It is in the course of the
Tertiary Era that the mantle of green begins to be embroidered
with the brilliant hues of our flowers.
Grant Allen put forward in 1882 ("The Colours of Flowers") an
interesting theory of the appearance of the colours of flowers,
and it is regarded as probable. He observed that most of the
simplest flowers are yellow; the more advanced flowers of simple
families, and the simpler flowers of slightly advanced families,
are generally white or pink; the most advanced flowers of all
families, and almost all the flowers of the more advanced
families, are red, purple, or blue; and the most advanced flowers
of the most advanced families are always either blue or
variegated. Professor Henslow adds a number of equally
significant facts with the same tendency, so that we have strong
reason to conceive the floral world as passing through successive
phases of colour in the Tertiary Era. At first it would be a
world of yellows and greens, like that of the Mesozoic
vegetation, but brighter. In time splashes of red and white would
lie on the face of the landscape; and later would come the
purples, the rich blues, and the variegated colours of the more
advanced flowers.
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