INHERITED COLOUR.
Colour is a freakish thing. On one Welsh hillside this year great numbers of white blue-bells made a surprising appear- ance ; and the white hare-bells on a Hertfordshire common are much more numerous than usual. Is it possible that certain seasonal peculiarities of climate and soil prohibit the emergence of colour ? The sun is the source of colour ; but the sun has different influences at different times of day. You can completely alter the colour of your nasturtiums by the simple method of cutting off the sun's rays during an hour or two of the early morning. To cut off the evening rays makes no manner of difference. In some respects colour responds with exactitude to the touch of the florist. Mr. Sutton has created a thousand gems of varying hues out of the yellow nemesia, but sweet peas quite refuse to become either yellow or blue ; and the one blue rose that I have seen was not, truly and honestly, blue at all, but rather a slaty purple. The colours of the seasons are of course a favourite theme in British botany. The year passes from the white and delicate yellows of spring through blue and red into the heavier yellows and purples of autumn. But the theme is over- elaborated. You may find in this September a second crop of scarlet poppies in the roots and odd plants of scarlet pimpernel and blue speedwell in the stubbles, as well as yellow agrimony in the meadows and purple hemp-agrimony by the stream.
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