211 



ARTIFICIAL COLORING OF FLOWLRS 



r.V lIl.NKY KkAK.MKK 



In the Popular Science Moitldy for August there is an inter- 

 esting account of " A Visit to Luther Burbank " by Professor 

 de Vries, and in commenting on the production of a blue poppy 

 by Ikiihank he advances the idea that " j)robably the change in 

 color is caused by the combination of pigments in some flowers 

 and the chemical constituents of cells of others." For several 

 years I have been making a study of the color substances of 

 plants both chemically and microscopically, and my results have 

 led me to suppose that changes in the colors of flowers could be 

 effected by cultural methods, that is, by feeding the plants with 

 certain chemicals. F'or about a year I have been carrying on 

 experiments along this line, but so far have obtained no marked 

 results. This may be due to the fact that I have not yet attained 

 exact control conditions, or that the proper chemicals have not 

 been used, or we may find that it is not possible radically to 

 change any of the so-called inherent characters of plants, of 

 which color is one. 



In the course of my work I have also become interested in the 

 artificial coloring of flowers. I have used both plant color-sub- 

 stances and aniline dyes, obtaining the most satisfactory results 

 with the latter class of substances. Aqueous solutions of these 

 dyes were supplied the living plant through the soil, or stems of 

 cut flowers were placed directly in the solutions. W hile I have 

 actually succeeded in getting the growing plant to take up some 

 of these substances under control conditions, as in the produc- 

 tion of a blue carnation, the most striking results have been ob- 

 tained with cut flowers. When the flowers are not too far 

 advanced even though they have been cut several days, the 

 effects are frequently observed in from lo to 15 minutes, and 

 usually in less than an hour the maximum effects are obtained. 

 Apparently all white flowers will take up the dyes which I shall 

 enumerate, being changed to )'ellow, orange, blue, green, 

 purplish-red or magenta, crimson, purple, salmon-pink and gra}-. 



