FLORA OF TIBET OR HIGH ASTA. 221 
Cotours of the Frowrrs or Frutr. 
For our purpose colour in flowers includes everything excepting 
green. Excluding the Cyperacee, the Graminew, and a few 
other plants which have very inconspicuous flowers mostly 
exhibiting colour only in the anthers, which are usually yellow, 
rarely red, there are 241 species to account for. Roughly classed 
as white or some shade of yellow, of red, or of blue, according to 
the dominant primary, the followinz figures are obtained :— 
Flowers white ................ 44 
» some shade of yellow.... SI 
” ” red ...... 70 
3 ” blue .... 46 
241 
We have no precise data for comparisons, but it may be safely 
asserted that there is as much variety and brillianey of colour in 
the Tibetan Flora as there is in the British Flora. Here the 
comparison ends, because there is nothing in Tibet to match the 
masses of colour produced by bluebells, buttercups, primroses, 
heather, and other native plants. On the other hand, the intensity 
of colour characteristic of the Alpine flora of Europe is not 
equalled in Tibet, even individually. Compared with the remote 
Insular Flora of St. Helena, the advantage of colour, if any, is 
with Tibet. In St. Helena, for example, blue and red are almost 
wholly wanting in the native flowers, which are usually white, or 
white and yellow. In a less degree this is the case in the Sand- 
Wich Islands. 
The connection between colours and insects in relation to 
pollination we shall not attempt to discuss ; but in the 
“Itineraries” we have repeated all the references to insects, 
including a list of butterflies observed by Dr. Thorold. 
The Tibetan species of familiar genera have mostly flowers of 
the same colour as the predominating one in British species. 
Thus Ranunculus, yellow ; Sedum, red or yellow; Artemisia, 
yellow ; Gentiana, blue; Saussurea, red ; Astragalus, blue or red; 
Potentilla, yellow ; Delphinium, blue; and Aster, blue. The 
Crucifere are mostly white or yellow, and the Caryophyllaccse 
mostly white. ; 
A better idea of the appearance of colour in the vegetation 
may perhaps be conveyed by means of a selection of plants having 
either conspicuous individual flowers, or conspicuous inflores- 
