Then they must "advertise" their stores, and the
strong perfumes and bright colours begin to develop, and ensure
posterity to their possessors. The shape of the corolla will be
altered in hundreds of ways, to accommodate and attract the
useful visitor and shut out the mere robber. These utilities,
together with the various modifying agencies of different
environments, are generally believed to have led to the
bewildering variety and great beauty of our floral world.
It is proper to add that this view has been sharply challenged by
a number of recent writers. It is questioned if colours and
scents do attract insects; though several recent series of
experiments seem to show that bees are certainly attracted by
colours. It is questioned if cross-fertilisation has really the
importance ascribed to it since the days of Darwin. Some of these
writers believe that the colours and the peculiar shape which the
petals take in some flowers (orchises, for instance) have been
evolved to deter browsing animals from eating them. The theory is
thus only a different application of natural selection; Professor
Henslow, on the other hand, stands alone in denying the
selection, and believing that the insects directly developed the
scents, honeys, colours, and shapes by mechanical irritation.
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