546 • KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 
BOTANY. 
INSECTS AND COLORED FLOWERS. 
REV. L. J. TEMPLIN. 
In the Popular Science Monthly, Vol. XIV, pp. 529-30, is a short letter 
written by Thomas D. Lilly, of Virginia, in which he details some observations 
in regard to the influence of color in flowers in attracting insects to them. He 
speaks particularly of petunias and morning-glories. He says: ''In every va- 
riety of situation and circumstance the white petunias have been neglected for 
the colored, in exact proportion to the intensity and vividness of color; and the 
same is found to be true, in a less degree, as regards the deep and pale 
morning-glories." The conclusion at which he arrives is that it is the color, and 
that only, that determines the visits of bees and butterflies to these flowers, for 
he states that, — " If there was any difl'erence whatever in the sweetness or frag- 
rance, it was in favor of the rejected white flowers." If these statements are to 
be accepted, the conclusion is, or the conclusion the writer would have us 
draw is that in their visits to flowers, insects are guided neither by their 
sense of smell nor by their past experience as to the sweetest flowers, but 
wholly by their sense of sight;' and that is guided and controlled, neither by 
the shape nor size of flowers, but entirely by the brilliancy of color. This 
seems to be but a limited statement of the views held by evolutionists in gen- 
eral as to the influence of color on the perpetuation and dispersion of both 
plants and animals. We are told that the brilliancy of color in both birds 
and insects is the accumulated results of the sesthetic taste in them that leads to 
the selection of the highly colored ones of their own species as mates to the 
neglect and rejection of those less favored in the beauty of their adornment. 
Mr. Grant Allen, speaking of this in butterflies, attributes it to a real enjoyment 
that they derive from the contemplation of beautiful colors. In " The Evolu- 
tionist at Large," he says: "It is sufficient to believe that the insect derives 
some direct enjoyment from the stimulation of pure color, and is hereditarily 
attracted by it wherever it may show itself. This pleasure draws it on, on the 
one hand, toward the gay flowers that form its natural food, and on the other 
hand, towards its own brilliant mates. * 
As to this last he says : " But out of two or three such possible mates it 
naturally selects that which is most brightly spotted, and in other ways most per- 
fectly fulfills the specific ideal." But notwithstanding the pleasureable sensa- 
tions that prompt it to seek the brilliantly colored flowers the butterfly, is all un- 
conscious of any such influence, for according to this savant it is all unconscious 
of any such influence whatever, and is moved only by a bhnd impulse over 
