The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1878-11-20
CoIors in Leaves and Flowers.

All common leaves contain a green pigment,
known to chemists as cblOrophYll, from which
they derive their ordinary color. The cells of
the leaf are stored with this pigment, while their
transparent walls give them that superficial
sheen which We notice so distinctly on the glossy
foliage OF the laurel and the bright trends of the
harts-tongue fern. But very slight chemical
changes in the composition of leaves suffice 10
give them different color, which is not sur
prlsiDg when We recOllect that color is nothing
more than light, reflected in greater or less pro-
portions OF Its constituent waves. The fashion
able pelargoniums, coleuses and begonias, or the
dark sedums which are employed to form the
quaint carpet gardens so much in vogue, show
US how easily The green coloring matter can be
replaced by various shades of purple, red and
brown. These changes seem on the whole to be
connected with some deficient nutrition of the
foliage. 1t would appear that the normal and
healthy pigment is rich green; but that, as
the leaf fades and dies. it passes through success
sive stages OF orange, pink and russell.
The autumn tints OF the forest, the crimson
hues OF the VirginiaB creePer, and the transitOry
colOrs OF dying plant, all show US these passing
nuances. If single leaf, or even particular
spot upon leaf, is insulficiently supplied with
nutriment, its first symptom of i'll health is a
tendency to paleness or jaundiced yellOwness.
II an insect turns some portion of it into gall
nut or blight, the tips assume beautiful pink
hue ln short, any constitutional weakness 10
the Leaf brings about changes in its contained
pigments which result in an altered mode of
rejecting light. Or, to put the same fact in
another way, any change 10 the composition OF
the pigments is apt to be accompanied by a
change in their color. Nov, the ends of long
branches are naturally the least nurtured por-
nf n ,Ia h.
such spots have great tendency TO assume a
brown or pnky hue. Furthermore, these spots
are exactly the places where flowers are formed !;
flowers being as we saw before. mere collections
of abOrted leaves, destined to fulfill the function
of parents for future generations at the point
where The vigorous growth of the original plant
is beginning to fail. Nothing can be more ma
tural, therefore, than that the flower leaves
should show an original tendency which would
OF course be strengthened by natural selection if
it gave the plant and its descendants any superb
ority over others IN the struggle for lite. 1t
should be remembered too, that he flower differs
from the leaf in the fact that it is not self sup
porting. The green portions OF a plant are its
mouths and stomach they are perpetually en-
gagged in assimiatng from the AIR and water
those elements which are best fitted for its
growth. But the flower is a purely expensive
structure 1t does not feed itself 1t is fed by
other portions of the plant. 1t uses up in the
act of growing and expanding, energies derived
from the food which has been stored up by the
chloropbyll elsewhere. Accordingly, We might
expect its pigment TO present that less energetic
more worn out form, which produces the bright
er hues of autumn and the pink tips of grow
ing bough. From whatever point of view we
regard it, We see that flower is naturally sup
piled with some coloring matter less active than
that green substance which forms the assimla
tive agency in common leaves. 1t Is easy. there
fore, to guess how certain plants may have ac-
qured the first tinge of color around their organs
of Modification, and thus have attracted the
eyes of insects by their superior brilIiancy.
Cornhill Magazine.
Az exchange saws: Wood naptha is cure