GENERAL ADAPTATIONS 



O '> o 



ter of fact are so fertilised. IT. Miillcr grouped those lliroe 

 species together, as the same insects visit them all, and lie 

 found that thej were attractive to no less than sixty diilerent 

 species, including 23 flies, 11 beetles, 2-1 bees, wasps, etc., and 

 5 butterflies. 



Any readers who are not satisfied with Darwin's own state- 

 ments on this subject should examine :\Iiill(M''s Fcrtili-atinn 

 of Elowers (translated by D'Arcy W. Thonii)son), in whirh 

 details are given of the fertilisation of abuut 100 species of 

 alpine plants by insects, while a General "Retrospect gives a 

 most valuable summary of the conclusions and teadiings on 

 the whole subject. As regards the general question of the u^^ 

 and purposes of colour in nature the late Grant Allen's inter- 

 esting and philosophical work on The Colour Sense >hnuld bo 

 studied. Any one who does so will be satisfied of the general 

 truth of Darwin's doctrines though there are a few errors in 

 the details. As an example of the fascinatinjr stvle of the 

 book I will quote the following paragraph comparing insect- 

 agency with that of man in modifving and beautit'vinfr the 

 face of nature. After describing the great alterations man 

 has made, and the large areas he has modified for his own 

 purposes, the author thus proceeds : 



"But all these alterations are mere surface scratches coniparod 

 with the immense revolution wrought in the features of nature l\v 

 the unobtrusive insect. Half the flora of tlie earth has taken the 

 imprint of his likes and his necessities. While man has only tilK'd 

 a few level plains, a few great river-valleys, a few peninsular moun- 

 tain slopes, leaving the vast mass of earth unloudied hy liis hand, 

 the insect has spread himself over every land in a thousand sliapes, 

 and has made the whole flowering creation sul)servient to liis daily 

 wants. His buttercup, his dandelion, and his meadow-sweet grow- 

 thick in every English field. TTis thyme elothes the hill-side: his 

 heather purples the bleak grey moorland. HiLrh up among the 

 Alpine heights his gentian spreads itsi'lf in lakes of blue: amid 

 the snows of the Himalayas his rhododendrons gleam with crimson 

 light. The insect has thus turned the whole surface of the eartli 



