106 :fl3otan^ 



green, yellow, scarlet — yet not one shade in all these 

 intrudes upon another. Bryant says — 



''Scarlet tufts 

 Are glowing in the green like flakes of fire ; 

 The wanderers of the prairie know them well, 

 And call the brilliant flower the painted cup." 



Oddly enough, in this flower the vivid red is in 

 leaves or bracts, clustered among the pale yellow 

 bloom. 



Many children have used the petals of flowers as 

 paints, finding in them abundant deeply-dyed juice. 

 The three blue petals of the spicier- plant, the pink of 

 rose petals, the yellow of the orange or tiger lily, the 

 abundant crimson of poke or alder berries, have 

 l^ainted many a child's work of pictorial art. 



From this color in plants, commerce obtains valu- 

 able and lasting dyes — as from the indigo, oak, 

 madder, saffron. 



Although light seems to have such influence on 

 the production of color in i^lants, we find many 

 plants deeply green, or gaudily colored, that grow 

 where there is little or no light. Sea-weeds of in- 

 tense green, or painted as gayly as parrots, come from 

 depths under water where the light must have been 

 very dim. 



The most vivid colors are often found in the 



