406 Darwin, and after Darwin. 



beauty of flowers, sea-anemones, corals, and so forth, 

 cannot possibly be ascribed to sexual selection. 



Now, with regard to this difficulty, we must begin 

 by excluding the case of the vegetable kingdom as 

 irrelevant. For it has been rendered highly probable 

 if not actually proved by Darwin and others, that the 

 beauty of flowers and of fruits is in large part due to 

 natural selection. It is to the advantage of flowering 

 plants that their organs of fructification should be 

 rendered conspicuous and in many cases also 

 odoriferous, in order to attract the insects on which 

 the process of fertilization depends. Similarly, it is 

 to the advantage of all plants which have brightly 

 coloured fruits that these should be conspicuous for 

 the purpose of attracting birds, which eat the fruits and 

 so disseminate the seed. Hence all the gay colours 

 and varied forms, both of flowers and fruits, have been 

 thus adequately explained as due to natural causes, 

 working for the welfare, as distinguished from the 

 beauty, of the plants. For even the distribution of 

 colours on flowers, or the beautiful patterns which so 

 many of them present, are found to be useful in guiding 

 insects to the organs of fructification. 



Again, the green colouring of leaves, which lends 

 so much beauty to the vegetable world, has likewise 

 been shown to be of vital importance to the physiology 

 of plant-life ; and, therefore, may also be ascribed to 

 natural selection. Thus, there remains only the forms 

 of plants other than the flowers. But the forms of 

 leaves have also in many cases been shown to be 

 governed by principles of utility ; and the same is to 

 be said of the branching structure which is so 

 characteristic of trees and shrubs, since this is the 



