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universal perception of beauty was designed to lead to a closer study of its nature ; 

 yet, by the great majority, even the small advance to a perception of the beauty 

 of form is never taken. To such an eye— 



The primrose, by the river's brim, 

 A yellow primrose is to him ; 

 And it is nothing more. 



The wonders of vegetable structure— the e.xquisite adaptation of means to ends 

 —the beautiful regularity of action, and the exact harmony of arrangement, are 

 matters into which few, even of the otherwise well-informed, ever trouble them- 

 selves to look. In this, as in many other things, "men" continue to be but 

 " children of a larger growth." Although it must be conceded that colour is the 

 least essential of all the attributes of vegetation, and hixs been to some extent 

 neglected by botanical writers as comparatively unimportant, yet its prominence 

 as a characteristic, and the readiness wherewith all appreciate it, would point it 

 out as worthy of a more careful consideration. Its susceptibility to atmos- 

 pheric and other influences does, indeed, render it so variable, that according to 

 the canon of Linnieus, it cunnot be safely made the basis of the nomenclature of 

 plants-a canon, by the way, which that great master himself has in various 

 instances broken-but that very variability may itself prove to bo the result of 

 definite laws, and therefore be another reason for careful study. On various 

 grounds then, the causes and distribution of colour in plants may tjo prt)nounced 

 not less worthy of examination than any other branch of vegetable physiology. 



In thus writing, I must not bo supposed as implying that I have found time 

 or opportunity to investigate the subject ; I merely wish to call to it the attention 

 of others better qualified than myself to prosecute it ; and my object at present 

 is simply to enunciate its elementary principles. 



Premising that, in this branch of study, black and white are numbered as 

 colours, I may notice that the hues of the vegetable kingdom are arranged by 

 botanists in the following departments :— 



1. Water colour, hyalinus. 



2. White. 



3. Brown, fuscus. 



4. Yellow, luteus, which is subdivided into flavus, straw-colour ; f ulvus, the 



colour of molten brass ; and gilvus, or iron colour. 

 6. Red, subdivided into incarnatus, flesh-hued ; and coccineus, scarlet. 



6. Blue, caeruleus. 



7. Green, viridis. 



8. Purple, ceeruleo-purpureus. 



9. Lead or ash-colour, cinereus. 



10. Black, subdivided into niger, dull black ; and ater, jet black. 



