1913- MoFKAT. — furs (Did Fiowirs 
/.> 
clear up this j)()int by ascertaining v/hat bees or other 
long-tongued insects visit the flowers of that species, and 
whether they persevere in gathering from it exclusively, 
or go off at frequent intervals to take sips of something else. 
As Ajiiga pyramidalis does not spread by creeping scions, 
it lias not the motive I have suggested in the case of its 
cousin A. re plans for driving its most welcome visitors 
frequently away. 
I hope I have now shown that bees act with more 
intelligence and more botanical knowledge than some 
writers of to-day give them credit for in their honey- 
gathering and pjollen -gathering expeditions. An ingenious 
theory' was started some years ago by Mr. E. Kay Robinson, 
that it was all a mistake to suppose that the colours or 
markings of flowers had any such purpose as to attract or to 
guide insect -visitors — that insects, in fact, do not mind 
them, and that such colours are really designed to warn 
off grazing or browsing animals from eating the flowers 
when they are feeding upon the leaves. I have not left 
myself time to discuss that theor}^ as I would like ; but 
briefly I would say, that I think the most primitive of all 
floral colours — namely, yellow — may very possibly have 
been evolved for some such purpose as Mr. Robinson thinks. 
Yellow was the easiest colour for a modified leaf to take, 
because it is simply the colour of a faded leaf ; and as 
browsing animals mostly prefer fresh leaves to faded, 
one can fancy that the device of turniiig yellow prematurely 
might prove a great success in keeping primitive flowers 
from being eaten. But if that is the object of floral colours 
all round, yellow — the most primitive — is still the most 
successful colour on the face of the earth to-day. Both 
in individuals and in species yellow flowers far outnumber 
the rest ; and there would, therefore, be more disadvantage 
than profit in ad\'ancing from a warning colour so univer- 
sallv well-known and successful to a high tint like blue, 
which, though representing the topmost rung of the ladder, 
appears to have been the least successful in the competition 
for space. On the other hand, for the purpose of guiding 
insects that want to stick to one sort of flower at a time, 
it is an advantage to every flower that wants such visitors 
A 3 
