FLORAL DLPLOMACY. 8i 



flowers is now regarded by some botanists as 

 evidence of the degree and status of their develop- 

 ment. Dr. Miiller and Mr. Allen think that yellow 

 is the original and primitive colour, and that white, 

 red, purple, and blue, were assumed in the order 

 here mentioned. Consequently yellow flowers are 

 nearly always simple in structure, and usually loose- 

 petalled, or polypetalous ; whereas blue and purple 

 flowers are generally more highly specialised in form, 

 and gamopetaloiis — that is, they have the petals of 

 the corolla united in a single piece, as in the Cam- 

 panulas and Common Foxglove. 



White and light-yellow flowers not unfrequently 

 keep open until late in the evening, or even through- 

 out the night, when their corollas are of course 

 more conspicuous than they would have been 

 if distinguished by any other colour. There is a 

 much larger number of species of night-flying Lepi- 

 doptera, or moths, than of the day-flying butterflies, 

 and none of them can exist on any other food than 

 the liquid nectar of flowers. Consequently, the 

 number of light-coloured flowers habitually fertilised 

 early on summer evenings must be enormous. No 

 wonder, therefore, that some species, in every part of 

 the world, have so laid themselves out that they open 

 very little, if at all, in the daytime, but only at night. 

 Many species of such flowers have obtained for them- 

 selves botanical names indicative of such a habit, as 

 the Evening Primrose [CEnothera biennis)^ the night- 



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