Guests, Welcome and Unwelcome 



197 



strength"; and the butterfly must be bhnd indeed which 

 could fail to notice these masses of brilliant color. 



For the chief flower-visitors in these Alpine regions are 

 moths and butterflies, together with flies and beetles; and 

 it is curious to see how flowers which are visited by bees 

 in the plains and lower mountain-regions are modified tu 

 suit moths or butterflies when they come up higher. 



Of the many orchids, for instance, which grow in the 

 plains, all but very few — four or five, perhaps — are visited 

 by bees; but in the Alps, out of five species, all but one 

 or two are dependent upon butterflies or moths. 



Flowers change in color when they migrate to these 

 higher regions, on purpose to attract more notice. Our 

 pale yellow primrose is fertilized almost entirely by moths, 

 but it might be overlooked among the bright flowers of the 

 Alps if it did not dress more gayly there, so it wears bril- 

 liant pink and magenta. The wild pinks also, which 

 straggle about here and there in the lowlands, sure not to 

 escape notice among the many visitors constantly flitting 

 to and fro, here take the precaution of growing larger 

 blossoms, besides massing themselves together in such a 

 way as to catch the eye of any wandering insect. 



Large masses, large blossoms, brilliant colors — these 

 are the means by which the fewer insects of the high Alps 

 are guided without loss of time to the place where they 

 are wanted; and flowers which might never be found out 

 if they grew separately are insured against neglect by 

 thus growing in company. 



But many and beautiful as are the moths and butter- 

 flies of the mountains, one must go to the tropics to see 

 them in their full glory of numbers, size, and coloring. 



Of all parts of the world, South America is richest in 



