270 



is cream colored ; B. tinctoria is yellow and B. australis is blue. 

 It is true that in this case the color does not alone form a dis- 

 tinguishing feature, because the species differ in other respects. 

 It is an instance in which both the xanthic and the cyanic series 

 of colors are represented in the same genus. 



Other examples of color distinguishing species of plants could 

 doubtless be given. If we turn from flowers to fruits a few in- 

 stances may be cited. In Sambucus Canadensis the fruit is a deep 

 black. In S. puhens it Is red. In other respects these plants are 



similar. 



M. 



In Actaa alba the fruit is white and A.spicata, var rubra, differs 

 mainly from it in the different color of its fruit. 



Even upon so inconstant and evanescent a character as odor, 

 we find species occasionally separated, as is the case for example 

 with PJiiladelphics coronarms, which is odorous, and P. inodorns, 

 the name of which tells its character. 



It is thus seen that even in so uncertain and generally so in- 

 constant a character as color, we have sometimes a distinguish- 

 ing feature. It is true that it is seldom the sole character, but 

 certainly in the cases mentioned above it is the main one. 



The Classification of Slight Varieties. 



The other day I found near West Cliff in a damp meadow, 

 some specimens of a form of Sisyrhichimn anceps, differin 

 in no respect from the type, except that the flowers are very 

 pale bluish— so pale as to be almost white. Now this is rather 

 interesting to me, more especially as of late I have been inquir- 

 ing somewhat into the reasons of color mutations in flowers, and 

 I should like to include it in my catalogue of Wet Mountain Val- 

 ley plants, now preparing. How am I to enter It ? Shall I say " a 

 pale flowered variety ? "—If I do, nobody will pay the least at- 



tention to it — or shall I call it 



pallidijli 



upon me a cry of " name such a thing, just a color variety ? 1 " 

 Not that it particularly matters what I do, as the interest at pres- 

 ent taken in " slight " varieties is itself slight enough, but suppose 

 (as indeed I do suppose) that after all these slight mutations are 

 quite important, and altogether worthy of study— being the fresh 

 imprint of nature's hand on plastic forms and parts, too fresh and 



