28 



STARLIGHT AND SUNSHINE. 



invariably be found that those blossoms which open in the twi- 

 light have adapted themselves to the crepuscular moths and other 

 nocturnal insects. This finds a striking illustration in the in- 

 stances of many long tubular -shaped night -blooming flowers, like 

 the honeysuckle and various orchids, whose nectar is beyond the 

 reach of any insect except the night-flying hawk-moth. It is 

 true that in other less deep nocturnal flowers the sweets could 

 be reached by butterflies or bees during the day if the blossoms 

 remained open, but the night murmurers receive the first fresh 

 invitation, which, if met, will leave but a wilted, half-hearted blos- 

 som to greet the sipper of the sunshine. This beautiful expec- 

 tancy of the flower determines the limit of its bloom. Thus, 

 in the event of rain or other causes preventive of insect visits, 

 the evening primrose will remain open for the butterflies during 

 the following day, when otherwise it would have drooped per- 

 ceptibly, and extended but a listless welcome. I have seen this 

 fact strikingly illustrated in a spray of mountain -laurel, whose 

 blossoms lingered in expectancy nearly a week in my parlor, 

 when the flowers on the parent shrub in the woods had fallen 

 several days before, their mission having been fulfilled. In the 

 house specimens the radiating stamens remained in their pockets 

 in the side of the blossom cup, and seemed to brace the corolla 

 upon its receptacle. These stamens are naturally dependent upon 

 insect agency for their release, and the consequent discharge of 

 pollen, and I noticed that when this operation was artificially con- 

 summated the flower-cup soon dropped off or withered. 



Coleridge told only half the truth, and that without knowing it 

 and something of a libel besides in the lines of his poem " No 

 Life Vain " 



"The very shadow of an insect's wing, 

 For which the violet cared not while it staid, 

 Yet felt the lighter for its vanishing" 



for that brief period perhaps compassed the dream and consum- 

 mation of our violet's life. There is a similar negative recogni- 

 tion of a beautiful harmony in nature in Shelley's allusion to those 



