Flowers 
in colour. The reverse experiment is equally true, 
for natives of the mountains become pale and dull in 
colour in the heavier lowland climate. 
The most vivid crimsons, flaring yellows, blues and 
purples are a very marked character in most open 
floras, but above all other places it is the limestone 
hills near Alexandria which the reader should visit if 
he desires really to understand the possibilities of 
flower colours. It is a semi-desert, and probably 
resembles many parts of Palestine. There one finds 
bright yellow composites, scarlet poppies and ranun- 
culus, the orange-red of calendula, quantities of star- 
of-Bethlehem, of morzas and antirrhinums which, 
though often only 4 inches high, vary in the most 
extraordinary way from yellow, with or without orange 
or golden-brown marks, to mauves and blues. Every 
plant almost ends in flowers, and there is no turf or 
dense foliage to conceal them. 
On the other hand, want of sunshine may arrest the 
formation of flowers and preserve them as tiny cleisto- 
gamous self-fertilising buds which are scarcely or not 
at all coloured. These are, according to Goebel, often 
formed as a result of weak or insufficient light, though 
anything which starves or hinders the plant from 
growing properly may produce them.® 
Just as sunshine and pure air seems to be respon- 
sible for many of the brilliant colours of flowers, so 
also perfumes are said to be especially strong and 
rich under the same conditions, Sunshine and pure 
mountain air distinguish those places in the near East 
where whole villages live by the preparation of attar-of- 
roses.” In sunny Spain,? whole woods are fragrant 
with the scent of laurel, and the winds from Corsica 
are also real spicy breezes, which can be smelt a long 
way off shore. 
113 H 
