46 Woodside. 



made its selection by sight it would have to be conceded that 

 it was a better hand at the business than a trained botanist. 

 Probably the butterfly only emerged from the chrysalis this 

 morning, or at the earliest yesterday ; how then has it at- 

 tained this degree of skill and perfection in so short a time ? 

 Its sense of sight we believe to be very imperfect, and we do 

 not consider it possible that the insect selects the plant by its 

 aid. But on the under side of its antennae are a vast number 

 of tiny pits from which nerve fibres pass to that part of the 

 insect's nervous system which we believe to be in some de- 

 gree analogous to the olfactory lobes of the higher animals, 

 and we are at present inclined to consider that the selection 

 is made by the sense of smell, if made by means of any sense 

 of which we are cognisant. 



Now let us turn our thoughts to a few of the most highly 

 scented flowers. We have already seen how simple and in- 

 conspicuous are those of mignonette. How readily they 

 might be overlooked if not made so attractive by their 

 delicious perfume. The violet also has to be sought if 

 we wish to find it, and so have many others of our richly 

 scented species. These are only selected as examples, but 

 very many of our most inconspicuous flowers are strongly 

 scented. Not, indeed, that their scent is always agreeable to 

 our senses ; on the contrary, it is often far from pleasing ; 

 but the fact remains that most showy flowers are, as a rule, 

 less distinctly scented, frequently also less richly supplied 

 with honey, yet what rich store of the latter do the incon- 

 spicuous flowers of sallow, ivy and holly contain. 



It has been agreed by botanists that, to a large extent at 

 any rate, the highly ornamental corolla has been developed to 

 form an attraction to insects, so that the most important 



