[page] 478

Note to Editor,—The enclosed paper was written in the autumn of 1869, and then submitted to Mr. Darwin. With his usual kindness he encouraged me to proceed with it; and with his usual thoroughness he advised me to make it more complete than it is before giving it to the public. At the same time, he lent me various publications containing articles on the subject of fertilisation, and, amongst others, some by the Italian botanist, Delpino, who has done so much in this field. I found that he had in two or three publications in the years 1867 and 1868, anticipated most of the observations contained in the accompanying paper; and I proposed to myself to attempt a résumé of what had been done of late years in the matter of fertilisation of flowers by Delpino, Hildebrand, and others. But this, labour of love, is a greater labour than I can manage, and other calls have grown upon me. I therefore send the paper to you as it stands, begging that this note may be prefixed in order that I may not be thought to be appropriating Delpino's observations, — T. H, F., October 1872.

AFTER reading Mr. Darwin's book on Orchids and his papers on Lythrum and Primula, I made some notes on the fertilisation of Phaseolus and some of the Campanulaceae, which had the good fortune to meet with his approval, and which he had the kindness to send for publication to the Annals and Magazine of Natural History, where they appeared in October 1868. The comparison of Phaseolus with other Papilionaceous flowers led me to think that Mr. Darwin's fertile ideas might receive many illustrations from the structure and functions of this beautiful and interesting tribe; and the following are observations made during the summer of 1869 upon a few of the commonest of them. I am painfully conscious how imperfect want of time, of opportunity, and of knowledge has left them; and how many points there are, even in these few flowers, which require a much more careful inquiry.

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The mechanism of this flower is truly wonderful. For further details I could refer to papers by Mr. Darwin in the Gardeners Chronicle of October 24, 1857, and November 14, 1858, and to the notes of my own in the Annals and Magazine of Natural History, October 1868.