WHITE TRILLIUM. 
33 
hue, while that of the White species is bright orange-yellow. The 
leaves are of a dark lurid green, the colouring matter of the petals 
seems to pervade the leaves; and here, let me observe, that the 
same remark may be made of many other plants. In purple 
flowers we often perceive the violet hue to be perceptible in the 
stalk and under part of the leaves, and sometimes in the veins and 
roots. Red flowers again show the same tendency in stalk and veins. 
The Blood-root in its early stage of growth shews the Orange 
juice in the stem and leaves, so does the Canadian Balsam, and 
many others; that, a little observation will point out. The colouring 
matter of flowers has always been, more or less, a mystery to 
us: that light is one of the great agents can hardly for a moment 
be doubted, but something also may depend upon the peculiar 
quality of the juices that fill the tissues of the flower, and on 
the cellular tissue itself. Flowers deprived of light we know are 
pallid and often colourless, but how do we account for the deep 
crimson of the beet-root, the rose-red of the radish, the orange of 
the rhubarb, carrot, and turnip, which roots, being buried in the 
earth, are not subject to the solar rays? The natural supposition 
would be that all roots hidden from the light would be white, but 
this is by no means the case. The question is one of much interest 
and deserves the attention of all naturalists, and especially of the 
botanical student. 
