338 Life and Immortality. 



seen reflexed and adjusting themselves back to back around 

 the stem with many contortions. Whatever the function of 

 this strange nocturnal movement may be, and it is still a 

 matter of dispute with botanists, one thing we are certain 

 about, that is, its essential condition to the life of the plant, 

 careful experiment having demonstrated, according to one 

 authority, that " if the leaves are prevented from so regulat- 

 ing their surface, they lose their color and die in a few days" 

 a fact which Darwin has just as conclusively shown to be 

 the case with other plants. 



Flowers that bloom by night could hardly be suspected of 

 that vanity which Rhodora has been made to confess by 

 Emerson in his beautiful lines to this flower. Our evening 

 primrose does not bloom in the dark hours for mere senti- 

 ment or moonshine, but from a nature which lies, figuratively 

 speaking, much nearer her heart. " Often when the nights 

 are very dark," says an old writer, " her petals emit a mild 

 phosphorescent light, and look as if illuminated for a holi- 

 day. And he who does not fear to be out in her mild and 

 lovely haunt may see a variety of nocturnal ephemerae hover- 

 ing around the lighted petals, or sipping at the flowery 

 fountains, while others rest among the branches or hurry 

 up the stems as if fearing to be too late." From the first 

 moment of her wooing welcome it would seem that our 

 evening primrose listens for murmuring wings, and awaits 

 that supreme fulfilment with joyous expectancy, for it will 

 invariably be found that these blossoms, which open in the 

 twilight, have adapted themselves to crepuscular moths and 

 other nocturnal insects, a fact which finds a striking illus- 

 tration in the instances of very long tubular-shaped night- 

 blooming flowers, like the honeysuckle and divers orchids, 

 whose nectar is beyond the ability of any insect but a night- 

 flying hawk-moth to attain. True, it is, that in other less 

 deep nocturnal flowers the sweets could be reached by 

 butterflies or bees if the blossoms were left open. But 

 the night-murmurers receive the first invitation, which, if 



