OF ORN AMENTA TION. 219 



verse bands ; these bands, in breaking up, gave 

 rise to dark- veined or to spotted wings, which 

 served as the basis for all the variegated patterns 

 of the present day, including ocelli, which are 

 only specialized forms of simple interspacial 

 spots. 



This discussion leads naturally to the consider- 

 ation of the intimate connection between the 

 color-patterns and the frame- work of the wings in 

 Lepidoptera ; this relation, indeed, must be con- 

 sidered one of the most important features in 

 the topography of the wings, if I may use the ex- 

 pression. It is seen with the first appearance of 

 ornamentation, in the wavy outline of the trans- 

 verse bands, each wave corresponding to the posi- 

 tion of the adjacent veins. It is still more con- 

 spicuous when these bands break up into bars or 

 spots. But its full force is shown when the pat- 

 terns become, most complicated, where, indeed, 

 we should naturally expect that ornamentation 

 would be least restrained by such limitations. 

 The rod-like veins of the wing are often com- 

 pletely concealed beneath the downy covering of 

 scales, and yet there is scarcely a spot in the wing 

 of any butterfly whose precise position is not 

 fixed by the nearest veins. This, however, is a 

 very imperfect statement of the facts ; to con- 

 sider them fairly we must recall the general struc- 

 ture of the wings in butterflies. These consist, 



