170 FAMILIAR FLOWERS OF FIELD AND GARDEN. 





"Mmps 



cottony-looking, and the terminal bloom is 

 more apt to look brown and faded below 

 and fresh above. Gray says the flowers 

 are rose-purple in color ; this is not cor- 

 rect, as the term rose-purple is anom- 

 alous ; rose-color (if one may be per- 

 mitted to repeat so indefinite a term) 

 *; is usually pure pink, and pink is re- 



I' moved from a purplish tint by an 



unavoidably intermediate crimson 

 one. So Gray evidently means ma- 

 genta-pink. But the flowers are 

 not this color ; they vary in a 

 range of ])ink between the ver- 

 milion kind and the crimson 

 kind. I am absolutely explicit 

 in thus naming the color ; the 

 pink never approaches purple 

 nearer than the crimson point. 

 One glance at the tiny haw- 

 thornlike flowers through the 

 magnifying glass is a wonder- 



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Harfllmck. 



ful revelation : we involunta- 

 rily express some surprise that 

 Nature should take so much 

 pains about the detail of such 

 a tiny thing ; what a waste of 



