The observation under the microscope shows at
once the different units, which though lying in the same cell and in
almost immediate vicinity of each other are always wholly separated from
one another by the wall of the vacuole or sapfilled cell-cavity.
The combination of red and yellow gives a brown tinge, as in the
cultivated wall-flower, or those bright hues of a dark orange-red, which
are so much sought in tulips. By putting such flowers for a short time
in boiling water, the cells die and release the red pigment, which
becomes diffused in the surrounding fluids and the petals are left
behind with their yellow tinge. In this way it is easy to separate the
constituents, and demonstrate the compound nature of the original
colors.
[150] But the diversity of the color patterns is far from being
exhausted with these simple instances. Apart from them, or joined to
them, other complications are frequently seen, which it is impossible to
analyze in such an artificial way. Here we have to return to our former
principle, the comparison of different varieties. Assuming that single
units may be lost, irrespective of the others, we may expect to find
them segregated by variation, wherever a sufficiently wide range of
color-varieties is in cultivation. In fact, in most cases a high degree
of dissimilarity may be reached in the simplest way by such a separation
of the components, and by their combination into most diverse smaller
groups.
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