THE PERICP BOTPIST; 
Vol. VIII. BINGHAMTON. N. Y., MARCH, 1905. No. 3. 
THE COLORS OF NORTHERN FLOWERS. 
BY JOHN H. LOViiLL. 
IN northeastern America north of Tennessee and east g1 
the Rocky Mountains there have been described some 
4,020 flowering plants. The distribution of coloration in 
our flora is a question of much interest, but one which uf) 
to the present time seems to have received no attention. 
Recently I have tabulated the above species according to 
the predominant colors of their flowers. I find that in the 
area named there are 1,244 green, 956 white, 801 yellow, 
260 red, 434 purple, and 325 blue flowers. White flowers^ 
as is certainly very fitting after the snowy months of 
winter, are most common in early spring. Yellow flowery 
are common throughout the entire season, though per^- 
haps rather more abundant in fall than midsummer. Red 
and blue are rarest in spring, but gradually increase as 
the months pass until they reach their maximum iq 
autumn. 
By far the larger part of the 1,244 green flowers are 
pollinated through the agency of the wind. A very 
familiar illustration of wind -pollination is maize or 
Indian corn. No one who has walked through a field ot 
newly spindled corn can have failed to notice that bright 
clouds of yellow pollen are borne away on the wings o^ 
every breeze. I place the wind-pollinated plants in th^ 
Northern States and Canada at about 1,048. They 
include the great company of grasses, sedges and rushes, 
and such homely weeds as the nettles, pigweeds, ama- 
ranths, spurges, plantains and ragweed. Among the 
shrubs and trees, which produce wind flowers, are the; 
alders, the earliest plants to bloom in northern New 
England, and the birches, poplars, beeches and elms,, 
