The Fertilisers of Alpine Flowers

A FEW years ago I stated my belief in this journal that lepidoptera are far more frequent visitors and fertilisers of flowers, and that from this cause by far more flowers are adapted to cross-fertilisation by lepidoptera, in the Alps than in the lowland. But it was then impossible for me to give a sufficient number of facts. Now, therefore, having continued my observations in the Alps during six summers, and being about to prepare a detailed work on “Alpine Flowers, their Fertilisation by Insects, and their Adaptations to them,” I will here give a statistical statement of all visits of insects on flowers which I have observed (1) in the lowland, (2) in the Alps generally, (3) above the boundary of trees; the numbers under 1 being extracted from my work, “Die Befruchtung der Blumen durch Insekten, &c.” (Leipzig, 1873).