The results obtained by Sir John Herschel on the colouring juices of flowers are too remarkable to be omitted in a treatise in which it is desirable that every point should be registered up to the date of publication, which connects itself with the phenomena of chemical change applied to photography.

" In operating on the colours of flowers, I have usually proceeded as follows:—The petals of the fresh flowers, or rather such parts of them as possessed a uniform tint, were crushed to a pulp in a marble mortar, either alone, or with addition of alcohol, and the juice expressed by squeezing the pulp in a clean linen or cotton cloth. It was then spread on paper with a flat brush, and dried in the air without artificial heat, or at most with the gentle warmth which rises in the ascending current of air from an Arnott stove. If alcohol be not added, the application on paper must be performed immediately, since exposure to the air of the juices of most flowers (in some cases even but for a few minutes) irrecoverably changes or destroys their colour. If alcohol be present, this change does not usually take place, or is much retarded; for which reason, as well as on account of certain facilities afforded by its admixture in procuring an even tint (to be presently stated), this addition was commonly, but not always, made.

"Most flowers give out their colouring matter readily enough, either to alcohol or water. Some, however, as the Escholzias and Calceolarias, refuse to do so, and require the addition of alkalies, others of acids, etc. When alcohol is added, it should, however, be observed that the tint is often apparently much enfeebled, or even discharged altogether, and that the tincture, when spread on paper, does not reappear of its blue intensity till after complete drying. The temporary destruction of the colour of the blue heartsease by alcohol is curious, nor is it by any means a singular instance. In some, but in very few cases, it is destroyed, so as neither to reappear on drying, nor to be capable of revival by any means tried. And in all cases long keeping deteriorates the colours and alters the qualities of the alcoholic tinctures themselves; so that they should always be used as fresh as possible.

" If papers tinged with vegetable colours are intended to be preserved, they must be kept perfectly dry and in darkness. A close tin vessel, the air of which is dried by quicklime (carefully enclosed in double paper bags, well pasted at the edges to prevent the dust escaping), is used for this purpose. Moisture (as already mentioned, especially assisted by heat) destroys them for the most part rapidly, though some (as the colour of the Senecio splendens) resist obstinately. Their destructibility by this agency, however, seems to bear no distinct relation to their photographic properties.

" This is also the place to observe that the colour of a flower is by no means always, or usually, that which its expressed juice imparts to white paper. In many cases the tints so imparted have no resemblance to the original hue. Thus, to give only a few instances, the red damask rose of that intense variety of colour commonly called by florists the black rose, gives a dark slate blue, as do also the clove carnation and the black hollyhock : a fine dark brown variety of sparaxis give a dull olive green; and a beautiful rose-coloured tulip, a dirty bluish green; but perhaps the most striking case of this kind is that of a common sort of red poppy (Papaver Rheum), whose expressed juice imparts to paper a rich and most beautiful blue colour, whose elegant properties as a photographic material will be further alluded to hereafter. *

" This change of colour is probably owing to different causes in different flowers. In some it undoubtedly arises from the escape of carbonic acid, but this, as a general cause for the change from red to blue, has, I am aware, been controverted. In some (as is the case with the yellow ranunculi) it seems to arise from a chemical alteration depending on absorption of oxygen; and in others, especially where the expressed juice coagulates on standing, to a loss of vitality or disorganization of the molecules. The fresh petal of a single flower, merely crushed by rubbing on dry paper, and instantly dried, leaves a stain much more nearly approximating to the original hue. This, for example, is the only way in which the fine blue colour of the common field veronica can be imparted to paper. Its expressed juice, however quickly prepared when laid on with a brush, affords only a dirty neutral grey, and so of many others. But in this way no even tint can be had, which is a first requisite to the experiments now in question, as well as to their application to photography.

" To secure this desirable evenness of tint, the following manipulation will generally be found successful;—The paper should be moistened at the back by sponging and blotting off. It should then be pinned on a board, the moist side downwards, so that two of its edges (suppose the right-hand and lower ones) shall project a little beyond those of the board. The board being then inclined twenty or thirty degrees to the horizon, the alcoholic tincture (mixed with a very little water, if the petals themselves be not very juicy) is to be applied with a brush in strokes from left to right, taking care not to go over the edges which rest on the board, but to pass clearly over those which project, and observing also to carry the tint from below upwards by quick sweeping strokes, leaving no dry spaces between them, but keeping up a continuity of wet surface. When all is wet, cross them by another set of strokes from above downwards, so managing the brush as to leave no floating liquid on the paper.

* A semi-cultivated variety was used, having dark purple spots at the bases of the petals. The common red poppy of the chalk [Papavier hybridum) gives a purple colour much less sensitive and beautiful.