A REMARKABLE DAISY 321 



In attempting to interpret the facts, we should 

 bear in mind what was learned in the preceding 

 chapter as to the variable coloration of the pop- 

 pies, and we shall have occasion to draw other 

 illustrations from plants of many different types. 

 We have found reason to believe that most 

 flowers owe their color to a mingling of pig- 

 ments, or at all events have in their hereditary 

 strains the factors for many different colors, 

 somewhat as even the purest tones on the canvas 

 of the painter are usually the result of the blend- 

 ing of diverse pigments. 



We shall find reason to believe that even the 

 white flower is not as a rule white because it lacks 

 the factors for color pigmentation, but because 

 it mingles these factors in such a way that they 

 mutually antagonize, or neutralize, or "mask" 

 one another. 



In this view, then, the production of a pink 

 African daisy through the hybridizing of an 

 orange and a white one may be regarded, not as 

 an anomalous phenomenon, but as a typical one 

 albeit the experiment has a good measure of 

 interest none the less. 



VARIATION OF COLOR IN FLOWERS 



The fact of color variation in the flowers is, 

 as just stated, too obvious to escape notice of the 



11 Vol. 6 Bur. 



