COLORS OF NORTH AMERICAN FLOWERS 



any desired color variety from a white flower more easily than 

 from one already containing pigments. 



Nature is an excellent economist. Trees and shrubs whose 

 fruits are edible by man or birds usually produce their blossoms 

 in boundless profusion, and they are almost invariably white, 

 or nearly so — the two most noteworthy exceptions being the 

 peach and huckleberry, which have red or reddish flowers. 

 Among trees are the apple, pear, plum, cherries in variety, the 

 quince and the orange ; while among shrubs are the blackberries, 

 blueberries, raspberries, hollies, cornels, and thorn-bushes. 

 There is nothing more beautiful in the floral vegetation of this 

 world than an apple-orchard laden with expanding blossoms. 

 The great masses of flowers form billowing banks of whiteness, 

 tinged with rose and flecked wuth the vivid green of the un- 

 folding leaf -buds, from which exliales the well-known sweet 

 fragrance of the apple-blossom. 



"Spring walks abroad in all the fields to-day; 



Her touch has left the apple orchards white; 

 The baby buds that waited for the May 



Have shaken out their petals overnight; 

 Against the rugged boughs they softly press. 



Weaving in the mantle of their loveliness. 



Spring walks abroad with songs of life and cheer; 



A thousand gifts she joyfully bestows; 

 But all her fairest handiwork is here 



Where orchards toss their drifts of scented snows." 



Alfred Russel Wallace, who spent many years of his life in 

 exploring the vast forests of the Amazon and the islands of the 

 Malay Archipelago, declares: "I have never seen anything 

 more glorious than an old crab-tree in full blossom; and the 

 horse-chestnut, lilac, and laburnum will vie with the choicest 

 tropical trees and shrubs." (Fig. 109.) 



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