The flower and the bee; plant life and pollination . s? Might not nature have especially colored this ring,to the end that it might show insects the way to the nectar-reservoir.^ On further observation he found that the en-trances to many other flowers were marked with spots, lines,and dots differently colored from the rest of the corolla. Thesemarks he called nectar guides. If the particular colorof one part of a flower, he rightly inferred, serves to enablean insect, which has settled on the flower, easily to find theright way to the nectar, then the general color of the corolla isserviceabl
The flower and the bee; plant life and pollination . s? Might not nature have especially colored this ring,to the end that it might show insects the way to the nectar-reservoir.^ On further observation he found that the en-trances to many other flowers were marked with spots, lines,and dots differently colored from the rest of the corolla. Thesemarks he called nectar guides. If the particular colorof one part of a flower, he rightly inferred, serves to enablean insect, which has settled on the flower, easily to find theright way to the nectar, then the general color of the corolla isserviceable in rendering the flowers provided with it conspicu-ous even from afar to the eyes of insects that hover aroundin the air in search of food. Sprengel decided that flowers secrete nectar for the sake ofattracting insects, and that it is protected by hairs or nectariesin order that they may enjoy it pure and unspoiled. At firsthe thought that the flowers received no service in return; buthe soon observed that the guests pollinated the flowers. He 10. Fig. 1. Forget-Me-Not. Myosotis scorpioidesBlue flower with yellow eye THE FLOWER AND THE BEE even noticed the frequent occurrence of cross-pollination, andremarks that it seems that nature is unwilling that anyflower should be fertilized by its own pollen. He describedthe manner in which some five hundred flowers are pollinated;but as he knew little about insects he did not pay much atten-tion to the different kinds of visitors. But while Sprengel had learned the secret of flowers and knewthat their colors, odors, and forms were not useless characters,he failed to discover why cross-pollination is beneficial; andthis omission, as Mueller has remarked, was for several genera-tions fatal to his work. In 1841 Robert Brown, an eccentricEnglish botanist of great learning, advised Darwin to readSprengels book. It may be doubted, says Francis Darwin,whether Robert Brown ever planted a more beautiful seedthan putting such a book into such
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