FOUR COMMON FLOWERS 175 



anomaly that has not been shown by any other 

 flower with which we have made acquaintance; 

 nor, indeed, as far as I am aware, by any other 

 flower whatever. 



The anomalous plant in question is one that 

 produces flowers that are snow-white in the 

 morning when they first open, yet which at noon 

 are bright pink, and which finally, toward eve- 

 ning, assume a deep crimson color. Each flower 

 goes through this process during the first day* 

 so that each morning one may see on the same 

 plant carnations that are crimson, a few that are 

 pink, and freshly opened ones of white, giving 

 the plant a very striking and unique appearance. 



It chances that the plant that bears this curious 

 flower is a most astonishing bloomer, seeming 

 indeed to have more blossoms than foliage. So 

 its tricolor display is indeed a striking one. 



The plant that bears these anomalous flowers 

 is the hybrid offspring of a white carnation and 

 of a deep crimson variety of Dianthus Chinensis. 



The plant itself is about eight or ten inches 

 high and of quite compact growth, in these 

 regards closely resembling the Chinese parent. 

 The foliage appears to be about an even combi- 

 nation of the characters of the parents. The 

 flowers, as we have seen, combine the traits of the 

 blossoms of the parent forms in a very anomalous 



