214 SELECTION. Chap. XXI. 



disease, the green sorts suffered most ; " and red and black 

 grapes, even when interwoven with the sick plants, suffered 

 not at all." In France whole groups of varieties were com- 

 paratively free, and others, such as the Chasselas, did not 

 afford a single fortunate exception ; but I do not know 

 whether any correlation between coloiir and liability to 

 disease was here observed.^* In a former chapter it was 

 shown how curiously liable one variety of the strawberry is 

 to mildew. 



It is certain that insects regulate in many cases the range 

 and even the existence of the higher animals, whilst living 

 under their natural conditions. Under domestication light- 

 coloured animals suffer most : in Thuringia ^^ the inhabitants 

 do not like gre^^ white, or pale cattle, because the}^ are much 

 more troubled by various kinds of flies than the brown, red, 

 or black cattle. An Albino negro, it has been remarked,'^ 

 was peculiarly sensitive to the bites of insects. In the West 

 Indies ^"^ it is said that " the only horned cattle fit for work 

 " are those which have a good deal of black in them. The 

 *' white are terribly tormented by the insects ; and they are 

 " weak and sluggish in proportion to the white." 



In Devonshire there is a prejudice against white pigs, 

 because it is believed that the sun blisters them when turned 

 out ; ^^ and I knew a man who would not keep white pigs in 

 Kent, for the same reason. The scorching of flowers by the 

 sun seems likewise to depend much on colour; thus, dark 

 pelargoniums suffer most ; and from various accounts it is 

 clear that the cloth-of-gold variety will not withstand a 

 degree of exposure to sunshine which other varieties enjoy. 

 Another amateur asserts that not only all dark-coloured 

 verbenas, but likewise scarlets, suffer from the sun : " the 

 paler kinds stand better, and pale blue is perhaps the best of 

 all." So again with the heartsease (^Viola tricolor); hot 



" * Gardener's Chronicle,' 1852, iv. West Indies,' ' Home and Col. 



pp. 435, 691. Libr.iry,' p. 100. 



^* Bechstein, *Naturgesch. Deutsch- ** Sidney's edit, of Youatt on the 



lands,' 1801, B. i. s. 310. Pig, p. 24. I have given analogous 



" Prichard, * Phys. Hist, of Man- facts in the case of mankind in my 



kind,' 1851, vol. i. p. 224. ' Descent of Man,' 2nd edit. p. 195. 



1' G. Lewis's ' Journal of Residence 



