Vakiation of Plants under Cultivation. 43 



to share this colour; and in lately produced flowers the outer 

 segments are now tinged with a deep hue, which leads to the goal 

 which some desire. 



One has selected these examples as being seasonable, and as 

 offering you an opportunity of thinking of them when viewing 

 the flowers at home. In a further observation or two upon 

 another phase of the subject of colour-variation I shall take as 

 illustrations the common Scilla of our woods — the Scottish 

 '• Craw-tae " and the English " Blue Bell " — Scilla nutans, and the 

 popular Hyacinth, so generally grown in glasses or pots — Hya- 

 cinthus orientalis. I do this to show what I take to be the case, 

 that flowers which are generally blue in a wild state have as a 

 rule a greater tendency to produce colour variations than those 

 which are white. The Scilla referred to may oft3n be found 

 giving not only white, but also pink, flowers in its native haunts, 

 although, let it be noted, these sports do not seem to occur so 

 freely on some soils than others. In cultivation one finds that 

 many more shades can be produced. From a pink form of Scilla 

 campanulata, a Spanish Squill closely related to our native Scilla, 

 I have self-sown seedlings which give me many shades of blue, 

 lilac, white, and pink. The original of our cultivated Ilyacinthus 

 orientalis is blue, but cultivation and selection of seedlings have 

 given us reds and yellows of more or less brightness. We ha^-e, 

 as yet, no yellow form of Scilla nutans, though one sees no reason 

 why it should not be produced. Scilla sibirica, another little garden 

 plant, was only known for years as a blue flower, but a few years 

 ago a white variety appeared. A friend of mine, who has been 

 working on bulbous plants with much success, from the seed of 

 one solitary bloom of pinkish colour whicli appeared on a spike of 

 which all the other blooms were blue, hopes to raise a pink 

 variety. 



While, as a rule, it seems more common to raise white forms 

 of coloured flowers, there are many instances of white-flowered 

 plants yielding seedlings with coloured blooms. Thus the com- 

 mon wood Anemone gives in some places plants which have blue 

 flowers ; and purple and rosy coloured forms are not at all rare. 



In some families of plants the desired variations of colour 

 have been practically secured, though progress has often been 

 slow. A blue Primrose is now an accomplished fact ; though a 

 true blue Rose has yet to come. In trying to secure this an 



