The American Botanist 



VOL. XIV JOLIET, ILL., MAY, 1908 No. 2 



** (^0£D Almighty first planted a garden, ^nd, indeed, it 

 ^-^^ is the purest of human pleasures; it is the greatest 

 refreshment to the spirits of man; without which buildings 

 and palaces are but gross handiworks: and a man shall ever 

 see that, when ages grow to civility and elegancy, men come 

 to build stately sooner than to garden finely; as if gardening 

 were the greatest perfection." — Lord Bacon. 



A REMARKABLE CHANGE OF COLOR 

 IN TRILLIUM. 



BY WILLARD N. CLUTE. 



BOTANISTS in general are well acquainted with the 

 changes in color that take place in many species of 

 flowers as the inflorescence progresses from buds to 

 blossoms. Familiar instances are found in the wild 

 crab {Pyrus coronaria) whose red buds become pink 

 flowers, in the lungwort {Mcrtcnsia Virginica) whose 

 buds are pink but whose flowers are blue, and in 

 tlie honeysuckle {Loniccra Japonica) whose full blown 

 flowers are white but soon turn yellow. 



These changes seem due to varying amounts of acids in 



the cell sap as the flowering period progresses but there is 



cc another series of color changes to be found in flowering plants 



^ whose effects are little known and whose causes are still more 



J obscure. These changes are not confined to individual flowers 



t^ but to the flowers of the species as a whole, and var}% not in 



the individual plant, but with the locality. One of the best 



LiftRAR 



