372 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



The child who brings me the oddities of vegetable forms is know- 

 ing in the normals of his class of curiosities, or else he would not 

 see the novelties from the finding and exhibiting of which he gains 

 so much pleasure. The person who is familiar with the striking 

 beauty of the cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis) is the one who 

 rejoices at the variations that may occur in the tints of the bright 

 corolla. His delight would reach a high pitch should the conspicu- 

 ous spikes be found upon dry ground, and not by the bank of some 

 stream half hidden by the overhanging grass. But should the wan- 

 dering plant display white flowers, then an albino of a most inter- 

 esting kind has been met with, and some reason for it is sought in 

 the unusual locality. Only a few days ago a white variation of the 

 Lobelia syphilitica, cousin to the cardinal, was seen by the writer 

 treasured in the Botanical Garden at Cambridge, Mass., and it called 

 to mind the rage for pink water lilies, that twenty years ago were 

 only met with wild in ponds at Plymouth, Mass. I asked an expert 

 recently if there was any call for the pink or " Plymouth " lilies, and 

 he informed me that the fad had died out with the transplanting 

 and widespread culture of the pink " sports " of the nymphsea ponds. 



Abnormal colors in flowers are among the most common freaks 

 in wild plants, and none are more frequent than the albinos. One 

 could fill a page with instances of this sort. Some of our most com- 

 mon weeds, as the moth mullein (Verbascum blattaria), have a large 

 percentage of the plants with white blossoms, and the patches of the 

 white interspersed with the normal yellow-flowered plants in poorly 

 kept meadows and neglected land has led the writer to gather seed 

 of each to test the truth of the opinion that the white strain may be 

 transmitted to the offspring, but the proof is not yet at hand. 



The writer knows where there is a patch of the hound's tongue 

 (Echinospermum) with a good sprinkling of plants producing white 

 corollas instead of the normal deep maroon. The two colors make 

 a good subject for students who are gaining an elementary knowl- 

 edge of the stability of species, and the range of striking variations 

 that must be allowed for them. 



Next to the albinos the instances where the floral parts approach 

 leaves in size and color are the most common. A few weeks ago 

 while passing through a field once devoted to corn, but now over- 

 grown with weeds, and therefore of special interest to a botanist, 

 my eyes fell upon a daisy plant all the heads of which were with 

 olive-green ray flowers instead of the ordinary pure white ones. 

 These rays were smaller than the normal and quite inclined to roll, 

 as shown in Fig. 1, and form quills, as seen in some of the fancy 

 chrysanthemums. By the way, our common field daisy is a genuine 

 chrysanthemum, and that which is produced in one species under 



