APRIL 69 



the correspondent had in view a number of plants 

 which are grown in British grounds and gardens, but 

 are not indigenous. I was out hunting with the 

 Cottesmore hounds on a dark day in a now distant 

 January, and shall not forget the delightful surprise I 

 felt on entering a hollow wood at Stocken Hall. Far 

 as the eye could reach among the tree stems, the 

 ground was thickly carpeted with the yellow bloom of 

 winter aconite (Eranthis hyemalis). But that is not a 

 British native: it is a naturalised alien, and a very 

 welcome one. So also with daffodils and snowdrops, 

 which spread sheets of yellow and white in our fields 

 arid woodlands ; even if the first is indigenous in some 

 of the southern English counties (which is not certain), 

 the snowdrop must be reckoned exotic. On the whole, 

 therefore, although perhaps a case can be made out for 

 the preponderance of white and yellow among our 

 native spring flowers, and, indeed, among those of 

 summer and autumn, it does not seem to be peculiar 

 to the British Isles. 



This inquiry about the colours of spring flowers in 

 Great Britain leads one naturally to speculate on the 

 origin of the colours of flowers in general, independently 

 of seasons. The late Mr. Grant Allen discussed it in 

 his interesting treatise on The Colours of Flowers, 1 and 

 although he deals only with plants native or naturalised 

 in Great Britain, and indulges occasionally in what 

 strikes one as special pleading, the little book deserves 

 a niche in the library of every good amateur. 



As regards Angiosperms (that is, plants with seeds 



1 Nature Series, 1891. 



