POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



717 



brought on by their habits of living. Bak- 

 ers, tailors, and milliners are liable to con- 

 sumption ; compositors peculiarly so. Press- 

 men fare better than compositors, probably 

 because their work is more active. In the 

 country, farming appears to be the most 

 healthy of occupations, while that of the 

 innkeeper is the most fatal. Butchers die 

 comparatively early, as also do brewers, 

 draymen, and generally those who have 

 much to do with establishments for eating 

 and drinking. The over-exertion of those 

 who follow athletic pursuits appears to con- 

 duce quite as much to short life as does the 

 sedentary strain of the student. It seems 

 to make but little difference in the " expec- 

 tation of life " of in-door workers whether 

 their labor is hard or not ; but those who 

 are employed out-of-doors have a chance of 

 living six years longer, if their work keeps 

 them busy and active, than if it is a mere 

 matter of routine and standing around ; and 

 a *' comparison of the tables leads us to the 

 conclusion that the life of the out-door work- 

 er with little exercise is worse than that of 

 the sedentary in-door worker, whether with 

 little or with great exercise." The most 

 curious fact brought out is that the scav- 

 engers, dustmen, and cleaners of sewers in 

 London are reckoned among the healthiest 

 of the population. 



Conditions of Color in Flowers. The 



physiological processes of the coloring of 

 flowers and the relations of different agen- 

 cies, as light, temperature, the nature of the 

 soil, and natural selection, are examined by 

 F. Hildebrand in a work on the present 

 variations and former development of the 

 colors of flowers. The variations in the 

 colors of flowers seem to be without limit, 

 yet they are controlled by laws both in 

 nature and in cultivation. Each kind has 

 certain directions in which variations are 

 more likely to take place, which are limited 

 in extent, and are denoted by the colors 

 which its congeners prefer. The character 

 of the variations which any one species will 

 take corresponds with the variation direc- 

 tion of other species of the genus, and can 

 not be essentially changed by cultivation. 

 All colors may be made to turn to white. 

 Blue-blooming species may be made to vary 

 to violet and red, but not, with the single 



exception of the blue hyacinth, to yellow. 

 The variations of red-blooming species in- 

 cline toward the colors of the nearest re- 

 lated species ; if both yellow and blue kinds 

 occur among the latter, the inclination is 

 rather to the yellow tints, but a pure blue is 

 never reached. Efforts have been made 

 without success to produce blue pinks, zin- 

 nias, roses, hollyhocks, ranunculuses, prim- 

 roses, and balsams. A yellow-blooming 

 species will not vary to clear blue, even 

 when there is a blue species in the same 

 genus. Generally, the yellow-varying spe- 

 cies belong to such genera as move in 

 the red and yellow circle of colors, and the 

 variations occur inside of this circle. The 

 membrane of the plant-cells is nearly color- 

 less. Colors arise either from the chloro- 

 phyl, the coloring-matter connected with 

 the solid bodies within the cells, or through 

 the coloring of the cell-juices, or by changes 

 taking place in both the chlorophyl and the 

 cell-juices. The red and orange colors ai'e 

 generally derived from the chlorophyl, as 

 is exemplified by the fact that the red and 

 orange masses in many flowers are fre- 

 quently developed out of masses that were 

 before green. The chorophyl is seldom 

 replaced by a red or blue grainy matter. 

 White is readily produced, for all that it 

 requires is the absence of chlorophyl or its 

 presence in only a limited quantity. Other 

 colors are produced by the coloring of the 

 cell-juices with other matter than chloro- 

 phyl. So originate the rose-red flowers, 

 some of the fiery red, most of the violet and 

 blue. If no coloring takes place, the flower 

 is white; hence the abundance of white 

 flowers, and their occurrence whenever a 

 species is made to vary. If a change takes 

 place in both parts, if the chlorophyl is 

 modified and the cell-juice is colored too, 

 mixed colors, both bright and dark or dusky 

 ones, are produced. A bright red often be- 

 comes prominent in this way, which, when 

 combined with yellow arising from the chloro- 

 phyl, gives such colors as we find in the 

 canna and nasturtium. Dark colors are 

 produced by the association of green or 

 yellow grains of chlorophyl with a violet 

 juice, as in the nightshade. We look for 

 the origin of diversities of color to condi- 

 tions of light, temperature, and soil, and 

 to the operation of natural selection. Dif- 



