CHRYSANTHEMUM SPORTS. 



539 



That climate has something to do with some changes seems 

 borne out by a fact lately recorded, though it may be only 

 temporary in the case in question. Mr. E. Hughes-Gibb thus 

 writes (November 20, 1897) *: — " We have had little frost here 

 (Tarrant Gunville, near Blandford, Dorset) and many flowers 

 which are ordinarily out of bloom at this season still persist. 

 The changes, however, in their normal colours are in some cases 

 very remarkable. The Red Cactus Dahlias are blooming almost 

 orange, the outer florets being often nearly yellow. These 

 Dahlias are also, in many cases, showing a tendency to revert to 

 the single form. A species of Tropaeolum, normally vivid scarlet, 

 is blooming in a cool greenhouse, where air is kept on, and has, 

 in some cases, reverted almost to a clear yellow, a streak of 

 red down the centre of the petal being the only remains of its 

 normal colour t. . . . A species of Myosotis, ordinarily of a deep 

 and very vivid blue, is flowering now a clear rosy pink, without 

 the least tinge of blue. . . . Lastly a pure white Phlox of dwarf 

 habit shows a tendency to revert in some of its blooms to a 

 greenish yellow hue." 



Sports from Yellow. — Commencing, then, with the 

 presumably primitive colour, yellow : Of thirteen examples of a 

 flower of one tint of yellow, the sport has assumed another tint 

 of yellow ; and the rule appears to be that the colour is intensi- 

 fied in the sport, as may be gathered from the addition of some 

 qualifying word to the original name. As ammonia is well 

 known to deepen colours, we may see here a possible cause. It 

 will apply to other colours as well as yellow, as, e.g., the red in 

 Balsams, &c. Phosphoric acid also enhances the inflorescence 

 of plants ; so that we may get a hint as to phosphate of 

 ammonia being a probably useful ingredient for improving the 

 tone of colourisation in Chrysanthemums. 



The following are examples of yellow sports, arising on 

 plants bearing yellow flowers, but of a different and generally a 

 lighter shade : — ■ 



* Nature, vol. lvii. p. 100. 



| I have constantly noticed scarlet Tropasolums when spared by the 

 frost turn yellow as the autumn advances. — Ed. 



Q2 



