PERSONALITY OF PLANTS 
clothed in gold, while the prickly and much- 
despised Cactus bears little crimson-coloured 
bells. 
It is quite evident that man got his original 
idea of colour from Nature, particularly the 
plant world. Why is it that we are inclined 
to wear green in spring, brown in autumn, and 
all manner of colours in summer? Simply be- 
cause, consciously or unconsciously, we are 
imitating Nature. We take pigments and dyes 
and get a pale similitude of an exquisite flower. 
If it happens to be a Rose, we name the colour 
after it. Sometimes we name tints after the 
sky or an animal or a bird, but in these cases, 
we might just as well have gone to the flowers 
for our nomenclature. 
Every tint and hue which we can ever hope 
to reproduce is present in the plant world. The 
flowers by no means monopolize them. On 
close examination, a single stalk and leaf exhibit 
a wonderful variety of colour. In the Begonia 
and the Sea Holly, the stalks are exactly the 
same colours as the flowers. The wild Cranes- 
bill sports a crimson stem. The stalks of Poplar 
leaves are a vivid yellow. To speak of “green 
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