270 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



or a large scale. I don't believe the habits of insects 

 could be seen in these, so as to furnish an exhibition 

 either interesting or instructive to the public gene- 

 rally ; and secondly, in breeding and rearing them, 

 I judge that, from the great differences in economy 

 ■which we find amongst insects, it is better to iso- 

 late each species in some cage or case suited to its 

 particular wants. 



If any one wishes to see the subject of Insect 

 Vivaria treated rhapsodically, he had better obtain 

 a work called the " Butterfly Vivaria ; or Insect 

 Home." The whole thing seems remarkably easy, 

 and quite poetical (on paper) ; but it is no dis- 

 respect to the author of this book to say that he is 

 much greater as an artist than as an entomologist. 



J. R. S. Clifford. 



VARIATIONS IN COLOUR OF WILD 

 FLOWERS. 



ALLOW me to add a few remarks to those which 

 have lately appeared on this subject. Depar- 

 tures from the ordinary hue are, I think, most fre- 

 quent, relatively, in blue flowers, less so in red, and 

 very rare in yellow ones ; indeed, the common prim- 

 rose is the only yellow flower of which I remember to 

 have found differently-coloured varieties — viz., red 

 and white. The Kidney Vetch (Anthyllis vulneraria) 

 rarely occurs with scarlet flowers, and the yellow- 

 flowered Trifolium Molinerii is said to be the parent 

 stock of the crimson T. incarnatum, a field of which 

 forms such a glorious contrast to the prevailing 

 green of a summer landscape. Of flowers normally 

 blue, the changes are to white and pinkish red ; 

 yellow never being seen. White varieties are more 

 common than pink ones, both as regards individuals 

 and species ; many blue flowers, as the species of 

 Veronica (Speedwell), occurring sometimes white, 

 but never pink ; whereas I cannot remember one 

 that ever comes pink and not white. Flowers that 

 occur of these three colours are normally of a deep 

 purple-blue — e.g., the Sweet Violet, the Blue-bell 

 (ITyacinthus nouscriptus), the Milkwort (Polygala 

 vulgaris), the Bugle {Ajuga reptans), and Prunella 

 vulgaris: the red varieties of these are merely a 

 dull, washed-out pink or purplish red, and I cannot 

 help thinking it probable that, in the formation of 

 these varieties no new colour is present, but ouly 

 the blue colouring matter deficient, the red which 

 enters into the composition of the natural purple 

 alone remaining, while in the white variety both 

 blue and red are wanting. Of the Violet and Blue- 

 bell, I often find a fourth shade, a delicate pale 

 lavender, intermediate between the purple and 

 white forms : minor differences are very common. 

 Of tlie Boraginese, a large proportion bear bright 

 blue flowers, but I have never found one which 



varies from blue when fully out, though almost all 

 of them are red on first opening, and become blue 

 as they expand. The Comfrey {Symphytum offici- 

 nale), however, usually reddish or white, is occa- 

 sionally of a dusky purplish hue, hardly to be digni- 

 fied by the name of blue. White varieties of red 

 flowers are not rare ; e.g., Geranium molle, dissectum, 

 and Robertiamim (all of which I have found white 

 this summer), also several species of Orchis and 

 Bpilobium angustifolium ; but the Pimpernel (Ana- 

 gallis arvensis) is the only red flower, that I am aware 

 of, that ever comes blue ; and iu this variety there 

 are other differences sufficient to have iuduced some 

 botanists to erect Anagallis ccerulea into a species. 

 I have lately found the common Poppy (P. Bhoeas) 

 with pale lilac petals. White flowers rarely occur 

 wholly of a different colour, though often shaded on 

 the outside like the rays of the daisy and the sepals 

 of the wood anemone, and, in fading, they sometimes 

 become pink, as the last-named plant, and the May 

 (Crata>gus oxyacantha). I do not think that shade 

 has the effect of producing white varieties, though 

 it renders the natural colour less vivid ; nor have 1 

 noticed any effect of soil in causing variations of 

 colour. Almost all the soils here are calcareous, 

 but some woods near here on the green sand are 

 completely clothed in April and May with a purple 

 carpet of blue-bells, and among them white flowers 

 are not uncommon. Sometimes the deficiency of 

 colour in the petals is shared by the rest of the 

 plant, — a true case of albinism ; this I have noticed 

 in Linaria cymbalaria. On the other hand, the 

 foliage of the white- flowered plants of Geranium 

 TLohertiunum that I know is particularly dark red, 

 they growing on an exposed wall top. In this neigh- 

 bourhood, as noticed also by Mr. Macmillan at 

 Castle Gary, 16 miles distant, the white variety of the 

 scented violet greatly preponderates. I have esti- 

 mated the proportions of the different colours as 70 

 percent.white, 20 per ceut.blue, aud 10 per cent. pink. 

 It is strange that white varieties of Viola hirta and 

 sylcatica do not occur. In the preceding remarks 

 I have, of course, ouly spoken of the varieties occur- 

 ring in the wild state ; under the much greater 

 diversity of conditions which man can produce, 

 greater variations occur. 

 Beckington, Somerset. H. F. Paksons, M.D. 



Robber Ants. — It is believed in Brazil that the 

 young of the Cupim or Termite are carried off and 

 enslaved, like West Africans, by the fierce Planta- 

 tion ant (Atla ccphalotes or Sauba), winch thus 

 represents the wicked and merciless white man. 

 But the same tale is told of the Quemquem ant, 

 and possibly the superstition may have arisen from 

 the different sizes of the workers major and the 

 workers minor.— Burton, Highlands of the Brazils. 



