156 
CONCLUSION. 
investigated.” To these very true remarks I would add 
one more subject connected with insects, which has of 
late years received considerable attention amongst a 
few patient observers both at home and on the continent; 
I allude to Insects in relation to Flow t ers. Scattered 
papers on this extremely interesting subject have from 
time to time appeared in various scientific publications, 
and now, quite recently, a thousand thanks to that 
accomplished naturalist—Sir John Lubbock—a little 
manual* specially devoted to this subject has appeared, 
and the student can verify for himself the extremely 
interesting facts so pleasantly stated in Sir Johns 
book. It has been known from the earliest times 
how necessary and important certain plants are to cer¬ 
tain insects ; but only quite recently is it becoming 
generally realised how important, nay, in cases not a 
few, how absolutely necessary to the very existence of 
certain plants are certain insects ; for such is, in many 
cases, the mechanical arrangement of the reproductive 
organs in plants, as to render necessary for their propa¬ 
gation the visits of insects, by whose agency alone fer¬ 
tilization can take place. Anyone who will wander about 
the fields, lanes, and woodlands with Sir John Lubbock’s 
valuable little handbook in his pocket, and notice the 
different kinds of insects that visit different flowers, and 
try to learn how the one interacts upon the other, pro¬ 
ducing in time reciprocal modification of form and 
structure, cannot fail to enjoy many peaceful hours of 
real and abiding pleasure. 
* British Wild Flowers in Relation to Insects, by Sir 
John Lubbock, Bart., F.It.S., M.P. Macmillan, 187-3 
