82 THE FERTILISATION OF THE LARCH. 



delicate cones — the principle that determines the bright color- 

 ation of wasps and other unpalatable insects. But whether we 

 have in the female cones of larch an instance of vegetable 

 mimicry or not, it would on this view appear that conspicuous 

 colours may occur in association with wind-fertilisation, and that 

 we must not, therefore, in every case ascribe the colour of flowers 

 to the selective agency of insects. The coloured bracts of the 

 larch cone, even if they have no relation to animals at all, at least 

 suggest a possible origin of the colours of flowers, colours which 

 in all probability owe their modification to natural variation and 

 the selection exercised by insects in past time. 



