THE LADIES' FLO DAL CABINET. 
393 
nia, he says, does not alter it. The infusion of these 
petals in carbonate of soda or ammonia is red, but on 
the addition of potash it becomes green. 
Yellow is a color more durable in flowers than either 
blue or red, as will be clearly seen by drying. Yellow 
flowers give out their color to both alcohol and water, 
and are not changed by either acid or alkali as regards 
the color, with the exception that it is rendered paler 
by an acid and deeper by an alkali. 
Caventon holds that the flowers of the Narcissus 
pseudo narcissus contain two yellow coloring matters. 
If the flowers are digested in ether, we obtain by evap¬ 
oration a yellow resin, giving out a smell similar to that 
of the flower, this resin being in a semi-liquid state, but 
hardens in drying. It is insoluble in water and alcohol, 
but dissolves in nitric and muriatic acids, and also in 
alkalies, producing solution of a yellow color. If these 
petals previously digested in ether be steeped in alcohol 
another yellow coloring matter is dissolved, which re¬ 
mains after the evaporation of the alcohol. When in 
thin crusts it has a fine greenish yellow color, but when 
in thick masses a brown. It dissolves readily in water, 
and when dry absorbs humidity from the atmosphere. 
It is rendered paler by acids, but brown by alkalies. 
The plant so common and abundant upon walls and 
trees, known to botanists as the Lichen parientinus-, of 
Linnaeus, has a fine yellow coloring matter, soluble in 
boiling alcohol; when cool the coloring matter crystal¬ 
lizes in long brilliant plates. 
Many of our British plants have produced yellow col¬ 
oring matters such as are used as dyes, as dyers’Broom, 
all our native Heaths, three-leaved Hellebore, and Ash, 
and others we need not mention. Though the yellow 
coloring matters in the vegetable kingdom are more 
numerous than blue or red, they have been less studied 
by those interested in the subject; our knowledge is 
therefore limited. 
The next color, green, which is the paramount color of 
the vegetable world, being a compound of yellow and 
blue, no vegetable product is known which can be used 
as a green dye. The color is imparted to cloths by dye¬ 
ing them first yellow and then blue. We have scarcely 
a plant bearing green flowers. The last color is white. 
White flowers contain a coloring matter. The juice 
extracted from some white flowers is similar to that of 
many yellow flowers. Many of them strike green with 
alkalies, though do not change to red by acids.— George 
Day in Naturalist's Note Book. 
SPIRyEA ASTILBOIDES. 
The genus Spiraea is an extensive one, and furnishes 
many species, both shrubby and harbaceous. Among 
the latter class are several which are almost indispen¬ 
sable to every collection of hardy plants for the herba¬ 
ceous border. The above species is of recent introduc¬ 
tion, and has the indorsement of the leading horticul¬ 
tural societies of the Old World. We have not seen it 
in flower, but from the illustration and the kindly men¬ 
tion of it by foreign journals, we are of the opinion that 
it is a decided acquisition. The Garden says of it: “So 
seldom does a Spiraea occur among the multitudinous 
new plants that appear every year, that this one is of 
special interest, especially as it belongs to the Aruncus, 
or Goat’s beard section, and is said to be hardy. At 
flowering time the branches are furnished with myriads 
of white blossoms in plumy clusters, as shown in the 
annexed illustration. It may be forced into flower as 
early as March; hence it is an invaluable plant for pot 
culture for conservatories. It has been introduced by 
Mr. Bull,of Chelsea (England), from whose new plant cat¬ 
alogue the accompanying wood-cutis taken. It has been 
certificated, both by the Royal Horticultural and Royal 
Botanic Societies, and wherever it has been exhibited it 
has been much admired. It will doubtless prove to be 
a plant of the easiest culture, both in pots and in the 
open ground.” 
COMICALITIES OF PLANTS. 
There are numerous traces of comicality throughout 
animated nature. We behold it in animals and among 
the feathered tribes. In the vegetable world there is an 
immense deal presented to us that we eannofl help feel¬ 
ing to be funny. Some plants irresistably provoke a 
smile. The American Flora is perhaps a more serious 
goddess than most of her foreign sisters, but there are 
many whimsical things even among our common flow¬ 
ers and grasses. There is Jack-in-the-Pulpit; the flower 
of the plant known as Indian Turnip ( Ariscema triphyl- 
lum ), who could ever look at one of these singular 
blossoms without that same stirring of the visible facul¬ 
ties which one experiences in perusing a parody or 
caricature, or witnessing a pantomime ? The very sight 
of one is provocative of mirth. How many times in my 
school days did I challenge the teacher’s frown by in¬ 
voluntary giggles at the whimsical look of the impris¬ 
oned Jack ! Monk’s hood, of the genus aconitum, has 
quaint, comical flowers, suggestive of an old lady’s 
head in a night cap. 
A certain grotesqueness of form belongs to the whole 
order of cactacea. The Cactus senilsi would arrest the 
most unobservant eye in an exhibition of plants, from 
the ludicrous peculiarity by which it derives its name. 
Being simply a kind of stump, covered with long white 
streaming hair, it exactly resembles the head of an old 
man. In its native country this Cactus puts on con¬ 
siderably different, but not less ludicrous appearances. 
It then grows to the height of twelve, sometimes even to 
twenty or thirty, feet, and when it approaches a flower¬ 
ing state a circle of short brown fur appears round the 
summit, which gradually increases till it takes the very 
form and appearance of a lady’s fur muff. The flowers 
of the Cactus senilis are crimson, and are produced in a 
