NOTES. 89 



Keats, whose accurate observation of flowers is often 

 very remarkable, speaks of 



'A tuft of evening primroses 

 O'er which the mind may hover till it dozes ; 

 O'er which it well might take a pleasant sleep 

 But that 'tis ei>er startled by the leap 

 Of buds into ripe flowers? 



But more beautiful still than the yellow CEnothera is the 

 white CEnothera taraxitifolia, the evening primrose of 

 the dandelion leaf. I have a bed of standard roses 

 which I have carpeted entirely with this CEnothera. It 

 grows low to the ground, and its leaves, which are deeply 

 serrated, cover the bed. In the daytime there are the 

 relics of the last night's harvest of blossom, but the 

 flowers look faded, and soon get a pink flush over the 

 white after which they wither away. But to-night 

 the fresh blooms are out, and I count from sixty to 

 seventy of them, like stars, some in clusters and some 

 gleaming singly from the mass of deep foliage. There is, 

 it almost seems to me, a positive light about them which 

 no other white flower has, not even the Eucharis or the 

 Christmas rose. And then the blossoms are so large 

 when fully open at least three inches across the petals. 

 This CEnothera is from Chili, but the yellow one comes 

 from North America; and a smaller yellow one, also 

 from North America, may be found naturalized and now 

 quite wild in one or two places in England. The name 

 CEnothera (properly, I suppose, CEnothera) is said to 

 have been given because the root smelt of wine ; but if 



