Several weeks have passed since rain has fallen here; and all the time the July sun has been pouring down his rays most fiercely and unmercifully. At noon the mercury usually stands at something near 1oo° - and one day at 1040 - in the shade.

The wilted foliage of trees and plants shows vegetation to be suffering; and seemingly, as if apprehensive that their end was near, flowering plants have been blooming with unwonted profusion and splendor, seeming to indicate that in case they were exterminated their object was to provide for a succeeding generation. Verbenas and Geraniums have assumed their richest hues and have been blooming in prodigal abundance.

Even the tardy Chrysanthemum, with similar apprehension, is flowering and covered with buds. The flowers are perfect, but the delicate petals, unable to bear the sun, are scorched and withered at the tips. The usually white ones have a lemon-ish tint. The flowers are evidently produced at the expense of growth and foliage. The jagged leaves of the blooming Chrysanthemum are changed to entire tri-lobate, and much smaller than usual, some being merely bracts; which with the numerous small and slender stems, bearing the flowers, greatly changes the characteristic appearance of the plant.

. New Albany, Ind., July 22d, 1885.

[The very interesting topic touched on by our correspondent, has been worked up by modern scientific investigators, and the cause of coloring, and indeed of flowering, found to be, as our correspondent suspects, in connection with a decrease of vegetative vigor; not until growth is checked are flowers formed of that which was intended for leaves, and with this check the color connected with flowers comes.

In like manner the check which autumn leaves receive results in coloring, and the same species of plants will have a brighter or higher color in a northern or Alpine region, where the struggle for life with the elements is greater than further south, where the elements are more favorable to vegetative vigor. The great development of color in Alpine plants over those which grow at low elevations is believed to be referable to this law. Color is an attribute of fading vegetation. - Ed. G. M].