The Golden Rule for Flowers 225 



guage, and show to some considerable extent what 

 kind of insects are wanted for the blossoms which 

 display them. 



White, for instance, serves to attract insects of all 

 sorts ; but bright yellow seems to be especially favoured 

 by beetles, and blue by bees, though they do not, of 

 course, confine themselves to flowers of this or any 

 colour. What a flower lacks in colour may often be 

 more than made up for by its sweet scent and abound- 

 ing nectar. The dull pink sedum, for instance, which 

 blossoms in the autumn, attracts a swarm of humble- 

 bees and butterflies ; though, as its flowers are flat and 

 tubeless, the nectar is open to all comers, and bees are 

 not necessary to it. 



Yellow is said to attract insects of the lowliest kind ; 

 white, those a little higher in the scale ; and pink, red, 

 lilac, purple, blue, rank higher and higher as to the 

 insects which they attract, that very superior insect, 

 the bee, being, as already said, especially pleased with 

 blue. 



It is the fashion at present to say that the bright 

 colours and sweet scents of flowers exist solely for the 

 plant's own benefit, as the means of drawing to it 

 the insects which carry pollen from one blossom to 

 another. Nevertheless, man is gratified abundantly; 

 and if this theory be correct, he may at least congra- 

 tulate himself on the fact that he and the insect- 

 world are of one mind as to what is agreeable and 

 attractive. 



But are he and they altogether of one mind ? The 

 butterfly will hover about a lavender-bush, attracted by 

 the perfume, and so far man shares its taste; but it 

 will also go and drink daintily at a drain, and, for any* 



15 



