368 Address of A. R. Wallace at the Glasgow Meeting. 
with the view we are upholding of the important relation be- 
tween the distribution of insects and plants—is well explained 
y the existence of two species of humming birds in Juan 
Fernandez, which, in their visits to these large and showy flow- 
ers fertilize them as effectually as bees, moths, or butterflies, 
r. Moseley informs me that ‘these humming birds are eztra- 
ordinarily abundant, every tree or bush having one or two dart- 
ing about it.” He also observed that ‘“ nearly all the specimens 
killed had the feathers round the base of the bill and front 
of the head clogged and colored yellow with pollen.” Here, 
then, we have the clue to the perpetuation of large and showy 
flowers in Juan Fernandez; while the total absence of humming: 
birds in the Galapagos may explain why no such large-flowered 
plants have been able to establish themselves in those equato- 
rial islands. 
siderable number of flowers are occasionally fertilized by hum- 
ming-birds in North America; so that there can, I think, be 
little doubt that birds play a much more important part in ca 
respect than has hitherto been imagined. It is not improbabe 
that in Tropical America, where this family is so enormously 
developed, many flowers will be found to be expressly adapted 
to fertilization by them just as so many in our own country gi 
specially adapted to the visits of certain families or gener 
insects. 
_ It must also be remembered, as Mr. Moseley has suggested 
me, that a flower which had acquired a brilliant color to alu 
insects might, on transference to another country, and ming 
so modified as to be capable of self-fertilization, he 
colored petals for an indefinite period. Such is probably ¢ h 
explanation of the Pelargonium of Kerguelen’s land, W oe . 
forms masses of bright color near the shore during the flower” 
