The Colour-sense: Its Origin and Development: An Essay in Comparative PsychologyHoughton, 1879 - 282 pages |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
A. R. Wallace æsthetic æther æther-waves Akhaians amongst anemophilous animals appearance attractive beautiful bees birds blossoms blue bright colours bright hues brilliant butterflies chapter chlorophyll civilised colour-perception colour-sense common conspicuous corolla creatures crimson Darwin decorative derived developed discriminate distinguish dyes entomophilous entomophilous flowers existence exquisite eyes fact feed fertilising flower-feeding flowering plants foliage frugivorous fruit-eating fruits function green habits honey humming-birds Ibid Iliad imitative insects instances large number leaves less light lizards Malay Archipelago mammals mass ment mode natural selection Naturalist notice objects observed once orange organs origin parrots perception petals pigments pink plants pleasure pollen possess prey primitive produced pure purple quadrumana races savage scarlet seeds sensation sense sexual selection shades Sir John Lubbock species stimulation structure sun-birds sweet taste for colour theory tints tion tribe Tropical Nature various vegetal vertebrates violet Wallace waves whole words yellow
Popular passages
Page 205 - ... to competent persons, missionaries, Government officials, and others, in all parts of the world, requesting answers to twelve questions regarding the colour sense of the savage people amongst whom they were living. The answers received " bore out in every case the supposition that the colour sense is, as a whole, absolutely identical throughout all branches of the human race." To complete our knowledge of the Maoris in this respect, and to make it more definite and exact, it would be well for...
Page 277 - As the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round about. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord.
Page 274 - And now I have sent a cunning man, endued with understanding, 'of Huram my father's, 14 the son of a woman of the daughters of Dan, and his father was a man of Tyre, skilful to work in gold, and in silver, in brass, in iron, in stone, and in timber, in purple, in blue, and in fine linen, and in crimson ; also to grave any manner of graving...
Page 276 - When these days were expired, the king made a feast unto all the people that were present in Shushan the palace, both unto great and small, seven days, in the court of the garden of the king's palace ; where were white, green, and blue hangings, fastened with cords of fine linen and purple to silver rings and pillars of marble...
Page 147 - How the sense of beauty in its simplest form - that is, the reception of a peculiar kind of pleasure from certain colours, forms, and sounds - was first developed in the mind of man and of the lower animals, is a very obscure subject. The same sort of difficulty is presented, if we enquire how it is that certain flavours and odours give pleasure, and others displeasure.
Page 137 - Acacia, however, bears hollow thorns, and each leaflet produces honey in a centre-formed gland at the base, and a small sweet pear-shaped body at the tip. In consequence, it is inhabited by myriads of a small ant which nests in the hollow thorns, and thus finds meat, drink, and lodging all provided for it. These ants are continually roaming over the plant, and constitute a most efficient bodyguard, not only driving off the leafcutting ants, but even, in Mr. Belt's opinion, rendering the leaves less...
Page 85 - At 8.5 she returned to the old place, and was just going to alight ; but observing the change of colour, without a moment's hesitation darted off to the blue.
Page 276 - And I saw as the colour of amber, as the appearance of fire round about within it, from the appearance of his loins even upward, and from the appearance of his loins even downward, I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and it had brightness round about.
Page 112 - In the case of the attractively coloured fruits, it is curious to observe how the seeds are always of such a nature as to escape destruction when the fruit itself is eaten. They are generally very small and comparatively hard, as in the strawberry, gooseberry, and fig; if a little larger, as in the grape, they are still harder and less eatable ; in the fruit of the rose or (hip) they are disagreeably hairy ; in the orange tribe excessively bitter. When the seeds are larger, softer, and more eatable,...
Page 167 - Aru lizards are more varied but more sombre in their colours — shades of green, grey, brown, and even black, being very frequently seen. Every shrub and herbaceous plant was alive with them, every rotten trunk or dead branch served as a station for some of these active little insect-hunters, who, I fear, to satisfy their gross appetites, destroy many gems of the insect world, which would feast the eyes and delight the heart of our more discriminating entomologists.