CLASS VIII. ORDEE I.J (ENOTHERA. 651 



Habitat. — Wet places, near springs, and the sides of rivulets ; on 

 the Highland Mountains of Scotland. 

 Perennial ; flowering in July. 



GENUS III. (ENOTHE'RA Linn. Evening Primrose. 



Nat. Ord. Onagra.'rie^. Juss. 



Gen. Char. Calyx tubular with a reflexed four-partite deciduous 



limb, more or less combined. Petals four. Stamens eight. 



Stigma four lobed. Capsule linear or winged, of four valves, 



four celled, and many seeded. Seeds naked. — Name from oivog, 



wine; and Qn^oc, searching or hunting; the root of some species 



eaten after meals were used as incentives to wine drinking, as 



olives are at the present time. 



1. (E. bien'niSf Linn. (Fig. 628.) Common Evening Primrose. 



Leaves ovate lanceolate, flat, toothed ; stem somewhat hairy ; flowers 



sessile, sub-spicate; stamens equal, about as long as the corolla; 



capsule oblong, conical, nearly cylindrical. 



English Botany, t. 1534.— English Flora, vol. ii. p. 210.— Hooker, 

 British Flora, vol. i. p. 182. — Lindley, Synopsis, p. 109. 



Root fleshy, tapering. Stem erect, from two to three or four feet 

 high, simple or branched, leafy, angular, more or less rough, with 

 tubercles, and scattered over with hairs. Leaves alternate, ovate, or 

 ovate lanceolate, on short footstalks, downy, the margins irregularly 

 toothed and waved, the mid-rib stout, with numerous slender lateral 

 veins. Inflorescence terminal, sub-spicate, the flowers numerous from 

 the axis of the upper leaves, sessile. Calyx with a long cylindrical 

 tube and a reflexed limbf of four segments, irregularly combined 

 together, lanceolate, with a long slender tapering point, hairy. Corolla 

 yellow, of four wedge-shaped waved petals, expanding towards the 

 evening, and exhaling a pleasant fragrance. Stamens of equal length, 

 with erect awl-shaped filaments, shorter than the corolla. Anthers 

 yellow, linear, oblong, incumbent. Style erect, as long as the stamens, 

 with stigmas^ of four spreading oblong segments. Capsule oblong, 

 conical, short, obtuse, cylindrical, or with four obtuse angles and 

 furrows, four celled, four valved, with numerous naked seeds. 



Habitat. — Sandy hills near Liverpool ; near Woodbridge, Sufiblk ; 

 banks of the Arrow, Warwickshire; and the banks of the Don below 

 Shefiield, Yorkshire ; naturalized. 



Perennial ; flowering from June to September. 



CEnothera is an extensive and very beautiful ornamental genus of 

 plants, for the most part natives of America, but are easy of cultivation 

 on our borders in a rich loamy soil, and readily propagated both by 

 seeds and cuttings, and the delicate fragrance which many of them 



