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136
My Studio Neighbors
·
W. Hamilton Gibson
60
For
a
period
of
fifty
years
the
progress
of
interpretation
was
completely
arrested.
The
flowers
remained
without
a
champion
until
1787,
when
Sprengel
began
his
investigations,
based
upon
the
unsolved
mysteries
of
color
and
markings
of
petals,
fragrance,
nectar,
and
visiting
insects.
The
prevalent
idea
of
the
insect
being
a
mere
idle
accessory
to
the
flower
found
no
favor
with
him.
He
chose
to
believe
that
some
deep
plan
must
lie
beneath
this
universal
association.
At
the
inception
of
this
conviction
he
chanced
to
observe
in
the
flower
of
the
wild
geranium
(G.
sylvaticum)
a
fact
which
only
an
inspired
vision
could
have
detected--that
the
minute
hairs
at
the
base
of
the
petal,
while
disclosing
the
nectar
to
insects,
completely
protected
it
from
rain.
Investigation
showed
the
same
conditions
in
many
other
flowers,
and
the
inference
he
drew
was
further
strengthened
by
the
remarkable
discovery
of
his
"honey-guides"
in
a
long
list
of
blossoms,
by
which
the
various
decorations
of
spots,
rings,
and
converging
veins
upon
the
petals
indicated
the
location
of
the
nectar.
His
labors
were
now
concentrated
on
the
work
of
interpretation,
until
at
length
his
researches,
covering
a
period
of
two
or
three
years,
were
given
to
the
world.
In
a
volume
bearing
the
following
victorious
title,
"The
Secrets
of
Nature
in
Forms
and
Fertilization
of
Flowers
Discovered,"
he
presented
a
vast
chronicle
of
astonishing
facts.
The
previous
discoveries
of
Grew
and
Linnaeus
were
right
so
far
as
they
went--viz.,
"the
pollen
must
reach
the
stigma"--but
those
learned
authorities
had
missed
the
true
secret
of
the
process.
In
proof
of
which
Sprengel
showed
that
in
a
great
many
flowers,
as
I
have
shown
at
C
(Fig.
3),
this
deposit
of
pollen
is
naturally
impossible,
owing
to
the
relative
position
of
the
floral
parts,
and
that
the
pollen
could
not
reach
the
stigma
except
by
artificial
aid.
He
then
announced
his
startling
theory:
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