no question, however, that the relative proportion of the 

 several varieties of insects in the Alps is very different from 

 that in the plains. There are comparatively few flies, bees, 

 and wasps, but numerous humble-bees, butterflies, and 

 moths in the mountain regions. These insects have longer 

 tongues and prefer to visit flowers of a more complicated 

 structure, where the honey cannot be reached by their 

 shorter tongued relatives. Flowers of this sort with less 

 easily obtained honey are more often of a red or blue or 

 pink colour, and more rarely of a yellow tint. Not a few 

 Alpine flowers like the Aconites (Plates 3 and 4) are entirely 

 dependent on humble-bees for their fertilisation, and an 

 even larger number, such as the Long-Spurred Pansy (Plate 

 5), and several of the Gentians are exclusively visited by 

 butterflies and moths. Mliller even goes so far as to suggest 

 that not a few of the Alpine flowers, especially those of a 

 pale crimson colour and with a clove-like smell, such as the 

 Pinks (Plate 9), have been evolved in the Alps under the 

 influence of butterflies and moths. In spite of this it is 

 curious to note that the number of flowers that are habitually 

 self-fertilised is greater in the Alps than in the plains. But 

 when it is explained that these are for the most part of the 

 same type of flower that is pollinated by flies, bees, and 

 wasps in lowland districts the apparent anomaly becomes 

 clear. 



The question of the origin of the Alpine flora is a 

 subject upon which botanists are by no means completely 



1 xxi 



