Animal behavior; Animals -- Color; Plants -- Color
The general structure of plants is so simple in comparison with that of
animals that our remarks upon this sub-kingdom need only be short.
With regard to leaves, especially such as are brightly coloured, like
the Begonias, Caladiums, Coleus, and Anoechtochilus, Plate XI., the
colour follows pretty closely the lines of structure. We have border
decoration, marking out the vein-pattern of the border; the veins are
frequently the seat of vivid colour, and when decolouration takes place,
as in variegated plants, we find it running along the interspaces of the
veins. These facts are too patent to need much illustration; for our
zonale geraniums, ribbon grasses, and beautiful-leaved plants generally,
are now so common that everyone knows their character. When decay sets
in, and oxidation gives rise to the vivid hues of autumn, we find the
tints taking structural lines, as is well shown in dying vine and
horse-chestnut leaves, Fig. 1, Plate XI. This shows us that there is a
structural possibility of acquiring regional colouration.
We must remember, too, that the negative colouration of these dying
leaves is of very much the same character as the positive colouration of
flowers, for flowers are modified leaves, and their hues are due to the
oxidation of the valuable chlorophyll.
In leaves the tendency of spots to elongate in the direction of the leaf
is very marked, as may be well seen in Begonia. Fig. 17, drawn to
illustrate another point, shows this partly. When leaves are
unsymmetrical, like the begonias, the pattern is unsymmetrical also.
Among parallel veined leaves we find parallel decoration. Thus, in the
_Calatheas_ we have dark marks running along the veins. In _Dracæna
ferrea_ we have a dark green leaf, with a red border and tip, the red
running downwards along the veins. This action may be continued until
the leaf is all red except the mid-rib, which remains green. In long
net-veined leaves we may cite _Pavetta Borbonica_, whose dark green
blade has a crimson mid-rib. Of unsymmetrical leaves those in the plate
may suffice.
When we come to flowers, the same general law prevails, and is generally
more marked in wild than in cultivated forms, which have been much, and
to some extent unnaturally, modified. Broadly speaking, when a flower is
regular the decoration is alike on all the parts; the petals are alike
in size, the decoration is similar in each, but where they differ in
size the decoration changes. Thus, in _Pelargoniums_ we may find all
five petals alike, or the two upper petals may be longer or shorter than
the lower three. In the first case each is coloured similarly, in the
other the colour pattern varies with the size of the petal. The same may
be seen in Rhododendron.
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