PROBABLE REASON. 3809 
trums, are generally yellow or white. The blue 
delphiniums and aconites are highly specialised, 
abnormal forms, and doubtless, therefore, of more recent 
origin. Among the Caryophyllacee the red and purplish 
species are amongst those with highly specialised 
flowers, such as Dianthus and Saponaria, while the 
simple open flowers, which more nearly represent the 
ancestral type, such as Stellaria, Cerastiwm, &c., are 
yellow and white. 
Take, again, the Primulacee. The open-flowered, 
honeyless species, such as Lysimachia and Trientalis, 
are generally white or yellow; while red, purple, and 
blue occur principally in the highly specialised species 
with tubular flowers. The genus Anagallis here, how- 
ever, certainly forms an exception. 
Among the violets we find some yellow, some blue 
species, and Miller considers that the yellow is the 
original colour. Viola biflora, a small, comparatively 
little specialised fly-flower, is yellow; while the large, 
long-spurred V. calcarata, specially adapted to humble- 
bees, is blue. In V. tricolor, again, the smaller 
varieties are whitish-yellow; the larger and more 
highly developed, blue. Myosotis versicolor we know 
is first yellow and then blue; and, according to Miller, 
one variety of V. tricolor alpestris is yellow when it 
first opens, and gradually becomes more and more blue. 
In this case the individual flower repeats the phases 
which in past times the ancestors have passed through. 
The only other family I will mention is that of the 
