THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 83 



Under ground our forest plants are now very busy. 

 We have but to dig up a spadefull of black loam from the 

 woods to reveal many vigorous, aggressive, buds, bulbs, 

 conns and root stalks, ail provided for an active summer 

 campaign. Vitality, too, is shown in the orange, yellow, 

 red, or green tinge of various twigs on tree or shrub. As 

 spring approaches these colors become more prominent. 

 They herald the advent of leaf and flower. 



Brown University, Providence, R. I. 



COLOR CHANGES IN INDIVIDUAL FLCWERS. 



BY JOHN H. LOVELL. 



GOLOR changes in individual flowers are much more 

 common than is generally supposed. A good illustra- 

 tion is afforded by the widely cultivated shrub i/jc/ran^ea 

 paniculata. The inflorescence at the time of expanding is 

 green changing to white, later becoming reddish, and 

 finally in wilting turning brown. In another species of 

 Hydrangea {H. hortensia), cultivated from eastern Asia, 

 the flowers are at first green changing directly to pink or 

 purple. A species of Lantana common as a house plant 

 has the corolla at first white, then yellow, and finally red. 

 An observer in South America states that the flowers 

 when yellow are sought by bees, and when red by butter- 

 flies. 



The bush honeysuckle (Diervilla trWda) has yellow 

 flowers, which change to red, and similar change may be 

 observed in the flowering currant {Ribes aureum) and in 

 the genera Weigelia and Fuchsia. It is the opinion of 

 Hermann Muller that this variation in color may save the 

 time of the pollinating bees by enabling them quickly to 

 distinguish the older flowers, which have ceased to secrete 

 honey, from the newer ones. But this is not the case in 

 the bush hone3^suckle ; for I have repeatedly observed that 

 the honeybee visited the older reddish flowers, which still 

 continue, to yield nectar, quite as often as the younger 

 yellow blossoms. 



The climbing honeysuckle in my garden has the interior 



