34 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 



instances of this is found in the meadows lily (Lilium C ana- 

 dense) which in New England is usually yellow, but in New 

 York and farther west is deep red. In the "Natural History 

 of Plants" Kerner gives several instances of this kind from 

 the Old World. In the Alps, Campanula trachelium has white 

 flowers in one district and blue in another, Viola cakarea has 

 blue or yellow flowers according to the locality, Astragalus 

 vesicarius is yellow or violet, Anemone alpina is white or 

 sulphur yellow and so on through other species. 



Fully as interesting as any of these is the case of the 

 birth-wort or red wake robin (Trillumi erectum) which dif- 

 fers so greatly in color with locality as to appear like two 

 different species. In eastern America it is almost invariably 

 dark purplish red in color ; in the west it is as invariably pure 

 white without even a tinge of red. The latter form is oc- 

 casionally given the name of Trillium declinatum and to the 

 casual observer at least would seem like a very distinct species. 

 The flowers of Trillium erectum are somewhat variable in 

 color as may be gleaned from the statement in the Manuals 

 that they may be red, pink, greenish, yellowish or white. The 

 greenish, yellowish and pink forms, however, are seldom found 

 except in regions where the flowers are red and appear to be 

 simply cases of partial albinism. 



In my own locality the flowers of this species are pure 

 white. In the spring of 1907, wishing to grow the red form 

 for comparison, I applied to Mr. James Shepard of New Bri- 

 tain, Conn., who sent me about a dozen red flowered plants 

 from that part of his state. Some of these were in flower and 

 their color was unmistakable. They were set in my grounds, 

 throve during the summer, and came up this spring but much 

 to my surprise, every blossom but one is pure white, and this 

 one only has a trace of red in the stamens. The question now 

 is, what has caused the sudden change? Is it soil, climate, or 

 some other more obscure cause ? There are cases on record in 



