86 VIGNETTES FROM NATURE. 



are streaked with dainty darker or lighter 

 lines, which guide the friendly visitor straight 

 to the honey-glands. That, put briefly, is 

 why the veronica is blue and delicately 

 veined. 



The reason why we consider these colours, 

 meant to attract the insect, as pretty, seems 

 to me equally obvious. We are the descend- 

 ants of ancient arboreal ancestors, who them- 

 selves sought their food among bright orange 

 and blue and crimson fruits in tropical forests ; 

 and those fruits were specially coloured to 

 allure their eyes, just as the speedwells and 

 primroses and buttercups are specially coloured 

 to allure the eyes of bee or butterfly. And 

 further, as the eyes of the bees are so 

 developed that these colours attract them, the 

 eyes of our pre-human ancestors must have 

 been so developed as to be attracted by the 

 similar colours of oranges and mangoes, 

 and tertiary plums or peaches. Flowers 

 and fruits alike depend upon animals for 

 fertilisation or dispersion ; and alike possess 



