THE ORIGIN OF ORNAMENTATION. 517 



basis for a complex ocellus exists, as already remarked, in the disposition 

 of the bars and (colored patches in the subcostal area, or the area of" the 

 second vein ; in the peacock butterfly such an ocellus is formed and extends 

 to the front mai'<>"in of the \vin<j^, Ijecause the subcostal area reaches that 

 m:u'y;in. On tlic hind wings of these butterflies almost the only element 

 for the formation of an ocellus is a short bar in the same area resembling 

 one on the front wings ; yet from this a complex ocellus, not so imposing 

 as that of the front wings certainly, but still a marked ocellus, has been 

 formed; which, true to law, just fails of reaching the front margin, keep- 

 ing within the normally narrower limits of the subcostal area of the hind 

 wing. 



This distribution of the veins enables us also to point out an interesting 

 relation between the ornamentation of the front and hinder portion of a 

 single wing, which seems never to have been noticed, and which shows 

 again both the strength and the weakness of symmetry. The relation of 

 the ornamentation of the hind to the fore wing is not one of slavish repe- 

 tition ; indeed our ingenuity may often be taxed to discover it. But the 

 relation of the two parts of the same wing has even less of repetition ; for 

 to a certain extent there is a polar distribution of markings. For instance, 

 there is often a bright-colored ocellus at the inner angle of the hind wing, 

 in the area of the fourth principal vein ; should a single similar ocellus, or 

 a bright-colored spot corresponding to it, occur in any other pai't of the 

 wing, there is only one place ivhere it will fall, viz., at an exactly cor- 

 responding position in the area of the first (i. e., the other unbranched) 

 vein of the wing, as may be seen in Euphoeades troilus. I do not mean 

 there will be a corresponding spot, for one often occurs in one of these 

 positions and fails in the other ; nor that there may not be similar spots in 

 all the areas ; but that if there is a brilliant spot in the area of the fourth 

 vein, and only one other similar spot elsewhere, the latter will fall in the 

 area of the first vein. This is the more curious, because I do not discover 

 the same polarity in the repetition of markings in the areas of the branch- 

 ing veins ; here repetition is frequent, but it is far more common to find 

 similar markings between the hinder branches of the one and of the other, 

 or between their front branches. 



Can such a play of plan in ornamentation, affecting more than our mere 

 sense of beauty, awakening indeed in us an intellectual pleasure which 

 does not rest upon the surface of things as a purely sensuous appreciation 

 must do — can this be explained as purely for the purposes of the ephemeral 

 creature itself ? If it cannot ; if, for instance, it is of no advantage to the 

 butterfly that its second brilliant ocellus should occur in the area of the 

 first rather than of the second vein, then it cannot have arisen through 

 natural selection, without the guidance of a higher law, which has other 

 ends for beauty than the mere survival of the creature possessing it. 



