DIAL OF FLOWERS. 227 



easily. In other plants of this class, the flower shuts 

 up against rain, and on the approach of evening, as 

 is the case with the marigolds. 



The periodical change of colour in some flowers 

 is also worthy of remark. Thus the flowers of the 

 speckled French Honeysuckle (Jledysarum macula- 

 turn) are purple in the morning and green at noon. 

 The changeable Hibiscus (Hibiscns mutabilis) is 

 white in the morning, flesh-coloured at noon, and 

 rose-red in the evening. Thus too, the great Corn- 

 flag, ( Gladiolus grandus) changes its colour several 

 times in the course of the day. 



Neither is the -scent of flowers equally strong and 

 agreeable at all hours of the day : many, even of our 

 indigenous flowers, have the strongest scent at night. 

 The Ixia cinnamomea gives out its fragrance in the 

 evening only; the highly-scented Lesser Orpine, 

 (Crassida odoratissima), only in the night; the 

 Epidendrum fragrans, morning and evening ; an- 

 other species of Epidendrum, hung up in a room 

 without earth or water, yields an agreeable perfume 

 for years. The flowers of the Hebenstreitia dentata 

 are scentless in the morning, have a disagreeable 

 smell at noon, and give out in the evening a fragrant 

 odour not unlike that of the Hyacinth. 



These properties of flowers, and the opening and 

 shutting of many at particular times of the day, led 

 to the idea of planting them in such a manner as to 



