THE EVENING PRIMROSE 165 
sees one, might perch among these without a sus- 
picion, except perhaps at the tickling of its feet 
by the rudely touched victim. 
But these are not all the interesting features of 
the evening primrose. It has still another curi- 
ous secret, which has doubtless puzzled many a 
country stroller, and which is suggested in the 
following inquiry from a rural correspondent : 
" I read in ' Harper's Young People ' your piece about the 
evening primrose, and found the little moth and the catterpilers, 
what I never seen before ; but they is one thing what you never 
tole us about yit. Why is it that the buds on so meny evening 
primroses swell up so big and never open ? Some of them has 
holes into them, but I never seen nothing cum out." 
This same question must have been mentally 
propounded by many observers who have noted 
this singular peculiarity of the buds two sorts of 
buds, one of them long and slender, and with a 
longer tube ; the other short and stout, with no 
tube at all both of which are shown in proper 
proportion in my illustration. It is well to con- 
trast their outward form, and to note wherein they 
differ. In the normal or longer bud the tube is 
slender, and extended to a length of an inch or 
more, while in the shorter specimen this portion 
is reduced to about a fifth or sixth of that length, 
while the corolla enclosed within its sepals is 
much shortened and swollen. 
The difference in the shape and development 
of these two buds is a most interesting study, as 
