Book Description

The methods by which pollen grains reach a stigma, enabling fertilization and seed production to take place, include some of the most varied and fascinating mechanisms in the whole world of living things. This edition is exclusive to newnaturalists.com The role of insects in pollinating flowers is today a commonplace - so that it is easy to forget that its discovery is little older than the invention of the steam engine: before that, we imagined that the concern of bees with flowers was simply a matter of collecting honey. But the methods by which pollen grains reach a stigma, enabling fertilization and seed production to take place, include some of the most varied and fascinating mechanisms in the whole world of living things. This book, an important addition to the New Naturalist series and to scientific literature, is a clear and thorough account of all the ways in which pollination is effected - by wine, water, even bats; but principals, in many curious ways, by diversity of insect species. The authors are both distinguished botanists - Dr. Proctor at Exeter University, Dr. Yeo at Cambridge - with a wide knowledge of insects. Illustrated with 134 of their own drawings, with 19 photographs in colour and 180 in black and white, the book offers a unique introduction to a complex yet easily accessible subject of great fascination.