i88 3 .1 
Flowers and Insects . 
219 
the calyx and corolla, which in the entomophilous plants are 
the seat of colour, are wanting. Hence in popular language 
they are said to have no flowers. To this day many people 
laugh if we speak of the flowers of an oak, an ash, or 
a fir. 
We next notice — as it has been proved by Sir John 
Lubbock in numerous and elaborate experiments — that 
inserts, and especially bees, possess a sense for colour, and 
not only distinguish one hue from another, but have their 
preferences. That they have a delicacy and a discrimination 
of scent far surpassing that of the bloodhound needs no 
demonstration. It appears, further, that powerful odours 
and brilliant colours are very rarely combined, but seem 
mutually to substitute each other. Hence the conclusion is 
drawn that both the colours and the odours of flowers serve 
to attract insects, and thus to ensure fecundation. The 
more bright and conspicuous a flower the more readily it is 
seen by bees and butterflies, and the more likely it is to be 
visited. Hence a number of the peculiarities of the vege- 
table world become intelligible which would otherwise be 
unmeaning. The cowslip, as Mr. Grant Allen has recently 
pointed out, carries its flowers on a stiff and relatively tall 
stem, because it grows on level ground. The primrose, with 
its slender drooping stem, prefers the slopes of banks and 
hillocks, and has a larger and brighter flower. Our ordinary 
heaths and wild thyme have exceedingly small flowers, and 
form a low carpet over the ground ; but they grow where 
they are not overshadowed by trees or bushes, and their 
individual blossoms are so numerous and closely-set together 
that they cannot easily be overlooked. The foxglove haunts 
the woods, the coppices, and the sides and interstices of 
rocks ; hence to be visible it requires a tall stem and fairly- 
sized richly-coloured blossoms. The poppy, like the cowslip 
and the primrose, is an inhabitant of the fields ; but it 
flowers not in early spring, but when the grass and corn 
have grown high enough to hide any lowly plant : hence we 
see its intense scarlet cup supported by a moderately tall 
stem. 
In our northern regions few large trees bear conspicuous 
flowers, and in accordance with this circumstance we see the 
bees, the butterflies, and the moths skimming and fluttering 
at a moderate height. In tropical forests all below is often 
poor alike in animal and vegetable life, whilst huge and 
brilliant flowers are basking in the sunshine high overhead, 
and there accordingly such magnificent forms as the Papilios 
and Ornithopteras keep them company. 
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