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THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



the common New England aster may be explained in this way. 

 There are also many white flowers that are pink either at the 

 beginning or end of their period of bloom. Apple blossoms, 

 and the flowers of the wdiite trillium and cotton will come to 

 mind in this connection. In these flowers it apparently needs 

 but a slight increase or decrease in acidity to develop or destroy 

 the color. We do not, however, have to depend upon instances 

 >f like these to- substantiate our theories regarding changes in 

 color. Almost any pink or blue plant juice may be used to 

 demonstrate the facts. Anyone who will boil out the color 

 from a purple cabbage may turn the juice blue by the addition 

 of a few drops of ammonia or a little baking soda and restore 

 the original pink color by adding a few drops of vinegar or 

 other acid. Beet juice and most of the fruit juices act in the 

 same way and it is therefore not surprising to flnd that the 

 familiar litmus paper so commonly used in testing for acids and 

 alkalies is made by dipping strips of paper in the juice of certain 

 lichens. Many pink flowers may be turned blue by exposing 

 them to the fumes of ammonia for a few minutes and blue 

 flowers become pink when exposed to acids. In making these 

 experiments, however, one is often astonished to find the color 

 change produced is neither pink nor blue but green, a fact which 

 opens up other avenues of speculation, but in all of which 

 we discover how cleverly nature produces a variety of effects 

 with almost identical materials. 



Wood for Golf Clubs. — Not being enthusiastic golfers, 

 we have never paid much attention to the material of which 

 golf clubs are made, but possibly some of our readers have 

 attained that enviable position where golf may be played with- 

 out neglecting other really important matters, and these may be 

 interested in knowing that the wood of the crab tree was once 

 regarded as the only wood worth considering for the heads of 

 golf clubs. When the supply of crab tree wood ran short, 



