WHITE TRILLIUM. 23 



hue while that of the White species is bright orange-yellow. The 

 leaves are of a dark lurid green, the colouring matter of the petals 

 seems to pervade the leaves; and here, let me observe, that the 

 same remark may be made of many other plants. In i)urple flowers 

 we often perceive the violet hue to be perceptible in the stalk and 

 under part of the leaves, and sometimes in the veins and roots. Red 

 flowers again show the same tendency in stalk and veins. 



The Blood-root in its early stage of growth shews the Orange 

 juice in the stem and leaves, so does the Canadian Balsam and 

 many others: that, a little observation will point out. The colouring 

 matter of flowers has always beefi. more or less, a mystery to 

 us : that light is one of the great agents can hardly for a moment 

 be doubted, but something also may depend upon the peculiar 

 quality of the juices that fill the tissues of the flower, and on 

 the cellular tissue itself. Flowers deprived of light, we know, are 

 paUid and often colourless, but how do we account /or the deep 

 crimson of the beet-root, the rose-red of the radish, the orange of 

 the rhubarb, carrot, and ci^rnip, which roots, being buried in the 

 earth, are not subject to the solar rays? The natural supposition 

 would be that all roots hidden from the light would be white, but 

 this is by no means the case. The question is one of much interest, 

 and deserves the attention of aU naturalists, and especially of the 

 botanical student. 



