THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 453 



ers, sometimes yellow, and sometimes red flowers. This 

 phenomenon, still unexplained, appeared so abnormal that 

 it was mentioned everywhere. It is, however, common 

 enough ; and we may observe it any time in France with- 

 out encountering such a long journey. 



The field-pimpernel (Anagallis arvensis), so common in 

 our country districts, frequently displays this change. Usu- 

 ally its flower is of a vermilion red, but it is also some- 

 times of a magnificent sky blue, which made some botanists 

 think there were two different species. 



A pretty little plant of the genus Myosotis, which is met 

 with in our arid grounds, varies still more singularly in its 

 color, for on the same stalk we find at the same time red, 

 yellow, and blue flowers, a peculiarity to which this spe- 

 cies owes the name of Myosotis diversicolor which has been 

 given to it. 



Other plants display a still more remarkable phenome- 

 non, for in them the same flower changes its color at dif- 

 ferent hours of the day. This happens with the Hibiscus 

 mutabilis, the corollas of which are white in the morning, 

 become rose-colored towards the middle of the day, and in 

 the evening take on a beautiful red tint. 



The successive change in the tints of the corolla is easily 

 conceived ; it may depend on vital action or on chemical 

 reactions effected by time ; but what is much more difficult 

 to explain is that flowers having displayed a certain cate- 

 gory of changes during the day go through the same round 

 of variation the day following. This is observed in the va- 

 riously colored corn-flag (Gladiolus versicolor, Linn.), the 

 corolla of which, brown in the morning, becomes blue in the 



