6o 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



Mr. Bulman then goes on to say, that he " cannot 

 make out from what premises " my " remarkable 

 conclusion " on the evolution of red and blue in 

 flowers is drawn. Now it is quite obvious that the 

 passage alluded to is not a "conclusion" in the 

 logical sense at all ; I should have thought, indeed, 

 that it was perfectly clear that I had not attempted, 

 and could not possibly have attempted in a paper 

 of the length of mine, any arguments upon which 

 such a conclusion could be based ; but that I had 

 simply pointed out the results obtained by two 

 representative men on the subject, and indicated, in 

 the passage referred to, their common conclusions. 

 If, therefore, Mr. Bulman looked for " premises," it 

 is not wonderful that he could not find them. 



I am very sorry that Mr. Bulman finds it "an 

 inscrutable mystery" how the facts and arguments of 

 my paper are supposed to oppose his views. I am 

 afraid that to convince him on this point is a task to 

 which I am quite unequal, but I may remark here 

 that, supposing it to be so, it is curious that he should 

 think it necessary to write nearly nine columns, pre- 

 sumably with the object of refuting them. 



As to Mr. Bulman's argument about the distrust of 

 red which bees would acquire from visiting reddish 

 buds and faded flowers, it seems to me that is based 

 on an altogether unjustifiable assumption, viz. that 

 bees, the representatives of one of the longest lines 

 of descent among anthophilous insects, are so un- 

 intelligent as not to know the difference between a 

 faded flower or a bud and a flower in its prime. 

 Mr. Grant Allen does consider the chemical process in 

 the faded flower analogous to that taking place at the 

 appearance of variations, but it is surely clear that 

 the new colours could not be evolved from colours 

 appearing after fertilisation. 



In conclusion, I must submit that Mr. Bulman has 

 not made good his charges against the theoiy of 

 colour development through iiisect selection ; he has, 

 I think, in the course of his attacks, revealed several 

 points where our knowledge is not sufficient to enable 

 us to speak authoritatively, but though there are very 

 likely some details, such as, for instance, the sup- 

 posed strict sequence of colour-development put 

 forward by Mr.' Grant Allen, which will have to be 

 modified later, the general principle of the theory 

 remains untouched. Apart from the « //wr« argu- 

 ment derivable from the theory of natural selection, 

 the hypothesis must, of course, to have a firm basis, 

 be established by the inductive method, and I do not 

 think that, at present, the evidence is sufficient to 

 establish it as a great scientific generalisation, though 

 it has gone far in that direction. As Mr. Darwin 

 said of his own great induction, of which this 

 theory is but a comparatively insignificant branch, 

 it must at present find its support chiefly from 

 "connecting under an intelligible point of view a 

 host of facts." 



A. G. Tansi.ey. 



PARASITES OF THE WHITE ANT 

 (BENGAL). 



By W. J. Simmons. 



THE depredations of the white ant in India have 

 earned for it the hearty dislike of all classes of 

 the community. Its reputation is so distinctly and 

 exclusively evil that mischief is sometimes attributed 









Fig. 45. 



Parasite No. i. The Figs, show the mouth — parts, ciliation, 

 nucleus, and ingested particles of food. In Fig. 44, Tricho- 

 cysts are observable. 



to the poor insect which it could not by any possi- 

 bility perpetrate. The story goes that the native 

 record-keeper of a Mofussil Court, being unable to 



