FERTILIZATION OF FLOWERS BY INSECTS. 289 
protuberances, and in the long antennæ, would quite closely re- 
semble the Phryganeide of to-day. The posterity of this stock 
separated into two parts. One of these continuing to live either 
in, or near the water, diverged little from the primitive cus- 
toms, habits and forms, and came to constitute the group of Phry- 
ganeidæ. The other accustomed itself to suck the honey of flow- 
ers, withdrew itself little by little from the water, and, finding 
its new diet entirely acceptable, adapted itself to it completely, 
modifying the buccal organs, step by step, by successive variations 
always more convenient and more in harmony with its new mode 
of life, until in this way it gradually acquired a proboscis suffi- 
ciently long and dexterous to suck honey. It moreover, greatly 
developed its esthetic sense of colors, at first in correspondence 
with the lively coloring of the flowers, and then in reference to 
sexual election. As soon as the hairy system of wings and 
y began to vary, which can happen the more easily the 
greater the surface of the hairs themselves becomes, until their 
complete conversion into variously tinted scales, the females 
would prefer those males which were adorned with the liveliest 
colors, and, vice versa, the males would select the most brilliantly 
adorned females.* 
* The relations of one and odors which occur between flowers np Pesala fertilizers, 
may to many appear a chimerical product of the imagination. But a along series 
of vi aioe I m sleet that; however unexpected and Marlee they may be, 
ey a 4 
It is creat by many | that tł theti bel oth- 
ing is more oegi Toe MENE seg music ic alone, however much it has clay and 
perfected in th 
the senses of taste and smell man is, ioe a sii ingular coincidence, like bees and but- 
rflies. Sweet things please our young not less,than bees, and the ancient poets des 
ignated with the same word, non s the food o f the gods and the honey of bees. By 
1 butterflies allure us too, 
and those which repel us repel bees. The greveolent flower of rue, which is so exces- 
‘sively disagreeable s us, although visited by flies, repels bees and Lepidoptera al- 
pastel it produces honey. 
As to the æ tol sense of Pci and form, then, if we speak the plain truth, man 
is inferior to many living thin; 
Passing in review the most beautiful rege ond those adorned with the most attrac- 
tive colors, weh their fertilizers, that is, birds, 
flies, humming birds, Nectarine, lepidoptera, Bombylii, Syrphida and — 1 
The most beautiful forms and b 
the humming birds. They visit the paster t splendid and beautiful $ flowers on the 
pein and the reason why moan atesearemt rs of the tropical zone do not enter our 
limate is certainly correlative da an aaa Ae exclude from temperate and cold 
countries the humming birds and gorgeous lepidoptera which are peculiar to warm 
regions. 
But not all flowers are beautiful; there are some which have livid and repulsive 
