Christian Conrad Sprengel

Abstract

IT has now become a standing topic that C. C. Sprengel's treatise on the structure and fertilisation of flowers “after well nigh a century of oblivion has come to be recognised as one of the most interesting books, and his theory of the adaptation of flowers to fertilisation by insects is one that will ever be associated with his name” (NATURE, vol. xxviii. p. 513). Some writers go so far as to speak of a rediscovery of Sprengel's treatise by Darwin. But it should be acknowledged that Darwin himself says only (“Cross Fertilisation,” p. 5): “His discoveries were for a long time neglected.” So it seems to be true that Sprengel's and Koelreuter's works were unknown to English naturalists, though Kirby and Spence, at the end of Letter IX., published 1815, and in all subsequent editions till 1867, have given a very fair report in their masterly manner. Not only the facts, but also the importance of these discoveries, are fairly expounded.