126 
NATURE NOTES. 
the valley, one finds C. pallida, var. acuminata, with pale yellowish 
bracts, and C. Integra, with scarlet bracts ; but high up in the 
mountains, above timber line, the scarlet-bracted species is no 
longer met with, while the other is represented by C. haydeni, a 
dwarfed subspecies with crimson-purple bracts. And not only 
this, but C. linar ice folia, another species growing on the moun- 
tain slopes, presents a scarlet-bracted form at a lower, and a 
crimson-bracted form at a higher altitude. 
Mr. F. W. Anderson, to whom I addressed a query on this 
subject, has noticed the same tendency in Montana. He writes 
(in lift., December 4th, 1889) : — “Yes, blues and pinks do seem 
to replace yellows and reds in alpine regions, and not necessarily 
high alpine either ; but our difference in latitude may make up 
for the lack of extremely high altitude. Examples you ask for 1 
phloxes, lupines, asters, erigerons, gentians, astragali, pents- 
temons, delphiniums. Reds become very scarce and merge 
into one of the two colours according to their base, but always 
with a tendency towards greenish ; that is, they are apt to 
represent a dirty purple wholly or in spots, lines, or blotches, 
apparently arising from a blue base, as Fritillaria atropurpurea, or 
with a yellow base when they become greenish with more or less 
distinct but ‘muddy’ tinges: Lithospermum canesccns, Streptopus 
amplexifolius, Veratrum Calif ornicum.” 
The place of blue and pink in the series of colours. — According 
to Grant Allen, the colours of flowers arrange themselves in a 
natural series, from the most primitive upwards. Thus we get 
yellow, white, red, purple, and blue. If we exclude white, 
which is due to air in the cells and not to pigment, this is a per- 
fectly natural arrangement, supported by an abundance of facts. 
Some pink flowers go purplish in drying for the herbarium, 
while species of Borraginacese have the flowers pink in the bud, 
and afterwards blue. 
Flowers of each colour occasionally revert to the one below them 
in the series . — Atavism, or reversion to the characters of an 
ancestor, often throws much light upon the genealogical history 
of a group. In the present case it is most instructive, for we 
find that nearly all blue flowers present an occasional pink 
variety, while red ones at times revert to yellow. In Colorado, 
species of Delphinium, Anemone, Clematis, Aster, and Pentstemon, 
which normally have blue or purple flowers, have also pink 
varieties.* 
* Delphinium occidental f. nov. suhroseum. Sepals dull bluish pink, plant 
not so tall. Micawber Mine, Custer Co., Colo. 
Anemone patens, var. nuttalliaua f. rosea. Ckll. , West. Am. Sci. ,Sept., iSSS, 
P- 5 - 
Clematis aouglasii f. rosea. Ckll., West. Am. Sci., Sept., 1888, p. 5. 
Aster paucijlorus f. rosaceus. Ckll., Naturalist, Sept., 1S88, p. 284. 
Pentstemon acuminatus f. nov. roseus. All the flowers pink, not changing to- 
blue. Aldrich Ranch, Custer Co., Colorado, found by Mrs. Aldrich. 
