COLOR OF PLANTS AND FLOWERS. 43 



ing, and he uniformly found that the flower woukl difi'er 

 from the paper m bemg more yellow, or more pink, or 

 more blue, or in some other way. White Campanulas be- 

 come bhie when they are dried ; infusions of Avhite flow- 

 ers in alcohol have always a perceptible tinge. Flow^ers 

 which are white, verging upon yellow, yield infusions wdiich 

 alkalies bring to a more positive brown ; infusions of those 

 which are white, tending to blue or red, become light red 

 by the action of acids, and greenish by the action of al- 

 kalies." 



" Infusions of yelloAV flowers in alcohol are of a clear 

 yellow, without the flowers losing much color. Acids pro- 

 duce no other efiect in these infusions than to weaken their 

 color slightly. Alkalies make them more brilliant or 

 browner." 



" Blue flowers produce, in alcohol, infusions either of a 

 clear blue, as those of flax, or very dark, as in the case of 

 the Aconite and the Larkspur. By the addition of acids 

 they become red, and of alkalies green. Those which are 

 colored red by acids, will not recover their blueness by the 

 addition of alkalies, as sometimes happens to infusions of 

 red flowers. Macaire having seen a red infusion of violets 

 regain by degrees the natural blue of those flowers, by the 

 addition of a vegetable alkali, such as quinine or strych- 

 nine, suspects that the color of the violet depends upon 

 the combination of their chromule with some alkali. 

 Schubler and Funk assure us that the infusion of the Blue 

 Day Lily {Funkia coerulea^) treated with an acid, will 

 present, in the same glass, all the tints of the colored 

 spectrum. Blues are among the most changeable colors 

 in vegetation, passing freely to white, and to diflferent tints 

 of violet and red." 



" From what has now been stated, it appears to result 

 that modifications of chromule are the cause of the di- 

 versity of colors ; and that these modifications depend 



