RED CAMPION AND WHITE. 



25 



which fly at night, and which have sight not 

 adapted to the perception of colour. Mr. B. 

 T. Lowne has made some interesting micro- 

 scopical studies of insects' eyes, and has 

 shown that the eyes of moths correspond to 

 those of owls among birds, in the absence of 

 certain nervous elements supposed to be the 

 organs of the colour sense ; while the eyes of 

 bees and butterflies correspond to those of 

 day birds in the presence of such organs. 

 In fact, it is clear that a colour sense v/ould 

 be of little use to nocturnal or crepuscular 

 animals, because the amount of light in the 

 evening is seldom sufficient to show up the 

 distinctive colours of different objects. 



Hence almost all the flowers which appeal 

 specially to the moths are either white or 

 pale yellow — good reflectors in the twilight 

 or moonlight — and they are invariably 

 scented, sometimes very strongly. Many of 

 these white and perfumed night blossoms are 

 great favourites in our gardens and conser- 

 vatories — for example, jasmine, stephanotis, 



