THE COLOURS OF FLOWERS. 



fertilisation by means of insects. The first class are 

 said to possess anemophilous, the second class 

 entomophilous, flowers. 1 It is with the latter alone 

 that we have here mainly to deal. 



Entomophilous or insect-fertilised flowers are those 

 in which the pollen is habitually carried from the 

 stamens of one blossom to the pistil of the next on 

 the head or legs of butterflies, bees, beetles, or other 

 flying arthropods. In order to allure these insects, 

 and to induce them to visit one flower after another 

 of the same kind, the plants have often developed 

 small quantities of honey in the neighbourhood of 

 the essential organs, as well as specially coloured 

 floral leaves known as petals. Accordingly, a fully 

 evolved entomophilous blossom usually consists of 

 the four following whorls, or sets of parts, beginning 

 from within outward. First, in the very centre, the 

 pistil, or carpellary whorl, consisting of one or more 

 carpels or ovaries, each containing one or more embryo 

 seeds. Secondly, outside the pistil, the staminal 

 whorl, consisting of one or more pollen-bearing 

 stamens, usually three or six in the great class of 

 Monocotyledons, and five or ten in the great class 

 of Dicotyledons. Thirdly, outside the stamens, the 

 corolla or petaline whorl, consisting of several separate 

 or united petals, usually three in the Monocotyledons 

 and five in the Dicotyledons. Fourthly, outside the 

 corolla, the calyx or sepaline whorl, consisting of 

 several separate or united sepals, usually the same in 

 number as the petals. The position and arrangement 



1 For further particulars see Sir John Lubbock's work on British 

 Wild Flowers in Relation to Insects, in the Nature Series. 



