70 COLORS OF VEGETATION. 
seen in early spring flowers and in the autumn it also disappears. 
But in June and July, the flowering time of the roses, laurels and 
azaleas, it is one of the most abundant colors. Yellow is more 
properly an autumnal color, and it often characterizes large groups, 
as the golden rods, sunflowers and buttercups. Blue is a summer 
color, but it runs throughout the year from the hepaticas of the 
hue of the March sky above them, to the fringed gentians and 
asters of the November woods. 
Numerically, yellow flowers are far the most abundant: next 
comes white, then red and blue. Red is very often the hue of the 
stems of plants especially in late summer and autumn. This is 
common among the grasses, some of which brighten into a purple 
mist as intense in color when seen at a little distance, as the most” 
brilliant patches of laurel or meadow beauty. 
“ In most plants,” says Thoreau, ‘the copella or calyx is the part 
which attains the highest color and is the most attractive; in 
many it is the seed vessel or fruit, in others still it is the very 
culm itself which is the blooming part.” 
In conclusion we come to the question, what is the use of the 
colors of vegetation? In a strictly utilitarian point of view they 
seem unimportant. There are some plants, chiefly orchids, which 
require the aid of insects to secure fertilization and which attract 
them by their bright colors, but these plants are very few and 
most flowers could accomplish their destined purpose just as well 
were they clad in the drab of the veriest Quaker. 
The flowering time is the nuptial season, the honeymoon of the 
plant, and it is the nature of flower and beast, of bird and man to 
* spruce up,” to put on his brightest colors at pairing time. 
The science of Vegetable Chromatology is one in which much is 
seen and little is known. We can all sce with our own eyes that 
_ plants are variously colored: that even Solomon in all his glory 
-= was not arrayed like one of our meadow lilies; ; bat when we get 
beyond our eyes and ask why this is so, we find ourselves at a loss; $ 
we cannot answer. We only know that the Lord doeth as pleaseth 
= with the flowers in his garden. 
PUA ase Se Pare ee toe ead PARE ee 
