1244. The whole plant must be regarded as a green synthetic colour; the
corolla as the analysis of the Green.
1245. The first division of the Green is Yellow and Blue. These two
colours are the first which make their appearance in the corolla.
1246. Yellow is the earth-colour, corresponds to the root, and
consequently indicates the lowest colour. Yellow corollæ are less
developed than those which are otherwise coloured. The corollæ of
spring flowers are therefore yellow; so likewise is the middle of the
corolla, as is specially exemplified in the disk of the Syngenesious
plants.
1247. Blue is the second colour of corollæ in the scale of dignity,
or rank. Blue is displayed on the better developed corolla, and is
frequently the colour in the rays of the Syngenesiæ. Blue belongs to
the temperate zones.
1248. If Yellow and Blue be the divided Green of the leaves, the
complementary colour to that of the corollæ must thus remain in the
trunk. The trunks of plants having blue corollæ should therefore
be yellow; those with yellow corollæ should furnish blue colouring
matters, like the Woad.
1249. Red is the third corolla-colour, the true light-colour, in the
which properly all corollæ have been immersed; and if they exhibit any
other colours, these should be viewed only as instances of aberration
from Red. The Reds are the splendid colours, which develop themselves
in the middle of summer; in flaming red mantles are the flowers of the
torrid zone veiled.
1250. Finally, the form triumphs over the colour. The light has in Red
done everything which it could do for colour, having allured as it were
all the colours out of the plant; it now, on the contrary, bestows its
attention upon the form and delicacy of the substance. The white colour
makes its appearance in antithesis to the red, and is mostly associated
with very delicate structure.
1251. The cells of the red corollæ are replete with starch-granules,
but those of the white are quite empty. The yellow and blue corollæ
range in the middle. Red is a superabundance, White a deficiency, of
nutriment. The most noble and beautiful corollæ, as well as the lowest
also, may therefore be white. White and red are the general colours
for all families of plants, but yellow and blue are special colours.
In general the trunk is green, the corolla white, the seed black. The
mediate stages are red, yellow, and blue.
STAMEN-FILAMENTS.
1252. At length we come to the last work achieved by the light in the
corolla, or to complete separation of the systems or tissues. If ever
bundles of fibres may entirely separate from the cellular substance,
this is possible only in the corolla, as being the final light-organ.
Separation must, however, be attained: for thus far do the claims of
light extend. But no development remains stationary before it has
corresponded with the operations of the developing agent.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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