NOTES. 91 



stamens of this CEnothera are as nearly as possible the 

 same length ; so that even before the flower has opened, 

 a stigma or head of the pistil has got well dusted over 

 with the pollen of the stamens. 



" In the case of the large yellow OEnothera the 

 pistil stands out above the stamens, and I suppose it 

 could not be fertilized except by the wind or (more 

 probably) by insects. The tube that leads to the seed- 

 vessel is here only about two inches long, and is not 

 smooth but hairy, so that insects would hardly pass 

 down. Somehow or other, however, the yellow CEnothera 

 bears seed much more certainly and abundantly than 

 the white one. I must add that the veins in both 

 CEnotheras, and especially in the white one, are very 

 strongly marked ; so that a theory which carries the 

 high sanction of Sir John Lubbock, that veins are guides 

 to the honey of a flower, and that they do not exist 

 in night- opening flowers, as they would be unseen by 

 night and therefore useless, can hardly, I imagine, be 

 maintained." 



I believe it is now pretty well ascertained that the 

 CEnothera of the ancients was the small Willow-herb 

 (Epilobium roseum\ which in my own garden is the 

 most familiar of weeds. 



Pliny describes it as having exhilarating properties in 

 wine, as having leaves like those of the Almond-tree, 

 a rose-coloured flower, many branches, and a long root, 

 which, when dried, has a vinous smell, and an infusion 

 of which has a soothing effect on wild beasts. 



