moths perform as marriage-priests

Share This
« Back to Index

Categories: Comparisons

An example of metaphor in a scientist's writing

"The forty-nine lower flowers of a spike from Folkestone (sent me by Sir Charles Lyell) actually produced forty-eight fine seed-capsules; and of the sixty-nine lower flowers in three other spikes, seven alone had failed to produce capsules. These facts show conclusively how well moths had performed their office of marriage-priests."

Charles Darwin (writing about fertilisation of Orchis pyramidalis)

Darwin, C. (1862). On the Various Contrivances by which British and Foreign Orchids are Fertilised by Insects, and on the Good Effects of Intercrossing. John Murray.

[Please be aware that a word may have different nuances, or even a different meaning, according to context.]« Back to Index

Author: Keith

Former school and college science teacher, teacher educator, research supervisor, and research methods lecturer. Emeritus Professor of Science Education at the University of Cambridge.