COLOUR, in Plants, is an attribute found to be very variable. Different colours are observed, not only in different individuals of the same species, but likewise in different parts of the same individual. Thus, marvel of Peru and sweet-william have frequently petals of different colours on the same plant. Three or four different colours are frequently found upon the same leaf or flower, as on the leaves of the amaranthus tricolor, and the flowers of the tulip, auricula, three-coloured violet, and others. To produce the most beautiful and striking variety of colours in such flowers, is the principal delight and business of the florist.
The vegetable colours, and their intermediate shades or gradations enumerated by botanists, are as follow:—
Water-colour, hyalinus.