310 PLANT-LIFE 



The term " entomophilous " (Gr. entomon, insect) is 

 applied to flowers pollinated by the agency of insects. 

 A large, closely printed volume might easily be packed 

 with an account of what is known in relation to insect 

 pollination, and the many curious developments in 

 flowers in respect of it, so that any review we now 

 make of the subject cannot be regarded as comprehen- 

 sive. Perhaps nine-tenths of the world's species of 

 flowering plants are pollinated by insects. 



Granting that the first flowers were wind-pollinated 

 and consequently had no need to be attractive to sense 

 of sight or taste, it becomes interesting to speculate on 

 the transition from anemophilly to entomophilly. Of 

 the general mass of primitive anemophilous plants, some 

 were probably well adapted to their particular mode of 

 pollination, and of such the existing species of wind- 

 pollinated plants may well be the survivors, thoroughly 

 confirmed in their habit, wasteful as it is in the matter 

 of pollen. But we may imagine that among the primi- 

 tive mass of flowers there were very many ill-adapted 

 to the risks of anemophilly, yet displaying tendencies 

 towards a better way. We may even suppose that 

 these were not fixed species, but unsettled variations, of 

 what may be termed " tentative experimental types." 

 A flower which failed to produce sufficient pollen to 

 ensure wind-pollination, and hence was threatened with 

 extinction, may have turned a threatened disaster into 

 a pronounced success by the chance production of a 

 coloured floral leaf. The colour would prove attractive 

 to insects which, in visiting the flower, perhaps in 

 curiosity, or may be in hope of some trophy, would 

 become dusted with pollen, and afterwards convey it to 



