126 LIFE OF A TREE. 
the sacred writer, “A pleasant thing it is to be- 
hold the sun !” 
It is very singular that some flowers do not 
retain the colours they at first appeared in. The 
most striking instance is a flower called the 
Chameleon cheiranthus. 'This is at first of a 
whitish colour, then it becomes of a beautiful 
lemon-yellow, then red, and last of all, it changes 
to violet. The tamarind-flower is white the first 
day it opens, and yellow the second! and the 
flowers of a creeper, which, from its rapid 
growth, is a great favourite among the artificial- 
bower florists around London, the Cobaa scan- 
dens, are of a greenish white on first opening, 
and by the middle of the next day have altered to 
a deep, beautiful violet. An instance stranger 
even than these, exists in the flowers of another 
plant; these are white in the morning, pink in 
the middle of the day, and brilliant red at night. 
These changes are probably due to a combined 
chemical action of the air and the light of the 
sun. 
Whence comes this balmy odour which, rising 
from the flower-crowned tree, fills all the air 
around with ‘‘a pleasant smell?” This is one of 
