The stamens, according to Fritz
Muller, are irritable, so that as soon as a moth visits a flower, the
anthers explode and cover the insect with pollen; one of the filaments
which is broader than the others then moves and closes the flower for
about twelve hours, after which time it resumes its original position.
(1/2. 'Botanische Zeitung' 1866 page 129.) Thus the stigma cannot be
fertilised by pollen from the same flower, but only by that brought by a
moth from some other flower. Endless other beautiful contrivances for
this same purpose could be specified.
Long before I had attended to the fertilisation of flowers, a remarkable
book appeared in 1793 in Germany, 'Das Entdeckte Geheimniss der Natur,'
by C.K. Sprengel, in which he clearly proved by innumerable
observations, how essential a part insects play in the fertilisation of
many plants. But he was in advance of his age, and his discoveries were
for a long time neglected. Since the appearance of my book on Orchids,
many excellent works on the fertilisation of flowers, such as those by
Hildebrand, Delpino, Axell and Hermann Muller, and numerous shorter
papers, have been published. (1/3. Sir John Lubbock has given an
interesting summary of the whole subject in his 'British Wild Flowers
considered in relation to Insects' 1875. Hermann Muller's work 'Die
Befruchtung der Blumen durch Insekten' 1873, contains an immense number
of original observations and generalisations.
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