82 COLOURS Of PLANT*. 



herbage, but we may gratefully acknowledge 

 the beneficence of the Creator in clothing the 

 earth with a colour the most pleasing and the 

 least fatiguing to our eyes. We may be daz- 

 zled with the brilliancy of a flower-garden, 

 but we repose at leisure on the verdure of a 

 grove or meadow. Of all greens the most 

 delicate and beautiful perhaps is displayed by 

 several umbelliferous plants under our hedges 

 in the spring. 



Some of Nature's richest tints and most 

 elegant combinations of colour are reserved 

 for the petals of flowers, the most transient 

 of created beings ; and even during the short 

 existence of the parts they decorate, the co- 

 lours themselves are often undergoing remark- 

 able variations. In the pretty little weed call- 

 ed Scorpion-grass, Myosotis scorpioides, EngL 

 Bot. t. 480, and several of its natural order, the 

 flower-buds are of the most delicate rose- 

 colour, which turns to a bright blue as they 

 open. Many yellow flowers under the influ- 

 ence of light become white. Numbers of 

 red, purple or blue ones are liable, from some 

 unknown cause in the plant to which they be- 

 long, to vary to white. Such varieties are 



