188 



COLOURS OF FLOWERS AS A MEANS OF ATTRACTING ANIMALS. 



that inflorescences whose individual parts only measure a few millimetres may be 

 plainly seen at a distance of many hundred paces. Fig. 253 is an illustration 

 taken from nature of the Haastias (Haastia pulvinaris and Sinclairii), composites 

 which grow in New Zealand on mountains of 1200 to 2000 metres in height, and 

 are a good example of the above. The innumerable flower-heads of this plant are 

 crowded together into hemispherical masses which reach a height of half a metre 

 with the diameter of a metre. Both the scaly envelopes and the flowers are 

 coloured white, and since these Haastias grow on rocky heights upon a background 



Fig. 253. — Two New Zealand Haastias (Haastia pulvinaris and Siiiclairii^ the latter species in front) called "vegetable 



sheep " by the English colonists in New Zealand. 



of dark earth and stone they stand out conspicuously from their surroundings. 

 The colonists name these plants "vegetable sheep", often mistaking them, so it is 

 said, for fugitives from their flocks, and take long journeys in order to bring them 

 back, only discovering the true state of the case to their great annoyance when 

 close at hand. 



The bracts of many species of Lavender and Sage {Lavandula pedunculata, 

 Stoechas, Salvia viridis, &c.), growing in the floral region of the Mediterranean, 

 become sources of allurement in a very strange manner. Those which grow 

 beneath the bunches of flowers on the lower half of the spike are insignificant, but 

 at the top, where the flowers are not developed, the bracts are enlarged, brilliantly 

 coloured, and crowded into tufts, resembling the white or red flowers used a8 



