Variation and Natural Selection. 93 



unfit, but the selection of the fit. Such a case may be 

 found on Darwin's principles in brightly coloured flowers 

 and fruits. " Flowers," he says, "rank amongst the most 

 beautiful productions of nature ; but they have been 

 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 fertilized by the wind, it never has a gaily 

 coloured corolla. Several plants habitually produce 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 con- 

 clude 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 produced only such poor 

 flowers as we see on our fir, oak, nut, and ash trees, on 

 grasses, spinach, docks, and nettles, which are all fertilized 

 through the agency of the wind. A similar line of argu- 

 ment 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 manured seeds disseminated : I infer that this is the 

 case from having as yet found no exception to the rule 

 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." * 



Here we have a case of the converse of elimination — a 

 case of genuine selection under nature. But even here the 

 process of elimination also comes into play, for the visita- 

 tions of flowers by insects involve cross-fertilization. The 

 flowers of two distinct individuals of the same species of 

 plants in this manner fertilize each other ; and the act of 



* " Origin of Species," p. 161. 



