Lake Maxinkuckee, Physical and Biological Survey 373 



Although the evening primrose is common through fields, it is 

 not a bad weed, as it is easily killed out by cultivation and prefers 

 to grow in waste situations, especially in sandy soil. It is our most 

 common representative of the family to which the cultivated 

 Fuchsia belongs, and a comparison of the evening primrose with 

 a fuchsia blossom will at once reveal the similarity. 



The seeds of the evening primrose germinate during the sum- 

 mer and live throughout the winter, forming an attractive green 

 or purplish rosette, the exposed portion of the leaf being purplish, 

 the hidden parts green. The plants begin blooming about mid- 

 summer and continue until killed by frost; small secondary blos- 

 soms are formed late. In early summer, in sandy dry places, even 

 before the plants have bloomed, the leaves, which vary considerably 

 in shape, assume a bright red "autumnal coloration" ; this is the 

 first in the procession of plants to assume the vivid livery of the 

 fall. 



A noteworthy feature of the evening primrose is the rapidity 

 with which its buds open. Shortly after dusk, in the midst of the 

 growing season they open within a remarkably short space of time ; 

 and it is doubtful if any other flowers open with such rapidity as 

 in some of the cultivated forms similar to this. The eye is hardly 

 quick enough to watch the unfolding bud, and as a number of blos- 

 soms open on one plant it is almost like watching corn popping. 

 The moon-flower, well known for the rapidity of its blooming, is 

 behind in the race with this. The newly opened blossoms emit a 

 delightful fragrance, and the pollen grains, which under magnifica- 

 tion are seen to be curiously S-angled, are hung together by a 

 mass of cobwebby threads. A peculiarity of the evening prim- 

 rose is the tendency of the stem to grow out into a broad flat 

 blade. The dead stalks with their multitude of close-set pods are 

 a feature of the winter landscape. During the winter the gold- 

 finches stay about these plants quite constantly pecking about for 

 seed, and in autumn and spring the downy and perhaps hairy wood- 

 pecker spends a great deal of time on this plant and the mullein, 

 seeking either seeds or the larvse of insects. 



548. SMALL SUNDROPS 



KNEIFFIA PUMILA (L.) Spach 



A very pretty evening primrose-like plant, rather uncommon in 

 the vicinity of the lake. Found near the birch swamp, along the 

 railroad; in blossom June 17, 1901. 



