262 WILD FLOWEES OF 



Some flowers on the other hand continue their ex- 

 pansion throughout the hours of gloom, silvering the 

 robe of contemplation ; or like the Evening Primrose 

 (^Enotliera biennis), prefer to open their beauties when 

 all things are sobered by twilight, as if anxious only 

 for the gaze of pensive melancholy, or incitative of 

 poetical thought. So BEENAED BARTON writing to 

 the Evening Primrose says 



" I love at such an houi* to mark 



Thy beauty greet the night breeze chill ; 

 And shine 'midst gath'ring shadows dark 

 The garden's glory still." 



The little Pimpernel (Anagallis arvensis) sullenly 

 keeps its scarlet petals closely shut on a cloudy or 

 a rainy day, and this so constantly and certainly, that 

 it has been called the " Shepherd's Weather Glass ;" 

 for whatever the barometer may indicate, if the red 

 Pimpernel has its flowers expanded fully in the morn- 

 ing, there will, to a certainty, be no rain of any 

 consequence on that day, and the umbrella and the 



Both such I have found, and in meadows at Cleeve, near Cheltenham, 

 where the Goatbeards were almost as abundant as the grass itself, have 

 met with the three kinds growing in proximity. The majority were good 

 pratenses, some were minors, and in the shade by the hedge side towered 

 in lofty pride two or three majors. From the observations I made, it ap- 

 peared to me that the alledged differences in the length of the involucres, 

 formed no diagnosis to be depended on. For in the numerous plants in the 

 pasture alluded to, very considerable differences appeared in the length of 

 the involucres, some in this respect being pratensis, others minor. But, in 

 fact, the very same plant exhibited variations in the length of the involu- 

 cre, and I much doubt if a Tragopogon can be found in Britain which at 

 the first opening of its corolla, has not the involucral bracteas nearly 

 twice as long as the florets. If the corolla has opened and closed more 

 than once, then the bracteas are shortened in appearance, and the florets 

 are elevated by the growth of the fruit, so that by the time the pappus is 

 ready to expand, the florets and bracteas are exactly equal, and in this 

 state the plant must be referred to T. pratensis. No other discriminating 

 marks are given, and T believe there are none, so that T. minor can 

 scarcely be considered even a variety of pratensis, but is identical with it. 



