FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. 259 



CHAPTER XII. 



METEORIC FLOWERS. 



It was a happy idea of Linnaeus to construct a 

 " floral clock," with the hours representing the open- 

 ing or closing of certain flowers. It was also the 

 same botanist who applied the name of " meteoric 

 flowers " to such as closed and expanded periodically, 

 at, or near the same period of time, or such as ap- 

 peared to be influenced especially by definite atmo- 

 spheric changes in opening or closing. Pretty and 

 poetical as such a theory may be, it is doubtful if it 

 extends beyond this. So many circumstances may 

 modify the periodicity to such an extent as to upset 

 any horological arrangement. A dull day and a 

 bright sunny one, a dry morning or a moist one, will 

 certainly not produce the same results. The open- 

 ing and closing depending so much on light and 

 temperature will be related more to the bright, clear 

 sky, and the warm genial atmosphere, than to the 

 particular hour of the day. Admitting all these 

 influences and conditions, it is doubtless true that 

 under a normal condition there are many flowers 

 which open or close nearly at the same time, or 



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