LUTHER BURBANK 



primeval types of plants — palms, pines, cypress, 

 ferns, etc. — have green flowers even to this day; 

 in some cases slightly tinged with yellow. It is 

 suggested that the color next developed was blue, 

 the genesis of which involved but a slight modifi- 

 cation of the molecular structure of the flower, 

 inasmuch as the light waves that produce blue lie 

 next to the green on one side in the spectrum. 



The subsequent modifications of color were 

 made in two directions progressively. 



Some flowers were modified in the direction of 

 the violet end of the spectrum, and others in the 

 direction of the red end of the spectrum. The 

 former were first light blue, then deep blue and 

 indigo — represented among existing plants, let us 

 say, by the larkspur and gentian — and ultimately 

 violet. Flowers modified in the other direction 

 were at first yellow then orange and finally red. 



Evidence is lacking to answer the question as 

 to which end of the spectrum was reached first — 

 that is to say whether the flowers of violet color 

 or red were first evolved. But possibly the two 

 may have been developed somewhat contempo- 

 raneously, and they would thus take their place 

 in the hereditary scale more or less on an equality. 



In any event, we may be fairly assured that 

 there were blue flowers and yellow ones, and 

 probably also indigo colored flowers and orange 



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