THE EVENING PRIMROSE BY DAYLIGHT 137 



All through the night it fluttered among the fresh 

 opening flowers, one of a countless host of feathery noc- 

 turnal moths and " millers." But as the sunrise has sto- 

 len upon these primroses, the fickle broods have all for- 

 gotten the flowers, and dispersed afar. "All," did I say? 

 Oh no; not all. Let us turn to our withered blossoms, 

 and, one by one, look within their bells. Here is one 

 that falls even at our approach, plainly the blossom of 

 night before last. We will turn our attention only to 

 last night's flowers. Here is a bell that appears to have 

 an extra petal folded within its throat ; and upon open- 

 ing the folds, we disclose our faithful nursling with pink 

 and yellow wings ; the earliest twilight sipper, that even 

 on the approach of dawn is loth to leave the flower, and 

 creeps into the wilting bloom, where it remains concealed 

 through the following day, and doubtless occasionally 

 falls with it to the ground. 



In the color of its markings we find an outward ex- 

 pression of its beautiful sympathy, the yellow margins 

 of the wings which protrude from the flower being 

 quite primrose- like, and the pink being reflected in the 

 rosy hue which the wilting primrose petals so often 

 assume, especially at the throat. 



These pretty moths are by no means rare. A careful 

 search is quite certain to disclose a number of them. 

 I once found three upon the same plant. Look, then, 

 to your daylight primrose. 



