It must also be remembered, as Mr. Moseley has suggested to me, that a flower which has acquired a brilliant colour to attract insects might, on transference to another country and becoming so modified as to be capable of self-fertilization, retain the coloured petals for an indefinite period. Such is probably the explanation of the Pelargonium of Tristan d’Acunha, which forms masses of bright colour near the shore during the flowering season; while most of the other plants of the island have colourless flowers in accordance with the almost total absence of winged insects. The presence of many large and showy flowers among the indigenous flora of St. Helena must be an example of a similar persistence. Mr. Melliss indeed states it to be “a remarkable peculiarity that the indigenous flowers are, with very slight exceptions, all perfectly colourless;”[53] but although this may apply to the general aspect of the remains of the indigenous flora, it is evidently not the case as regards the _species_, since the interesting plates of Mr. Melliss’s volume show that about one third of the indigenous flowering plants have more or less coloured or conspicuous flowers, while several of them are exceedingly showy and beautiful. Among these are a Lobelia, three Wahlenbergias, several Compositæ, and especially the handsome red flowers of the now almost extinct forest-trees, the ebony and redwood (species of Melhania, Byttneriaceæ). We have every reason to believe, however, that when St. Helena was covered with luxuriant forests, and especially at that remote period when it was much more extensive than it is now, it must have supported a certain number of indigenous birds and insects, which would have aided in the fertilization of these gaily-coloured flowers. The researches of Dr. Hermann Müller have shown us by what minute modifications of structure or of function, many flowers are adapted for partial insect and self-fertilization in various degrees; so that we have no difficulty in understanding how, as the insects diminished and finally disappeared, self-fertilization may have become the rule, while the large and showy corollas remain to tell us plainly of a once different state of things. [53] Melliss’s _St. Helena_, p. 226, note.