COLOURS OF FLOWERS AS A MEANS OF ATTRACTING ANIMALS. 



189 



trophies by builders to celebrate the completion of a certain stage of their work 

 (c/.%. 252^). 



The plants which have hitherto been selected to illustrate the significance of 

 colour in flowers, whether in the blossoms themselves or in their bracts, exhibit 

 only one tone of colour in contrast 

 with the foliage green; that is to say, 

 the entire flower, the whole inflores- 

 cence, or the complete group of bracts 

 appears from a little distance as 

 simply white, yellow, red, violet, or 

 blue, and stands out conspicuously 

 from the environment on account of 

 one of these colours. It often hap- 

 pens, however, that the colour-con- 

 trast is obtained by the development 

 of several colours in the flowers. In 

 the blossoms of many Willow-herbs 

 (e.g. Epilobium hirsutwni and mon- 

 tanum), the white cross formed by 

 the stigmas appears on a red field; 

 in the Herb Paris (Paris quadri- 

 folia) the bright yellow anthers 

 encircle the large, dark-violet ovaries. 

 In the centre of the flowers of the 

 Borage (Borago oßicinalis) a black 

 cone of anthers rises from a blue star, 

 and a yellow cone of anthers on a 

 violet star in the Bitter-sweet (Sola- 

 num Dulcamara) and in the Potato. 

 In the flowers of the Pheasant's-eye 

 {Adonis flamviea, cestivalis, autum- 

 nalis), the numerous black anthers 

 form a dark centre on a red ground, 

 and a,n orange centre on a blue ground 

 in the Jacob's Ladder (Polemonium 



coeruleum), whilst in the flowers of the Hepatica (Anemone Hepatica) a white 

 centre is seen on a blue ground, and in the flowers of many Mulleins (Verbascum 

 austriacum, nigrum?) occur stamens with violet hairs which contrast with the 

 light yellow corolla and orange anthers. The dark violet petals of Saxifraga 

 biflora surround a centre of golden-yellow, and in the Ice-plant (Mesembry- 

 anthemum crystallinum), so common at the Cape, the yellow centre formed by 

 the crowded anthers is surrounded by a large number of narrow, radiating, red 

 petals. 



Fig. 254.— Colour-contrast in the flowers ot the Bean (Vicia Faba). 

 The wings (alse) of the white papilionaceous corolla are 

 ornamented with large black eye-spots. 



