nectaried

Consequently, the deepest nectaried Orchids and the longest tongued moths would each confer on the other an advantage in the battle of life.

Contributions to the Theory of Natural Selection A Series of Essays Alfred Russel Wallace 1868

By this process alone the average length of the nectary would annually increase, because, the short-nectaried flowers being sterile and the long ones having abundant offspring, exactly the same effect would be produced as if a gardener destroyed the short ones and sowed the seed of the long ones only; and this we know by experience would produce a regular increase of length, since it is this very process which has increased the size and changed the form of our cultivated fruits and flowers.

Contributions to the Theory of Natural Selection A Series of Essays Alfred Russel Wallace 1868

Or if the growth of the probosces of the moths had from other causes increased quicker than that of the nectary, or if the increased length of proboscis had been injurious to them in any way, or if the species of moth with the longest proboscis had become much diminished by some enemy or other unfavourable conditions, then, in any of these cases, the shorter nectaried flowers, which would have attracted and could have been fertilized by the smaller kinds of moths, would have had the advantage.

Contributions to the Theory of Natural Selection A Series of Essays Alfred Russel Wallace 1868