90 NOTES. 



it is uncertain what the Greek CEnothera really was, 

 certainly no old Greek could know anything of these 

 beautiful blossoms of our Western night. 



" Sir John Lubbock says that the evening primrose is 

 probably fertilized by moths, and it would seem at first 

 sight most likely that this should be the case. To-night 

 for the air, as I have said, is quite still and warm is 

 just the night that I should expect the moths to be at 

 work ; but after long waiting near a large yellow CEnothera 

 (the one plant had forty blooms), I did not see one 

 single moth. I returned to the bed of CEnothera taraxi- 

 cifolia, and again I could see no moth of any kind. 

 Meanwhile, a little further off, among a bed of white 

 Mediterranean heath, which is just as much in flower by 

 day as it is now, there are several of these wanderers of 

 the night little brown moths of (I think) two different 

 varieties. There and there alone, and not among the 

 large open blossoms of the CEnotheras, or among the 

 delicate tufts of night-scented stock, were the moths 

 busily engaged. Why, then, do these night-flowers if 

 it be not to attract night insects, and so get fertilized 

 expand their petals as evening falls ? We have, I 

 suspect, a good deal yet to learn on these matters. 

 Even the two OEnotheras are very unlike in several 

 respects. The seed-vessel of the CEnothera taraxicifolia 

 is at the end of a long tube, some seven inches in length, 

 down which runs the stalk or style of the pistil, and 

 within this tube I have constantly found little black 

 flies and grains of pollen. Moreover, the pistil and the 



