CENOTHERA ORCHIS. 137 



M. didyma. Oswego Tea. A perennial, native of North 

 America, as are all the species ; an ornamental plant, three 

 feet high, with very brilliant scarlet flowers from June to Au- 

 gust. 



The leaves are sometimes used as a substitute for tea, and 

 known by the name of crimson balm, or bergamot. 



M. fistula has light purple flowers, not so handsome as the 

 last. There are also other species which, in a large collec- 

 tion, would be interesting. 



(ENOTHERA. 



Evening Primrose. 



A number of the family are hardy perennial border plants. 

 The flowers of most of the species expand in the evening. 



O. macrocarpa. This showy species has large, fleshy 

 roots, which throw out decumbent stems, producing in succes- 

 sion, through the summer, numerous large yellow flowers, four 

 or five inches in diameter. 



O. speciosa has creeping roots, with stems one and a half 

 foot high, with large white flowers, from June to September. 



O.fruticosa has rather shrubby stems two feet high, with 

 dark yellow flowers in July and August. 



O. fraseri is one and a half foot high, with yellow flowers, 

 from June to October. 



O. taraxiciflora is a magnificent perennial, not very common, 

 with large white flowers. All the species succeed well in any 

 common garden soil, and easily propagated from divisions of 

 the root, and from seed when it can be obtained. 



ORCHIS. 



This is a beautiful and very curious genus of plants, of 

 which we have a number of native species, growing mostly in 

 swampy places. They will not succeed well in the garden, 



