INSECTS AND FLOWERS 
In a recent communication made to the Royal Academy of Belgium, M. Féiix 
PLaTEAU has occupied himself with the artificial fecundation of flowers by insects, and 
' more specially, of the way in which insects are attracted by the flowers, which sometimes 
would not be fertilized without their help, as is the case with Orchids. 
The experiences made by M. Piateau have lead him to adopt the following 
conclusions : 
The form of the flower or inflorescence has no influence, or at any rate a very 
secondary influence, with regard to the attraction of insects by plants. 
Nothing proves that insects distinguish colours in the same way as the human eye. 
The sense of smelling is often extremely developed in certain animals. Many of 
them are almost entirely guided by this sense in their search for food, and they per- 
ceive smells which do not effect the human olfactory organ. 
Neither the form nor the bright colours of the flowers seem to have any influence 
whatever on insects; they visit the inflorescences which are not mutilated, but which 
are hidden by green leaves. So that insects do not seek flowers for the form and colo- 
ration our eyes appreciate, but appear to be guided towards them by some other sense 
than that of seeing. : 
“TU 
cos 
