428 Old Time Gardens 



Greeks. It was called by the French la flambe 

 blanche, a beautiful poetic title the White Torch 

 of the Garden. 



A flower of mystery, of wonderment to children, 

 was the Evening Primrose ; I knew the garden 

 variety only with intimacy. Possibly the wild 

 flower had similar charms and was equally weird in 

 the gloaming, but it grew by country roadsides, 

 and I was never outside our garden limits after 

 nightfall, so I know not its evening habits. We 

 had in our garden a variety known as the California 

 Evening Primrose a giant flower as tall as our 

 heads. My mother saw its pale yellow stars shining 

 in the early evening in a cottage garden on Cape 

 Ann, and was there given, out of the darkness, by 

 a fellow flower lover, the seeds which have afforded to 

 us every year since so much sentiment and pleas- 

 ure. The most exquisite description of the Even- 

 ing Primrose is given by Margaret Deland in her 

 Old Garden : 



" There the primrose stands, that as the night 

 Begins to gather, and the dews to fall, 

 Flings wide to circling moths her twisted buds, 

 That shine like yellow moons with pale cold glow, 

 And all the air her heavy fragrance floods, 

 And gives largess to any winds that blow. 

 Here in warm darkness of a night in June, 

 . . . children came 



To watch the primrose blow. Silently they stood 

 Hand clasped in hand, in breathless hush around, 

 And saw her slyly doff her soft green hood 

 And blossom with a silken burst of sound." 



