COLOUR-VARIATION 53 



out. That which most interests us, so far as colour 

 variation is concerned, is the evidence showing 

 that a change of environment causes a change in 

 coloration. Some instances may be adduced : for 

 instance, Gerard states in the Dictionnaire dHistoire 

 naturelle of D'Orbigny 1 that when the small brown 

 honey bees from High Burgundy are transported into 

 Bresse although not very distant they soon become 

 larger and assume a yellow colour ; this happens 

 even in the second generation. The same author 

 gives some instances from the vegetable kingdom. 

 As he rightly remarks, the roots of beet, carrot, 

 radish, and other plants, are colourless in the wild 

 and natural state, and as soon as they are subjected to 

 the process of culture they become red, or yellow, etc. 

 and Vilmorin in his Notice sur V Amelioration de la 

 Carotte sauvage, originally published in the Transac- 

 tions of the Horticultural Society (1840), has noted the 

 same fact, the red and yellow colours, as well as a 

 peculiar violet hue which has not been permanent, 

 appearing only in cultivated carrots after some time 

 their appearance being at first irregular and transitory. 

 Moquin Tandon 2 records some instances of change 

 in colour which are due to the influence of environ- 

 mental change. For instance, he has seen gentians 

 which are blue in valleys become white in the 



1 Article Espcce. 2 Elements de Ttmtologie vcgetale. 



