ORCHIDS ARE FERTILIZED BY INSECTS.
By Charles Darwin, M. A. Second edition, revised. With Illustrations. 1 vol., 12mo. Cloth. Price, $1.75.
“Mr. Darwin has prepared a new edition of his work on the fertilization of orchids by insects, which was published in 1862, and has been for some time out of print. He has, during the interval, received a great deal of information on the subject from various correspondents, and has also continued his own researches; and he has used the materials thus obtained in remodeling the original work. The object which the writer has in view is, as he explains, not only to show how wonderfully complex and perfect are the contrivances by which orchids are fertilized with pollen brought by insects from a distinct plant, but also to support his theory that ‘it is an almost universal law of Nature that the higher organic beings require an occasional cross with another individual; or, which is the same thing, that no hermaphrodite fertilizes itself for a perpetuity of generations.’”—Saturday Review.