296 Mr Philip Sewell on the [sess. ui. 



insects had never existed on the face of the earth, our plants 

 would never have been decked with beautiful colours," and 

 " the beauty of fruits serves merely as a guide to birds and 

 beasts, in order that the fruit may be devoured and the 

 manured seeds dispersed." Also, Mr Herbert Spencer, whilst 

 recognising rhe fact that " incipient floral colour is found 

 among the Cryptogams, and in all young shoots of spring," 

 adds that this " incipient floral colour would tend to fade 

 away were it not intensified by the action of natural 

 selection." 



That such a colour would pass away, and that the intensi- 

 fying is solely the work of selection, is pretty nearly the 

 opinion of most, I l)elieve; Ijut we may fairly ask, Why 

 shovild such colour tend to fade away ? is it not, a i^riori, just 

 as likely, nay probable, that once having originated, it will 

 of itself tend to increase? 



But leaving this consideration for the moment, let us 

 try to explain what is the nature of selection in the case of 

 colour. 



It is at the present day more than ever demonstrable that 

 certain plants are now so dependent on insects that they 

 cannot live where such are absent, certain individualised 

 flowers having l^ecome so ada})ted to companion insects, that 

 without them they fail to set seed, and in consequence are 

 limited absolutely in their distribution. This being so does 

 not, however, imply that colour in flowers or friiits did not 

 exist in considerable dcvelo])ment before insects and fruit- 

 eating animals existed ; whilst also it is very evident that 

 many flowers and fruits at ])resent existing have attractive 

 colours which no insect nor animal makes use of, or is able 

 to make use of, as a result following from the selection or 

 altered form of the inflorescence or of the flower, or the 

 gi'eater profusion of nectar, or the like. 



In this connection Mr liussel Wallace says, " in flowers 

 colour enables the insect to recognise the species, 1)ut no one 

 has ever asserted that insects im])rove and alter the colour of 

 flowers by their })reference for certain varieties of colour 

 irrespective of IIk; honey aii<l ]»o]]cn inoduced." We are glad 

 to find so definite a statement as this of Mr Wallace, for it 

 is certain that the conception of a natural selection, as similar 

 exactly, though not the same in degree, as the artificial 



