Floral colours and the physiology of vision

Summary

The absorption spectra of the blue flowers ofClitoria ternatea and of the purplish-red flowers of the orchidAerides multiflorum, have been recorded. They show a striking similarity with the absorption spectra of the petals ofCineraria exhibiting those colours. Various yellow flowers exhibit a banded structure in the blue-violet regions of the spectrum which they only feebly transmit.