Insects and Flowers 



gardeners know to their cost. The same may 

 said of the pimpernels. In this connection it 

 is important to bear in mind that the anemo- 

 philous, or wind-fertilised, angiosperms, as, for 

 example, the grasses, are believed to be de- 

 scendants of insect-fertilised or entomophilous 

 forms. 



A weighty objection to the theory that the 

 colours of flowers have been developed because 

 they attract insects has been urged by Mr E. 

 Kay Robinson, namely, that among wild flowers 

 the most highly coloured ones are the least 

 attractive to insects. 



"Show me," writes he, on page 222 of The 

 Country-Side for March 20, 1909, "the insect- 

 collector who will seek for specimens among the 

 brilliant scarlet poppies. Of what use is the 

 dog rose, with its large discs of pinky-white, 

 to him ? On the other hand, does he not find 

 that by far the most attractive flowers are the 

 almost invisible spurge laurel blossoms in 

 February and March, the fuzzy sallow catkins 

 in March and April, the bramble blossom in 

 midsummer, and the ivy's small green flowers 

 in autumn ? Of these only the bramble has any 

 pretensions to colour, and if you try, as I have 

 tried, the experiment of picking off every petal 

 from sprays of bramble blossoms you will find 

 that its attraction to moths does not appear 

 diminished. 



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