The Relation of Science and Religion.pdf - Online Christian Library

RELA TIOOYS OF ORGANISMS. 163tinct froin their testimony in favor of thetheory that the struggle for existence is theprincipal factor in the origin of new species.One of the most interesting fields of observationthus opened, is that concerned withthe fertilization of plants by the interventionof insects and birds. A beginning in this departmentwas made by the German naturalist,Christian Koiirad Sprengel, who published in1793 the report of his observations. In thishe has been followed by Darwin, in 1862; byDr. Hooker, Professor Asa Gray whose contributionsappeared in the Anzerican Journalof Hcience and Art in 1862, and 1863,Moggridge, Fritz Miiller, and Sir John Lubbock.The facts now accum~~lated, asan important contribution to botany and zBology,aiid naturally fall within the circle ofrecent advances to which it is desirable thatattention be turned.The general result is one of great interest,as illustrating a striking degree of interdependencebetween lower and higher organisms,- the vegetable aiid animal kingdomcontributing to each other's subsistence anclpropagation. Flowers present special attractionsto insects flying around, slluritlg then1