Whichever plants made the most show of color would the sooner catch the eye of insects, however dim their perception of the difference in colors might be, and would thus get fertilized before plants which made less display. Thus have insects been the main cause in the propagation of flowering plants; the plants in return developing the color-sense in insects. The flower nourishes the insect, the insect propagates the flower. Other contrivances to meet the need for fertilization might be cited, as the markings upon the petals to guide the insect to the nectary; the exhalation of scent by inconspicuous flowers, or by such as would attract visitors at night, and so forth; but enough has been adduced to show what is the chief, if not the sole, function discharged by flowers--the attraction of insects to aid in securing cross-fertilization. Nor does the provision stop here. The fertilized seed is not left to chance, but, like the fertilizing pollen, is intrusted to secondary agents, to the care of the birds and the breezes. Where not scattered by the bursting of the ovary it is winged with gossamer shafts, as in the dandelion, and carried by the wind, floated on gentlest zephyr or rushing storm to a genial soil. Such wind-wafted seeds, like wind-fertilized flowers, are rarely colored; neither are the seeds of the larger trees, since their abundance ensures notice by food-seeking animals; nor the nuts, which are protected by shelly coats. But other seeds inwrap themselves in sweet pulpy masses, called fruits, whose skins brighten as they ripen, and attract the eye of fruit-loving birds and beasts. The seeds pass through their stomachs undigested, and are scattered by them in their flight over wide areas. As with the brightest-hued and sweetest-scented flowers, so it is with the brightest and juiciest fruits; they sooner attract the visitor whose services they need, and thus gain advantage over less-favored members of their species, developing by the selective action of their devourers into the finest and pulpiest kinds. PLANT GEOGRAPHY --LOUIS FIGUIER We can distinguish in Europe three great botanical regions. 1. The region of the North; 2. The Middle region; and 3. The region of the South, or Mediterranean.