ADVENTITIOUS SHOOTS OF CAUDAMINE LATIFOLIA. 
5G7 
A considerable degree of knowledge of one 
of the most important principles on which the 
proper arrangement of colours depends, may 
be obtained from any modern Encyclopaedia, 
or from several popular treatises on Natural 
Philosophy, under the head of " Complement- 
ary Colours." It may not, however, be use- 
less to observe that the term " complementary" 
signifies that which completes:. Thus green, 
or its components yellow and blue, requires red 
to complete the elements of colourless light in 
the prismatic spectrum ; and any colours are 
said to be complementary to one another 
which produce white when combined. 
These observations comprise neither the 
definition of a tastefully arranged bouquet nor 
an explanation of what is to be understood by 
a mixture of colours effectively disposed ; but 
we have attempted to assert principles which 
will, if rightly applied, prove more useful than 
attempts at defining things in their nature 
indefinite, or at describing that which is capa- 
ble of infinite variety, and altogether de- 
pendent upon circumstances. The success, 
whether of a bouquet, or of that chef d'oetivre 
of art and nature, a well-dressed lady, depends 
much upon the circumstances of their position. 
A nosegay or a dress which would show to 
advantage in thewhite-and-gold drawing-room, 
would look poor and weak, and prove worse 
than ineffective, amid the rich appointments 
of the boudoir or dining-room. He w 7 ho 
paints a picture can suit his background to 
his " models;" but in the case of bouquets and 
costume, the process must be reversed ; the 
background being a " settled thing," the artist 
or artiste, however humiliating the necessity, 
must needs " work up " to it. 
As every art which has beauty for its object 
is so far entitled to be regarded a fine art, it 
needs no argument to show that the principles 
of fine art are as applicable to gardening as 
to architecture, or even painting. 
ADVENTITIOUS SHOOTS OF CARDAMINE 
LATIFOLIA. 
The circumstance of adventitious shoots 
and buds being formed on plants, after they 
have sustained any serious injury, is familiar 
to most persons engaged in botanical or horti- 
cultural pursuits. Some species indeed bear 
such shoots every year without having been 
wounded. But there is a class of adventitious 
buds, examples of which are not so numerous : 
these are such as are found growing sponta- 
neously on leaves, and presenting nothing to 
which the cause can be traced. M. Maudin 
has observed on a leaf of Drosera intermedia 
two individuals of the same species reduced to 
the proportions of the smallest miniature ; 
M. II. de Cassini has observed similar pro- 
ductions at the base of the leaflets of Carda- 
mine pratensix ; and I am enabled to :■'.<! 
another still more remarkable. 1 was one 
day gathering plants at the foot of the Carri- 
gou [Mountain — one of the Pyrenees— ] when 
the young man who was With me gathered 
a leaf of Cardaminc lalifoUa \\ hose upper- 
surface presented eight individuals of different 
sizes, and of the same kind as the parent 
plant. They were irregularly distributed 
over the leaf from the base to the apex, but 
each of them sprang from a vein. On looking 
with a glass, I observed the smallest to be like 
a kind of obtuse cylinder about a quarter of 
an inch in height. In the others, the cylin- 
der was somewhat thickened and green. But 
this leaf had also at the axil of the petiole an 
elongated bud which at the outride presented 
a second leaf rolled up ; the exterior leaf was 
seen first; by and by a circle of small whitish 
excrescences were developed below on the 
tubercle at the base ; they were elongated in 
rootlets which, at first upright, became ex- 
tended over the parent plant and were about 
an inch long. These radicles were covered 
with a few hairs, and were of a whitish 
colour, while the leaf preserved the colour of 
the parent plant. It is not to be thought that 
the tubercle in question was a special organ. 
It was simply a base of the stem where roots 
escaped, as occurs in the true rhizoma and 
trailing or underground stems. 
I placed the leaf of C. latifolia which I 
have described, in some wet soil. By and by 
it perished, but at the end of a month one of 
the little plants or shoots sprang up, although 
I had neglected it. 
These facts lead us to the following conclu- 
sions : — 1. Leaves and branches differ gene- 
rally without doubt in their form and position ; 
but it is not impossible that without any 
wound the one as well as the other is capable 
of producing individuals similar to the parent 
plant ; and in this the two sorts of organs 
seem to be confounded, a confusion which 
with some Lentibularious plants extends to all 
the characters. 2. As these small plants issue 
from the nerves of the leaf, it would appear 
that the productive force resides in them 
more than in the surrounding tissue. 3. The 
rootlets of these small plants were white, and 
3 r et they were exposed to the sun and air like 
the leaves, — confirming a circumstance that has 
been long known, viz. that the white colour 
of the roots in general is not owing to their 
situation, but to their internal organization. 
4. M. de Cassini observed shoots produced 
spontaneously from organs of a non-essential 
character, and that without any injury. On 
my plant, which was another and different 
species, I found a like phenomenon. It would 
