Flowers 



The genealogy of the colours might then have been 

 as follows : — 



Spore Yellow. 



\ 



Green. 



Pink. Lilac. Blue. Pale Yellow, 



— Brownish Red. 

 — Purples. 



—Rich Blues. 



The Spore yellow is extraordinarily common, for we 

 find it in pollen, fern-, moss-, and some algal- or fungus- 

 spores. Nor is the change from yellow to red confined 

 to flowers, for reddish-yellow is one of the commonest 

 colours of lichen-cups, of rust-fungi, cluster-cups, and 

 even in the Alga Chara we find this same shade. 



Strong sunlight has surely something to do with the 

 development of crimsons, rich blues, purples, and the 

 like.* 



Bonnier, Kerner von Marilaun, and others have shown 

 that lowland flowers, when transferred to alpine gardens 

 at 6000 feet, become richer and deeper and more vivid 



* The mysterious reddish substance anthocyan seems only to be formed 

 when a process of oxidation is going on. 6 



112 



