ON FLORAL ATTRACTIVENESS AND COLOUR 97 



white, white is black, and black is no colour at 

 all." 



But what part does white play amongst the 

 flowers? To begin with, I believe we have no 

 right to restrict it to one particular place — between 

 yellow and red. It would seem to have no precise 

 position in the scale, for it is found appearing here, 

 there, and everywhere along the line. It occurs 

 amongst all colours, but if it has one more 

 permanent place than another, that place is outside 

 the line of colour altogether ; and white, as a 

 permanency, is an extreme. The appearance of a 

 white form is often hailed as a case of anaemia in 

 the coloured type ; and no doubt this is so fre- 

 quently, though it cannot be so always. Where 

 a white form is the issue of a blue type-flower, 

 such as a Gentian or a Campanula, it is most 

 probable that it is a case of natural evolution, 

 and that such a white plant is no more anaemic 

 than is anything Avhich arrives naturally, pro- 

 gressively, upon the higher plane of being. AVe of 

 a lower plane are not a little apt to regard as 

 weaklings things which emerge upon the higher 

 plane. Certainly a white flower is not necessarily 

 " too good to live." If it be issue of a blue type- 

 flower, it is more likely than not to be in every 



