First we must consider the correlation in the colors of flowers and
fruits. If both are colored in the species, whether red or brown or
purple or nearly black, and a variety lacking this hue is known, it will
be lacking in both organs. If the color is pure, the flowers and berries
will become white, but such cases are rare. Ordinarily a yellowish or
greenish tinge underlies the ornamental color, and if this latter
disappears, the yellowish ground will become manifest. So for instance
in the Belladonna, a beautiful perennial herb with great shiny black,
but very poisonous, fruits. Its flowers are brown, but in [146] some
woods a variety with greenish flowers and bright yellow berries occurs,
which is also frequently seen in botanic gardens. The anthocyan dye is
lacking in both organs, and the same is the case with the stems and the
leaves. The lady's laurel or _Daphne Mezereum_ has red corollas, purple
leaves and red fruits; its white flowered variety may be distinguished
by lack of the red hue in the stems and leaves, and by their beautiful
yellow berries. Many other instances could be given, since the loss of
color in berries is a very common occurrence, so common that for
instance, in the heath-family or Ericaceae, with only a few exceptions,
all berry-bearing species have white-fruited varieties.
The same correlation is observed in the seeds. The white-flowered flax
may be seen to yield yellow and not brown seeds as in the blue species.
Many varieties of flowers may be recognized by the color of their seeds,
as in the poppies, stocks and others. Other white-flowered varieties may
be distinguished when germinating, their young axes being of a pure
instead of a purplish green. It is a test ordinarily used by gardeners,
to purify their flower beds long before the blooming time, when thinning
or weeding them. Even in wild plants, as in _Erodium_, _Calluna_,
_Brunella_ and others, a botanist may recognize the rare white-flowered
[147] variety by the pure green color of the leaves, at times when it is
not in flower. Some sorts of peas bear colored flowers and a red mark on
the stipules of their leaves. Among bulbous plants many varieties may be
recognized even in the dry bulbs by the different tinges of the outer
scales.
Leaving the colors, we come now to another instance of correlation,
which is still more astonishing. For it is as rare, as color-varieties
are common. It is afforded by some plants the leaves of which, instead
of being entire or only divided into large parts, are cleft to a greater
extent by repeated fissures of the marginal lobes. Such foliar
variations are often seen in gardens, where they are cultivated for
their beauty or singularity, as the laciniated alders, fern-leaved,
beeches and limes, oakleaved laburnums, etc. Many of them are described
under the varietal name of _laciniata_. In some cases this fissure
extends to the petals of the flowers, and changes them in a way quite
analogous to the aberrancy of the leaves.
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