FLOWERING PLANTS OS THE GREEN LANES. 259 



the often absurd result of men's follies, prejudices, 

 or wickedness are deemed worthy the attention 

 of great intellects, the grander and more harmonious 

 inter-relation of the animal and vegetable kingdoms, 

 their antiquity, and the causes which have led to 

 their present distribution and arrangement, are as 

 much more worthy of investigation as eternal things 

 are above temporal ! 



A new interest has been imported into botany 

 since the first edition of this book was published, by 

 the now established fact that most or all flowers 

 which are brightly coloured or sweetly perfumed 

 are cross-fertilised by insects, especially by butter- 

 flies, moths, and bees ; and that, in the long course 

 of biological evolution, these insects have been the 

 means of giving us flowers. On the contrary, 

 all colourless and scentless flowers, as a rule, are 

 cross-fertilised by the wind, which needs no colour to 

 attract it, or honey to reward it. 



