COLOR 



COLUMNEA 



833 



mums are yellow, white, and pink, but never orange or 

 scarlet. Dahlias are scarlet, red, crimson-red, and even 

 pure yellow, but never pure gold-orange, or orange. 



It is perfectly evident from the foregoing examples 

 that the range in a given genus, or species, is limited to 

 what may be termed the swing of a pendulum upon 

 the chromatic scale (Fig. 1038). The swing may extend 

 over a quarter of the dial, rarely it does more. If it 

 happens that two colors are developed, like violet and 

 yellow, it will still be found that there is but one pen- 

 dulum-swing and not two. Violet will be associated 

 with contiguous hues, but yellow will be developed 

 quite alone. 



This, it is reasonable to believe, is direct evidence of 

 a dual or treble origin of color in a flower group. Yel- 

 low cannot be evolved from violet, or vice versa. 

 Necessarily, if white appears in a xanthic group, it 

 must have evolved alone and independent of any color- 

 range in that group. Undoubtedly the range of con- 

 tiguous colors itself has evolved from a median hue 

 which has spread out, fanlike, in graded variations 

 within strict limits. Naturally, such statements con- 

 flict with the old theory that all flowers were originally 

 yellow, but they are not inimical to the idea that the 

 earlier ones might have been yellow, and later ones 

 magenta, violent ultramarine, scarlet, and gold-orange. 

 It is important to keep in mind the fact that a steam- 

 boat is not evolved from a locomotive. 



It is further evident that yellow belongs quite as 

 little to the xanthic as it does to the cyanic series, or, 

 to put it more strongly, it belongs to neither. Its 

 origin, independent of any "range," was undoubtedly 

 the elimination of blue from chlorophyll. Hence, it is 

 not surprising to find it in some modified form associa- 

 ted with both series, and in the cyanic series isolated. 

 The flora of the northeastern United States is essen- 

 tially cyanic. Twenty-one per cent is yellow, 21 per 

 cent magenta and 22 per cent white; the remainder is 

 8 per cent xanthic and 28 per cent cyanic the last 

 mostly pink and light violet. The record is significant 

 and points directly either to an arrested color develop- 

 ment, or to a depauperate color condition in an inclem- 

 ent region ; the former seems the more likely . An aggre- 

 gation of cyanic-flowered plants are found in the north 

 temperate zone, and of xanthic-flowered plants in the 

 torrid zone. 



Color activity. 



Color results from a play of light upon a surface 

 which rejects or absorbs certain rays. It is a significant 

 fact that the red end of the spectrum comprehends 

 those hues which are produced by the caloric rays of 

 the sun, and the violet end those hues which are pro- 

 duced by the actinic rays. It is not surprising there- 

 fore that the coloring of vegetation is intense, and 

 that xanthic flowers predominate under the equator. A 

 separation of cyanic and xanthic flowers follows almost 

 identically the thermal lines which band the great con- 

 tinents of the northern hemisphere, cyanic color pre- 

 vailing north, and xanthic color south of the line 

 marking 80 F. In a word, xanthic flowers belong to a 

 very warm, and cyanic flowers to a temperate or cold 

 climate. That they should become mixed in a narrow 

 zone between the extremes is only natural; the rule, 

 therefore, is in no way compromised thereby. That 

 yellow, too, should appear in both cyanic and xanthic 

 groups is not at all surprising. In the spectrum it 

 holds a median position between the red and the violet 

 ends; it is neither a hot nor a cold color, and has con- 

 sequently evolved from its primitive condition as a 

 constituent of the green in chlorophyll under any and 

 all temperatures. That is the only way to account for 

 its isolation when connected with cyanic groups. 



It would appear, then, that magenta, violet, and 

 ultramarines, together with gold-orange, orange, and 

 red, are primitive colors quite as well as yellow and 



white. In what order they appeared upon the earth in 

 the petals of flowers, it would be difficult to determine, 

 but it is reasonable to think they appeared as original 

 colors, in weak, perhaps, but absolute purity. Other- 

 wise, the remarkable limitation of color-range must be 

 accounted for by a less logical theory. Upset this 

 limitation, and attempts to produce a blue rose, yellow 

 aster, white nasturtium, or green carnation, should 

 prove successful. Recognize the limitation, and the 

 futility of such attempts becomes at once apparent, and 

 the possibility of improving existing "strains" of color 

 is illimitable. At some time or other in the distant past 

 the law of limitations fixed the range of flower-colors; 

 no new law of elasticity has since developed to remove 

 the boundaries and thus aid the floriculturist in his 

 ambition to produce what would prove to be a mere 

 novelty. See Standards of Color. 



F. SCHUYLER MATHEWS. 



COLTSFOOT: Tussilago Farfara. Sweet coltsfoot is Petaaites, 

 formerly called Nardosma. 



COLUMBINE : A quileoia. 



COLQUHOUNIA (after Sir Robert Colquhoun). 

 Labiatse. Tender plants with dense whorls of gaping 

 fls. an inch long or more, colored scarlet and yellow. 

 Erect or twining shrubs, woolly in all parts when 

 young: lys. large, crenate: whorls few-fld., axillary or 

 crowded into a terminal spike or raceme; corolla-tube 

 incurved, the throat inflated. Two Asian species. 

 Prop, by cuttings of growing tips, in sandy soil, 

 under glass in summer. 



coccinea, Wall. Tall climber, with very long branches, 

 8-10 ft.: Ivs. stalked, ovate-acuminate, 3-5 in. long, 

 crenate, dark green above, roughish, typically with 

 scarcely any woolh'ness except when young: corolla 

 twice as long as the calyx. B.M. 4514. C. tomentbsa, 

 Houll., is probably identical. The dense woolliness is 

 perhaps temporary. R.H. 1873:130 shows a handsome 

 terminal spike in addition to axillary clusters, contain- 

 ing about 20 fls. Apparently not advertised, but 

 probably as worthy as the next. 



yestita, Wall. Very smilar to C. coccinea, except that 

 it is a low-growing, erect plant, and more densely and 



permanently woolly on 

 the st., calyx and undei 

 side of Ivs., which are 



' j<9V&^iSB8a3JES? elliptic or elliptic-ovate 



and cordate. Cult out- 

 doors at oanta Barbara, 

 Calif., where it may be 

 used for the wild garden 

 as it is perfectly hardy. 

 Not of much horticul- 

 tural value. 



N. TAYLOR.| 



COLUMNEA (after 

 Columna or Colonna, 

 Italian writer on plants, 

 sixteenth century). Ges- 

 neracese. Tropical Ameri- 

 can shrubs and climbers, 

 sometimes grown under 

 glass in choice collec- 

 tions. 



Flowers widely gap- 

 ing, showy, often 2 in. 

 long: Ivs. opposite, 

 nearly equal or widely 

 unlike: fls. solitary or 

 numerous, axillary, 

 stalked or not, without 

 bracts or with bracts in 

 an involucre; corollas 

 scarlet, carmine or yel- 

 lowish. A group of 100 



1039. Columnea 

 gloriosa. ( X H) 



