RELATION BETWEEN PLANTS AND INSECTS. 17 



Fritz M tiller, and above all Hermann Miiller and Darwin 

 himself. The general result is that to insects, and 

 especially to bees, we owe the beauty of our gardens, 

 the sweetness of our fields. To their beneficent, though 

 unconscious action, flowers owe their scent and colour, 

 their honey nay, in many cases, even their form. 

 Their present shape and varied arrangements, their 

 brilliant colours, their honey, and their sweet scent are 

 all due to the selection exercised by insects. 



In these cases the relation between plants and 

 insects is one of mutual advantage. In many species, 

 however, plants present us with complex arrangements 

 adapted to protect them from insects ; such, for in- 

 stance, are in many cases the resinous glands which 

 render leaves unpalatable ; the thickets of hairs and 

 other precautions which prevent flowers from being 

 robbed of their honey by ants. Again, more than a 

 century ago, our countryman, Ellis, described an 

 American plant, Dionsea, in which the leaves are 

 somewhat concave, with long lateral spines, and a joint 

 in the middle, which closes up with a jerk, like a rat- 

 trap, the moment any unwary insect alights on them. 

 The plant, in fact, actually captures and devours in- 

 sects. This observation also remained as an isolated 

 fact until within the last few years, when Darwin, 

 Hooker, and others have shown that many other 

 species have curious and very varied contrivances for 

 supplying themselves with animal food. 



As regards the progress of botany in other directions, 

 Mr. Thiselton Dyer has been kind enough to assist me 

 in endeavouring to place the principal facts before you. 

 Some of the most fascinating branches of botany 



c 



