreciative feeling, is of peculiar interest as one of 
the last of his writings.” 
An excellent introductory chapter gives the history of-our 
knowledge of the subject. It is remarkable to note here how 
accurately Sprengel, nearly a century ago, worked out the idea 
that many flowers are fertilised by one or more species of in- 
sects, and that the bright colors, honey, scent, &c., which he 
noticed and described, were contrivances to aid in this work. 
And yet, with all the remarkable insight into the subject which 
he gained, he missed the chief point in it. He saw that pollen 
was carried by insects from flower to flower, and was the first to 
observe the common occurrence of dichogamy, or the maturing 
of anthers and stigmas in the same flower at different times, 
and yet he failed to detect the reason of these phenomena. For 
seventy years his valuable observations remained mere dead 
letters, because no one seemed to see the direct application of 
them, or if they saw them at all, as in Knight’s case, they failed 
to bring general conviction to their views. It was one of the 
great merits of Darwin’s “ Origin of Species,” that it suddenly, 
as it were, vivified all these dead facts, uniting what previously 
seemed purposeless and disjointed observations into one har- 
monious whole, and utilising them all in the exemplification of 
the great law of natural selection. Since the date of Darwin’s 
chief work numerous observers have entered this field of 
biological study, and the work now before us brings the most of 
of the information thus accumulated into a compact form. 
After describing briefly the insects which affect the fer- 
tilisation of flowers, and showing in some detail the chief 
modifications in their structure, which serve to adapt them for 
this work, the author describes the mechanisms of flowers at 
considerable length. The translator has arranged this part in 
accordance with English systematic ideas, which certainly is a 
convenient aid in finding out any known group. 
Naturally, the greater portion of the work is occupied with 
European plants, briefer notices being accorded to extra Euro- © 
pean species. But so numerous are the types and species of 
flowers whose mode of fertilisation is here described, that any- 
one desirous of acquiring a knowledge of the subject will find 
