THE ANNALS 



AND 



MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY, 



[SECOND SERIES.] 

 No. 84. DECEMBER 1854. 



XXXVI. — Remarks on Associations of Colour and the Relations of 

 Colour and Form in Plants. By G. Dickie, M.D., Professor 

 of Natural History, Queen^s College, Belfast*. 



Relations in the form, structure, number and position of 

 organs are familiar to every botanist. A priori it might have 

 been inferred that order prevails in the distribution of colours ; 

 that there is no mere fortuitous relation, but that all must be 

 subject to law. This is not only the fact, but there are, besides, 

 obvious indications of a relation between the colour and form of 

 organs. 



In April and May 1853, the facts to be here recorded were 

 first observed and demonstrated to scientific friends in Belfast. 

 Professor M^Cosh, in a lectui-e before the Natural History Society 

 in May 1853, intimated that he had for some time entertained a 

 belief in the existence of complementary colours in the vegetable 

 kingdom. The results of my own observations were embodied 

 in a paper read at the October Meeting of the same Society in 

 that year. It would seem, however, that certain associations of 

 colour have been long known to artists who have cultivated the 

 special department of flower-painting. Any relation, however, 

 between form and colour appears to have escaped notice, and 

 even erroneous ideas have been promulgated respecting this 

 point. Thus Ruskin, in his ' Lamps of Architecture,' states that 

 " the natural colour of objects never follows form, but is arranged 

 on a different system ;" and again, " colour is simplified where 

 form is rich, and vice versa." " In nature," he further says, 

 " the boundaries of forms are elegant and precise ; those of 

 colours, though subject to symmetry of rude kind, are yet irre- 



* Read to the Botanical Society of Edinburgh, Nov. 9, 1854. 

 Ann. ^ Ma^. N. Hist. Ser.2. Vol.xiv. 2Q 



