EVENING-PRIMROSE 



EVENING-PRIMROSE 



Onagra biennis. (Enothcra biennis 



Onagra, the wild ass, said to refer to the similarity of 

 its leaves to the ears of that animal. 



Native. Biennial or winter annual. Common every- 

 where in dry soil, roadsides, unoccupied city lots, waste 

 places. 



Stem. — Erect, stout, leafy; more or less hairy; two to 

 five feet high. 



Leaves. — Alternate, lanceolate, acute or acuminate, ses- 

 sile or the lower petioled, undulate; three to five inches 

 long. 



Flowers. — Nocturnal, pure yellow, borne in a leafy- 

 bracted, many-flowered terminal spike, with few flowers 

 in bloom at any one time. 



Calyx. — Calyx tube slender, much longer than the 

 ovary; border four-lobed. 



Stamens. — Four, pollen in cobwebby strings. 



Pistil. — Ovary four-celled. 



Fruit. — Capsule, four-sided, somewhat narrowed at the 

 end. 



Pollinated by night-flying moths. Nectar-bearing. 

 Stamens mature before the stigma. 



The Evening-Primrose is our best-known wild 

 flo^ver whose bloom is nocturnal. Common every- 

 where: roadsides, fence corners, edges of thickets, 

 waste lots in cities; by day dishevelled, unkempt; 

 a stalk bearing coarse leaves and heavy with a trail 

 of ripening seed-pods — at the summit a few wilted 

 flowers — this is the Evening-Primrose by day. The 

 faded blossoms bloomed night before last, the wilting 



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