252 UTILITARIAN DOCTRINE, HOW FAR TRUE: 



rendered conspicuous in contrast with the green leaves, 

 and in consequence at the same time beautiful, so that 

 they may be easily observed by insects. I have come 

 to this conclusion from finding it an invariable rule that 

 when a flower is fertilised by the wind it never has a 

 gaily-coloured corolla. Several plants habitually pro- 

 duce two kinds of flowers; one kind open and coloured 

 so as to attract insects; the other closed, not coloured, 

 destitute of nectar, and never visited by insects. Hence 

 we may conclude that, if insects had not been developed 

 on the face of the earth, our plants would not have 

 been decked with beautiful flowers, but would have pro- 

 duced only such poor flowers as we see on our fir, oak, 

 nut and ash trees, on grasses, spinach, docks, and net- 

 tles, which are all fertilised through the agency of the 

 wind. A similar line of argument holds good with 

 fruits; that a ripe strawberry or cherry is as pleasing to 

 the eye as to the palate, — that the gaily-coloured fruit of 

 the spindle-wood tree and the scarlet berries of the 

 holly are beautiful objects, — will be admitted by every 

 one. But this beauty serves merely as a guide to birds 

 and beasts, in order that the fruit may be devoured 

 and the matured seeds disseminated: I infer that this is 

 the case from having as yet fox(nd no exception to the 

 rijle that seeds are always thus disseminated when 

 embedded within a fruit of any kind (that is within 

 a fleshy or pulpy envelope), if it be coloured of any 

 brilliant tint, or rendered conspicuous by being white or 

 black. 



On the other hand, I willingly admit that a great 

 number of male animals, as all our most gorgeous birds, 

 some fishes, reptiles, and mammals, and a host of mag- 

 nificently coloured butterflies, have been rendered 



