78 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



family of dullards, they rise to heights to which their more 

 prosaic relations cannot aspire. A slight variation in the color 

 of the flowers, the time of bloom, the size of the blossom, or 

 the way it is borne may serve to distinguish a flower from its 

 weedy family. This is largely the case with the desert trum- 

 pet flower or ghost flower {DaUira meteloidcs) which, though 

 closely related to the noxious jimson weed that is seldom 

 mentioned except to be execrated, is an aristocratic species 

 quite worthy of our admiration. With flowers and foliage 

 that unmistakably suggest its plebeian congener, it neverthe- 

 less escapes weediness by a considerable margain. During the 

 warmer part of the day it presents to the eye only a mass of 

 cheerful gray-green foliage, but as the day declines there is a 

 stir among the leaves and presently a number of great creamy- 

 white flowers, like morning glories, with a violet tinted bor- 

 der, open and pour a strong and pleasing fragrance on the 

 evening air. Some of these blossoms are ten inches long and 

 more than six inches across — among the largest of American 

 wild flowers. In midsumer the flowers close before the morn- 

 ing has passed, but in cooler weather they may remain open 

 for more than a day. Shortly after the flowers close, the 

 corolla falls, but the calyx is more tardily deciduous because 

 it must first separate above the ovary, leaving the base as a 

 sort of collar about the prickly fruit. This method of cutting 

 ofif the calyx is unique in this genus, so far as I know, and 

 always suggests the method by which the common portulaca 

 and the plantain release their seeds. 



It might be surmised that the opening of a flower as large 

 as this must he attended with movements that are perceptible 

 to the ordinary eye, and this proves to be correct. If one 

 will take his stand near a flower-bud .shortly before sundown, 

 he may have the pleasure of seeing the blossom snap open. 

 In the bud. the corolla is twisted into a spiral, like that of the 



