186 FLORA HISTORICA. 



EVENING OR TREE PRIMROSE. (Enothera 

 Bunnis, 



Natural Order CalycardhemcB, Onagrce, Juss : a Genus 

 of the Octandria Monogynia Class. 



*' You Evening Primroses, wliisn day has fled 



Open your pallid flowers, by dews and moonlight fed." 



Barton. 



This North American flower was first sent from 



Virginia to Padua, in the year 1619, but at what 



exact period it reached England is uncertain, 



since Parkinson is the earUest author who notices 



it ; but it must have been some time previous to 



1629, as in his " Garden of Pleasant Flowers," 



which was published in that year, he speaks of 



it in a more familiar style than he would have 



done had it been of late introduction. This 



author calls it Tree Primrose of Virginia. This 



plant bears its primrose-coloured flowers on 



branches of three or four feet in height, and 



hence it was called Tree Primrose, and Evening 



Primrose, or Evening Star, because the flowers 



burst open and expand in the evening generally 



