Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 September 1892 — Artificial Coloration. [ARTICLE]

Artificial Coloration.

Flowers cannot be tinted by Immersing them In dye solutions, but they are readily colored if their stalks are placed in aniline solutions. Aniline scarlet dissolved In water to about the transparency of claret has a very rapid action on flowers, coloring them pink and scarlet. Indigo carmine produces beautiful blue tints. The two combined dye various shades of purple, with curious mottled effects, some parts of the flowers becoming pink and other parts blue and purple. Greens are produced by using the blue dye with yellow. In a series of experiments indigo and cochineal were used with partial success. Lily of the valley flowers became beautifully tinged with pink or blue in six hours; narcissi arc changed from pure white to deep scarlet in twelve hours, and delicate shades of pink are imparted to them in a very short time. Yellow daffodils are beautifully striped with dark scarlet in twelve hours; the edges of tho corona also become deeply tinged, and the veinlng of the perianth becomes very strongly marked. The way this rapid change is brought about is very interesting. There is a system of veins in plants, the tubes passing through the leaves, petals, and other parts of the flower; and it is by these that the color Is conveyed to every portion of the plants. White tulips furnish excellent examples of artificial coloring, as they can bo readily tinted either pink, blue, green or purple in a few hours. The vein tubes which are thus displayed in the petals agree with tho strongly marked features, known as the “flamed” or “feathered” varieties of the florist. Blue tulips have always been desired, and they can thus be artificially produced for florist purpose?. The double white camelia is another pretty illustrations, as It becomes pink. White lilacs take the color perfectly, becoming blue or pink at pleasure. Forced leaves of the Swede turnip, grown In the dark for culinary purposes, are extremely susceptible to coloration. They begin to color in about three hours, are beautifully fringed with red, and suffused with rich orange. Thus tinted, they are beautiful objects for tabic decoration.