HYDRANGEA. 281 



in perfection, after which they again become 

 green as they decay. 



Soon after the introduction of the Hydrangea, 

 it was observed that some of the plants produced 

 flowers of a fine blue colour, but the cause of this 

 change could not be easily accounted for, since 

 the cuttings had been taken from plants with rose- 

 coloured flowers. Some supposed that it was 

 caused by oxide of iron, whilst others concluded 

 that it originated from salt or saltpetre being ac- 

 cidentally mixed in the earth. We remember 

 seeing a fine plant of this description with beau- 

 tiful blue flowers at a cottage situated on a dreary 

 common in Hampshire^ where no one could at that 

 time have expected to have found a common- 

 coloured Hydrangea. The owner of the plant 

 refused ten guineas for this flower, as it was the 

 only one that had then been seen in the country, 

 and the circumstance of a poor cottager's having 

 refused so large a sum for a plant, excited great 

 curiosity, and brought all the neighbouring in- 

 habitants to see it. The poor woman, although 

 she did not like to part with the plant that had 

 been reared by a child whom she had lost, gladly 

 sold cuttings to all that required them, every one 

 of which when they blossomed produced flowers 

 of the original rose-colour. 



We have since learnt that the poor woman's 



