THE COLORS OF NORTHERN POLYPETALOUS 
FLOWERS. 
JOHN H. LOVELL. 
AcconniNG to the later systems of classification the Apetalze 
and Polypetalae form a single subclass, the Choripetalze. In the 
apetalous families of eastern North America, which have been 
considered in an earlier paper, there are 175 green, 89 white, 51 
yellow, 45 red, and 24 purple flowers. The 1217 polypetalous 
plants have 140 green, 410 white, 333 yellow, 84 red, 193 
purple, and 57 blue flowers. The northern Choripetalz, then, 
contain 315 green, 499 white, 384 yellow, 129 red, 217 purple, 
and 57 blue flowers. Of the 92 families belonging to the Chori- 
petale, 47 contain green, 52 white, 45 yellow, 28 red, 39 purple, 
and 5 blue flowers. The much greater abundance of species 
and families with green, white, and yellow coloration, as well as 
the less specialized structure of the flowers, points to these 
colors as more primitive or more easily developed than red, 
bright purple, or blue. In certain genera, however, small dull 
red and purplish flowers are evidently derived directly from the 
primitive green. 
The order Ranales includes the Nymphzacez, Magnoliacez, 
Ranunculacez, and six other families of less importance. The 
simpler species of this order have the organs of the flowers 
spirally arranged, separate and distinct, and the stamens and 
pistils indefinite in number, as in Ranunculus. From the domi- 
nating character of the Ranales, says Engler, it is clear that the 
other orders of this series diverge from the Ranales in various 
ways, some following one direction of development, some another. 
The ancestral form of the angiospermous flower would appear 
to have been a branch, or part of a branch, with carpophylls at 
the end, followed by androphylls, and then by the primitive 
1 The Colors of Morc Monocotyledonous Flowers, And Nat., vol. xxxiii, 
p. 493; The Colors of Northem Apetalous Flowers, Amer. Nat., vol. xxxv, p. 197. 
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