THE WELCOME OF THE FLOWERS 



395 



noted that scarlet flowers abound in those countries where humming-birds 

 are found. Crepuscular and night-flying insects are most affected by white- 

 and pale yellow, a circumstance easily accounted for, since the deeper- 

 coloured flowers become invisible when twilight falls. 



Flies and beetles which frequent dung-heaps and offal are drawn to- 

 greenish yellow or brownish yellow flowers, like the Parsley and Ivy, 

 the Aralia and 

 Sumach; and 

 " this phenome- 

 non has been 

 explained by the 

 similarity of the 

 colours named 

 with those of the 

 dung-heap and 

 offal generally " 

 (Kerne r). 

 Wasps, which 

 are so partial to 

 decaying fruit, 

 seem to have a 

 predilection for 

 dark brown; 

 whilst carrion- 

 flies are most 

 susceptible to 

 pale fawn-red 

 and dirty violet. 

 the prevailing 

 tints in decaying 

 flesh. Hermann 

 Miilier says of 

 the gigantic 

 Amorphallus ti- 

 tanum, whose 

 spathe is thirty- 

 three inches in 

 diameter, and 

 the bare part of 

 whose floral axis 

 attains a length 

 of six feet, that 

 it "is adapted 



by its dirty 



Photo by} 



FIG. 483. CUCKOO-FLOWER (Cardamine pratensis). 

 Two of the sepals are enlarged at the base to accommodate the nectaries. 



