Night Flowers 207 



long blossom-tubes are sometimes followed by 

 shining, green seed-vessels, it is evident that the 

 day lily occasionally receives a visitor, who comes 

 under cover of night. A flower-tube so long as 

 this can be drained only by an insect with a very 

 long proboscis. Such insects are large and con- 

 spicuous, and if they flew by day would be speed- 

 ily " nabbed " by birds, collectors, or small boys. 

 Like Leander, they must pay their addresses by 

 night for life's sweet sake. 



So the deepest-throated flowers are almost all 

 nocturnal. The jasmine, the tuberose, and ste- 

 phanotis, which keep their nectar in very long and 

 slender tubes, blow at evening, and give their 

 fragrance to the night. The Yucca Filamentosa, 

 familiarly known as " Adam's needle and thread," 

 is another familiar garden night-flower (Fig. 57). 



By day its greenish-white flowers are bell- 

 shaped and odorless; and if the twilight be cold 

 or rainy its coming makes little difference in 

 their aspect. But on a clear, sultry evening, 

 soon after sunset, the yucca shows a marked 

 change. Its blossoms open widely, spreading in- 

 to great six-pointed stars, and breathe forth a 

 very penetrating and characteristic odor. 



As morning breaks the blossoms lose the star- 



