COLOURS OF PLANTS. 63 



versal in their herbage, but we may gratefully acknovv- 

 ledo:e the beneficence of the Creator in clothino; the 

 earth with a colour the most pleasing and the least 

 fatiguing to our eyes. We may be dazzled with the 

 brilliancy of a flower-garden, but we repose at leisure 

 on the verdure of a grove or meadow. Of all ^jreens, 

 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 elecrant 

 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 de- 

 corate, the colours themselves are often undersoino- 

 remarkable variations. In the pretty little weed 

 called Scorpion-gra&s, Mijosotis 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 influence of light become white. Numbers of red, 

 purple or blue ones are liable, from some unknown 

 cause in the plant to which they belong, to vary to 

 white. Such varieties are sometimes perpetuated by 

 seed, and are almost invariably permanent, if the plants 

 be propagated by roots, cuttings, or grafting. Plants 

 of an acid or astringent nature often become very red 

 in their foliage by the action of light, as in Rumea\ 

 Polijgomim, Epilobium, and Berberis ; and it is re- 

 markable that American plants in general, as well as 



