ARTICLES 



257 



the blue is placed close to the complemental colours orange and 

 yellow. Complemental colours, in so far as they produce white 

 or grey when blended at a distance, will render an object incon- 

 spicuous (see small white, p. 73), nevertheless at short range 

 red, blue, and violet will be little dimmed by being close to the 

 complemental green, orange, and yellow. It follows that as 

 conspicuousness at long distance would seem to be seldom 

 required, so red should be used to produce conspicuousness in 

 animals having green backgrounds, and blue against brown 

 backgrounds. On the other hand if there were no limit to the 

 distance at which visibility is required, as for instance in flowers, 

 then exactly the opposite would hold : red flowers should be 

 found in the open where illumination is good, and blue amongst 

 the foliage where the lighting is poor : this is found to be the 

 case in British wild flowers (see table No. 6), and favours the 

 view that the colour of flowers is related to the visual perception 

 of insects and is not a warning colouration to herbivorous 

 animals. 



Compiled from British Plants, 1 1 volumes, J. T. Boswell Syme. R, red ; RW, 

 pale red and pink ; RB, purple ; B, blue ; W, white ; Y, yellow ; Gr., green ; 

 Br., brown. First column gives the occurrences, the second the percentages. 



This completes the examination in those cases in which the 

 sexes do not present any difference in colour. Before passing 

 to consider sexual dimorphism of colour, it will be convenient 

 to tabulate the various ways in which colour has been seen to 

 result in either a conspicuous or inconspicuous appearance 

 (see table No. 7). 



