In the year
1857 I wrote a short paper on the fertilisation of the kidney bean (1/1.
'Gardeners' Chronicle' 1857 page 725 and 1858 pages 824 and 844. 'Annals
and Magazine of Natural History' 3rd series volume 2 1858 page 462.);
and in 1862 my work 'On the Contrivances by which British and Foreign
Orchids are Fertilised by Insects' appeared. It seemed to me a better
plan to work out one group of plants as carefully as I could, rather
than to publish many miscellaneous and imperfect observations. My
present work is the complement of that on Orchids, in which it was shown
how admirably these plants are constructed so as to permit of, or to
favour, or to necessitate cross-fertilisation. The adaptations for
cross-fertilisation are perhaps more obvious in the Orchideae than in
any other group of plants, but it is an error to speak of them, as some
authors have done, as an exceptional case. The lever-like action of the
stamens of Salvia (described by Hildebrand, Dr. W. Ogle, and others), by
which the anthers are depressed and rubbed on the backs of bees, shows
as perfect a structure as can be found in any orchid. Papilionaceous
flowers, as described by various authors--for instance, by Mr. T.H.
Farrer--offer innumerable curious adaptations for cross-fertilisation.
The case of Posoqueria fragrans (one of the Rubiaceae), is as wonderful
as that of the most wonderful orchid.
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