POPULAR FLORA. 153 



36. EVENING-PRIMROSE FAMILY. Order ONAGRACE.E. 

 Herbs, or sometimes shrubs, known by having the parts of the blossom in fours, the tube 

 of the calyx coherent with the 4-celled ovarj', and often prolonged beyond, its summit 

 bearing 4 petals, and 4 or 8 stamens. Style 1, slender: stigmas generally 4. In green- 

 house cultivation we have several species of Fuchsia, well known for their pretty hanging 

 flowers, the smaller kinds called Ladles' Eardrop. The showy part is a colored (generally 

 red) calyx, its 4 lobes longer than the purple petals. Fuchsias are shrubs ; the rest of the 

 family are herbs. Clarkia, known by the long-clawed petals, and broad petal-like stigmas, 

 is sometimes cultivated, and so are several Evening-Primroses. The commonest wild 

 plants of the family are Evening-Primroses and Willow-herbs. 



Evening-Primrose. CEnothera. 

 Calyx with the tube continued on beyond the ovary, bearing 4 narrow lobes turned down, 4 gen- 

 erally obcordate petals, and 8 stamens. — Several species are cultivated more or less commonly in 

 flower-gardens. The following are common wild, and have j<;llow flowers, in summer. 



1. CoMJioN K. Tall; leaves lance-shaped ; flowers in a spike, opening at sunset or in cloudy weather, 



sweet-scented; pod cylindrical; root biennial. Fields, &c. CE. biiiinls. 



2. Low E. Stems several from a perennial i-oot, 1° to 3° high; flowers large, opening in sunshine; 



pods rather club-shaped, and 4-winged, stalked. W. & S. (E. frutkbsa. 



3. Small E. Stems i° to 1° high; flowers small, i' wide, open in sunshine; pods club-shaped, scarcely 



stalked, strongly 4-angled. Fields, &c. (E.jjuiaila. 



WilloAV-herb. Epilbbium. 

 Calyx with its tube not continued bej'ond the ovary. Petals 4, purple or whitish. Stamens 8. Pod 

 long and slender, many-seeded; the seeds bearing a long tuft of downy hairs. 



1. Great W. Stem simple, 4° to 7° high : leaves lance-shaped; flowers showy, pink-purple, in a long 



loose spike; petals on claws, widely spreading; stamens and style turned down. Rich ground, 

 especially where it has been burned over or newly cleared. E. anr/ustifdlium. 



2. Sjiall W. Branching, 1° to 2° high; leaves lance-oblong, commonly purple- veined; flowers very 



small; petals purplish. Wet places, everywhere. E. coloraimn. 



37. CACTUS FAMILY. Order CACTACEiE. 

 Fleshy and generally prickly j^lants, without any leaves, except little scales or points, of 

 very various and strange shapes, generally the petals and always the stamens very numer- 

 ous, and on the one-celled ovary, which in fruit makes a berry. Being house-plants (with 

 one exception) they must here be passed by, merely mentioning the 



Pricrly-Pear Cactus, which grows in dry sandy or rocky places, southward, and consists of flat 

 and rather leaf-like rounded joints of stem, growing one out of another, prickly at the buds, 

 and bearing yellow flowers of rather few petals; the ovary making a large berry full of sweet and 

 eatable pulp. Ojjuntia vulgaris. 



