226 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



thrusts its extensile tongue. I am also informed that a con- 

 siderable number of flowers are occasionally fertilised by 

 humming-birds in North America j so that there can, I 

 think, be little doubt that birds play a much more important 

 part in this respect than has hitherto been imagined. It is 

 not improbable that in Tropical America, where this family is 

 so enormously developed, many flowers will be found to be 

 expressly adapted to fertilisation by them, just as so many in 

 our own country are specially adapted to the visits of certain 

 families or genera of insects. 



It must also be remembered, as Mr. Moseley has suggested 

 to me, that a flower which had acquired a brilliant colour to 

 attract insects might, on transference to another country, and 

 becoming so modified as to be capable of self-fertilisation, 

 retain the coloured petals for an indefinite period. Such is 

 probably the explanation of the Pelargonium of Kerguelen's 

 Land, which forms masses of bright colour near the shore 

 during the flowering season ; while most of the other plants 

 of the island have colourless flowers, in accordance with the 

 almost total absence of winged insects. The presence of 

 many large and showy flowers among the indigenous flora of 

 St. Helena must be an example of a similar persistence. 

 Mr. Melliss, indeed, stales it to be " a remarkable peculiarity 

 that the indigenous flowers are, with very slight exceptions, 

 all perfectly colourless;" but although this may apply to the 

 general aspect of the remains of the indigenous flora, it is 

 evidently not the case as regards the species, since the 

 interesting plates of Mr. Melliss's volume show that about 

 one-third of the indigenous flowering plants have more or 

 less coloured or conspicuous flowers, while several of them 

 are exceedingly showy and beautiful. Among these are a 

 Lobelia, three Wahlenbergias, several Compositae, and espe- 

 cially the handsome red flowers of the now almost extinct 

 forest-trees, the ebony and redwood — species of Melhania 

 (Byttneriaceae). We have every reason to believe, however, 

 that when St. Helena was covered with luxuriant forests, and 

 especially at that remote period when it was much more 

 extensive than it is now, it must have supported a certain 

 number of indigenous birds and insects, which would have 

 aided in the fertilisation of these gaily-coloured flowers. The 

 researches of Dr. Hermann Miiller have shown us by what 



