What We Owe to Insects.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXV, Issue 1, 3 January 1907, Page 35

What We Owe to Insects.

Professor Darwin said that if it had not been for insects we should never have had any more imposing or . attractive flowers than those of the elm, the hop, and the nettle. Lord Avebury compares the work of the insect to that of the florist: He considers that just as the florist has by selection produced the elegant blossoms of the garden, so the insects, by selecting the largest and brightest blossoms for ' fertili- .

sal/ion, have produced the gay flowers of the field. Professor Plateau, of Ghent, has carried out "a -series of remarkable experiments" on the ways of insects visiting flowers. He considers that they are guidecTby scent rather than by color, and in this contention- he is at variance -with certain British naturalists. • Whatever may be the attractions in flowers to insects— as yet it appears -undefined-Tit is certain that the lattervisit freely all blossoms alike, making ' no distinction between the large, bright-colored ones and •- the less conspicuous blooms like those of the currant, the lime, the plane-tree,- the" nettle, and the willow.