The Making of Species 
and it is quite clear that the scent is not useful 
in attracting insects. If, therefore, you adopt the 
insect theory to explain the scents of flowers, you 
must invent entirely new theories to explain the 
scents of fruits and leaves.” 
It is thus evident that the ordinarily accepted 
explanation of the colours, scents, and markings 
of flowers is far from satisfactory. 
Mr E. Kay Robinson has put forth in recent 
issues of Zhe Country-Side (March 20, 27, and 
April 3, 1909) quite a new explanation of the 
phenomena, and one which deserves careful con- 
sideration. He maintains that “the real, primary, 
and original meaning of the colours, markings, 
nectar and scents of flowers is not to attract 
insects, but to deter grazing and browsing 
animals.” 
“I say,” he writes, “that grazing and browsing 
animals avoid eating conspicuous flowers. I have 
watched a flock of five hundred sheep pass across 
a yard-wide strip of close-nibbled turf on the 
Norfolk coast, grazing as they passed, and the 
number of open daisy blossoms after they had 
passed seemed the same as before they came. 
Every one of five hundred sheep had eaten some- 
thing from that yard of grass, and not one had 
eaten any of the hundred and thirty odd daisies. 
“Every summer the farm horses are turned 
into the same old pasture, and as the summer 
wanes the field always presents the same appear- 
266 
