WILD ROSES 183 
that it depends upon moths to fertilise it. An interest- 
ing point in its opening is the extraordinary rapidity 
with which the petals unroll. In one half-minute the 
flower passes from a close- 
folded bud to the full- 
blown stage, and if it is 
fertilised by a moth that 
evening it rolls up prompt- 
ly, and never opens again. 
The moth thrusts its trunk 
down the long, tubular 
corolla for the honey, and 
dusts its head with the 
pollen, and at the next 
flower it is pretty sure to 
touch the cross into which 
the stigma divides. Its 
cousin, the Hairy Willow 
Herb, ornaments most of 
our ditches with its tall, ’ 
downy stems and its bright 
heads of rose-coloured flowers. Near to it we may also 
find the purple Loosestrife, which appears in Hamlet as 
the “long purples” or “dead men’s fingers” upon the 
banks of the stream in which lay drowned Ophelia. 
If a ballot were taken for the most popular and best- 
liked class of English wild flowers I think that the Rose 
tribe would probably come out at the top, though closely 
followed by the Composite with their overwhelming 
numbers. The Compositz would be handicapped by 
_ some rather ugly members of the family, which it would 
be impossible to keep out of sight, but the Rose family 
would not have a single skeleton in their cupboard. The 
EVENING PRIMROSE. 
