LATER YEARS OP A PLANT. 197 



and sends up his hymn to praise his Maker, so every 

 flower also has its time. They open commonly to the 

 light, some in the morning, to close again at night, whilst 

 others will not open at all, except in clear bright weather. 

 The degree of light which they require, determines mostly 

 the hour of the day at which they will unfold their beauty. 

 Thus the daisy, like a true day's eye, opens its white and 

 crimson-tipped star to meet the early beams of the rising 

 sun ; and the morning-glory closes its sweet-scented flowers 

 before the sun has risen high ; the dandelion opens at 

 half-past five, and closes at nine ; the scarlet pimpernel 

 waits patiently until mid-day, and dreads rain so anxiously 

 that it folds quickly up, even before the impending shower, 

 and remains closed during the passage of a cloud. Hence 

 its name of the "poor man's weather-glass." Others love 

 late hours : the evening primrose opens its golden eyes 

 in the sweet hour of eve, and retires before the returning 

 glare of day. The brilliant white lotus, opening when the 

 sun rises, and closing when he sets, still loves shade so 

 well, that, when it has no shelter to screen itself, it folds 

 up its pure leaves as soon as the sun reaches the zenith, 

 as though unable to endure the too ardent rays of the 

 luminary that called it into life. There are, on the other 

 hand, also bats and owls found among plants, wide awake 

 all night long. The convolvulus of the tropics blooms 

 only at night, and so does that magnificent cactus, the 

 large flowered torch-thistle. Late in the silent night, when 

 all other flowers are sleeping, this strange plant, with its 

 dry, bare stem, unfolds its gorgeous, vanilla-scented flowers. 

 There are few others known of greater beauty ; they some- 



