in.] THE FERTILISATION OF FLOWERS. 37 



efficiency of their mechanism. First, it is necessary 

 that carrying agents should be employed to convey 

 the pollen ; and we find that of these there are two 

 classes the wind and various insects. These are 

 Flora's carriers, whom she intrusts with a most deli- 

 cate mission, and that they perform it well we may 

 see by the lavish manner in which the fields, the 

 lanes, and woods are adorned with living gems. 



Flowers which are fertilised by the wind are never 

 conspicuously coloured ; and here we find the reason 

 why flowers are brightly coloured. If we observe an 

 organ in any plant or animal which is of no apparent 

 use to it, we may be sure that it has had a use in the 

 past, among the ancestors of the species, for Nature 

 does not provide organs or adornments unnecessarily. 

 However beautiful in appearance may be a flower, 

 we shall find on closer acquaintance that its beauty 

 is not merely to gratify our sense of the beautiful, 

 but to serve a useful purpose in the economy of 

 Nature, and with special reference to the species 

 possessing it. Thus there is not a single wind- 

 fertilised * flower that is highly coloured, because its 

 colouring would be unnecessary ; on the contrary, 

 nearly all insect-fertilised f flowers are brightly and 

 conspicuously coloured. Taken in conjunction with 

 other facts which we shall adduce, the reason for this 

 is sufficiently obvious the bright hues are to attract 

 insects to the flower. Again, wind-fertilised flowers 

 produce vast quantities of pollen ; insect-fertilised 

 flowers produce very little. In the first case, the 

 pollen being carried, as in the fir, from tree to tree, 



* Anemophilous. t Entomopkilous. 



