[15]

Sept 9 Cabbages Obscure light (Etiolated)

[data not transcribed]

(Used)

[15v]

13

Introduction

sufficiently impressed with the trouble truth and generality of the law, so as to insist on it and transfer impress their belief to others.

In 1862 I summed up my observations on Orchids by saying that nature 'abhors perpetual self-fertilisation.' If the word perpetual had been omitted, the aphorism would have been false. As it stands, I believe that it is true though perhaps rather too strongly expressed; and I should have added the self-evident proposition that the propagation of the species whether

[Cross and self fertilisation, pp. 7-8: "In 1811 Kölreuter plainly hinted at the same law, as did afterwards another famous hybridiser of plants, Herbert.‡ But none of these distinguished observers appear to have been sufficiently impressed with the
‡ Kölreuter 'Mém. de l'Acad. de St. Pétersbourg' tom. iii. 1809 published 1811 page 197. After showing how well the Malvaceae are adapted for cross-fertilisation, he asks, "An id aliquid in recessu habeat, quod hujuscemodi flores nunquam proprio suo pulvere, sed semper eo aliarum suae speciei impregnentur, merito quaeritur? Certe natura nil facit frustra." Herbert, 'Amaryllidaceae, with a Treatise on Cross-bred Vegetables' 1837.
truth and generality of the law, so as to insist on it and impress their beliefs on others.
In 1862 I summed up my observations on Orchids by saying that nature "abhors perpetual self-fertilisation." If the word perpetual had been omitted, the aphorism would have been false. As it stands, I believe that it is true, though perhaps rather too strongly expressed; and I should have added the self-evident proposition that the propagation of the species, whether by self-fertilisation or by cross-fertilisation, or asexually by buds, stolons, etc. is of paramount importance. Hermann Müller has done excellent service by insisting repeatedly on this latter point."]