ON DAISIES 



the existing differences in their colors are due to 

 somewhat recent modifications. 



Possibly the orange African daisy grew in the 

 open, where it was subjected to the influence of 

 sunlight; and the white daisy in a woodland or 

 marsh where it was much in the shadow. 



It is a general observation that shade loving 

 plants, like those that open their flowers in the 

 twilight or at night, tend to produce white flowers 

 or at most those dressed in light and pale colors; 

 whereas the blues and oranges and reds are worn 

 principally by flowers that grow in the open and 

 put forth their advertisement for insects in the 

 sunlight. 



So we may reasonably suppose that the white 

 African daisy owes its present color to the influ- 

 ence of natural selection, and that it had among 

 its ancestors plants that bore colored flowers. In 

 any event, the orange African daisy has pigments 

 of its own, without invoking the aid of ancestors, 

 and their orange color shows that there are ele- 

 ments of red mixed with the yellow. These 

 elements, sorted out through hybridization, suffi- 

 ciently account for the pink progeny. 



But among the hybrids of the yellow and white 

 African daisies, in addition to the pink ones, are 

 numbers that are yellow; and, in about equal pro- 

 portion, others that are white. These white indi- 



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