164 TROPICAL NATURE, AND OTHER ESSAYS. 



dull and sombre tints in birds, insects, and flowers, so 

 that they reminded Mr. Darwin of the cold and barren 

 plains of Patagonia rather than of any tropical country. 

 Insects are wonderfully brilliant in tropical countries 

 generally ; and any one looking over a collection of South 

 American or Malayan butterflies would scout the idea of 

 their being no more gaily-coloured than the average of 

 European species, and in this he would be undoubtedly 

 right. But on examination we should find that all the 

 more brilliantly-coloured groups were exclusively tropical, 

 and that, where a genus has a wide range, there is little 

 difference in coloration between the species of cold and 

 warm countries. Thus the European Vanessides, in- 

 cluding the beautiful " peacock," " Camberwell beauty," 

 and " red admiral " butterflies, are quite up to the 

 average of tropical colour in the same group ; and the 

 remark will equally apply to the little "blues" and 

 " coppers ; " while the alpine " apollo " butterflies have 

 a delicate beauty that can hardly be surpassed. In other 

 insects, which are less directly dependent on climate 

 and vegetation, we find even greater anomalies. In 

 the immense family of the Carabidae or predaceous 

 ground-beetles, the northern forms fully equal, if they 

 do not surpass, all that the tropics can produce. Every- 

 where, too, in hot countries, there are thousands of 

 obscure species of insects which, if they were all 

 collected, would not improbably bring down the average 

 of colour to much about the same level as that of 

 temperate zones. 



But it is when we come to the vegetable world that 

 the greatest misconception on this subject prevails. In 

 abundance and variety of floral colour the tropics are 



