CHAPTER XVII 



Inquiry 

 mainly 

 directed to 

 the con- 

 ditions of 

 coloration. 



Not specially 

 adapted. 



Seed-colours 

 in a native 

 garden in 

 Jamaica. 



SEED-COLORATION 



SEEDS, as is well known, display a great variety of hues, 

 ranging from white and pale colours to deep green, black, 

 brown, and red. Many seeds have a neutral or nondescript 

 colour, which it is not easy to describe ; but probably brown in 

 its numerous shades and mixtures is the most frequent. Whilst 

 handling seeds so much, the colours naturally attracted my 

 attention ; but seed-coloration involves so many points, 

 physical, chemical, and biological, that a general treatment of 

 the subject would be quite beyond my powers, and I will 

 therefore mainly confine my remarks to a consideration of the 

 conditions in which seeds acquire their colouring. 



Matters relating to adaptation to means of dispersal will also 

 be outside the field of discussion, but for quite another reason. 

 The fancy is apt to detect similarity and adaptive purpose where 

 in its ignorance accident alone could reign ; and it is too ready 

 to forget that in the nature of things the whole organism is 

 but a mass of adaptation, not only the cell-aggregate, but the 

 cell itself. Adaptation to the conditions of life is the very 

 essence of existence ; and we are not justified in singling out 

 and designating as specially adaptive any character that happens 

 to catch the eye, whilst ignoring all the rest. Adaptation goes 

 without saying in this world of ours. 



In the matter of seed-coloration puzzles surround us, 

 especially in the tropics. Thus in the cultivated patch of a 

 Jamaican native you may see growing side by side Canavalia, 



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