FLORAL AND INSECT ANALOGIES. 309 



from which he caused the premature evolvement of the perfect 

 insect, and proposed by employment of the same means on an 

 extensive scale, to cause summer flowers and summer flutterers 

 to appear together in the midst of winter. 



Darwin had a pretty fancy that Butterflies usually resemble 

 in colour the flowers they are most accustomed to frequent. 

 The poet-naturalist carried this notion doubtless beyond nature, 

 but the idea is one which seems to shoot less wide of its mark 

 than many aimed from the Litchfield long-bow. There is a 

 very large proportion of white and yellow flowers which we 

 see visited, perhaps, most frequently, by an equally large 

 proportion of white and yellowish Butterflies, owing probably 

 to the preponderance of each. The greater number of blue 

 Butterflies are certainly, however, accustomed to frequent the 

 blue flowers most abounding in chalky soils ; and the rich 

 tone of colouring in our autumn flowers harmonizes well with 

 that of autumn Butterflies. But whether they be or be not 

 dyed, usually, after the colours of their favorite blossoms, it 

 seems agreed on all hands that the Butterfly form and its 

 fluttering habiliments are always fashioned after the floral 

 pattern, as it prevails in the papilionaceous families of the 

 vegetable world. 



We might continue at greater length our remarks on Butter- 

 flies as connected with flowers, which make verily part and 

 parcel of their existence, but space forbids us ; and now re- 

 turning to their relations of use, we must notice somewhat 



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