THE VERNAL GENTIAN 43 



such variations can only " arise from deep-seated 

 tendencies, which find their expression in the 

 existence of the individual, and the evolution of 

 the race." For instance, are the mauve and plum- 

 coloured flowers a break-back to the ancestral 

 type ; that is to say, was the more primitive verna 

 red ? Blue flowers are more highly organised than 

 those of other colours ; are, then, all flowers striv- 

 ing to be blue — like Emerson's grass, " striving to 

 be man ? " The French-blue Gentians are of 

 warmer tint than those of Cambridge hue ; are 

 they, therefore, the first decided step into this 

 highest of the primary colours : are they the first 

 strikingly victorious effort of the plant to shake off 

 all trammel of red ? And white ; what of white ? 

 I have seen white verna tinged with rose, and 

 white verna of a white altogether free from any 

 tint of grossness — a white so positive as to suggest 

 the utmost frailty arising from degeneracy, if it 

 were not known to be the natural consequence of 

 presistent advance through blue. These are nice 

 points for speculation. 



But " let us not rove ; let us sit at home with 

 the cause " 1 Blue for us is the essential colour for 

 this Gentian : we can dispense with all its efforts to 

 be white. Blue, not white, is the hue of promise. 



