A MIDNIGHT RAMBLE. 



35 



accorded in many instances. It is true, as one authority avers, 

 that "the evening primrose is perfectly visible in the darkest 

 night," from which fact phosphorescent proper- 

 ties have been ascribed to it. " Many perfectly 

 authenticated instances are on record of lumi- 

 nous, electrical, lightning-like phosphorescence 

 playing about flowers. The daughter of Lin- 



naeus was the first 

 to note it," ob- 

 serves one writ- 

 er. Pursh also 

 subsequently ob- 

 served and chroni- 

 cled it. Similar 

 flashes or corona 

 have been dis- 

 cerned on nastur- 

 tiums, double mari- 

 gold, red poppy, 

 geraniums, tuberose, sunflower, and evening primrose, according 

 to various authorities. It is a rash and overweening commentator 

 who would challenge this array of competence, and so I forbear. 

 Saint Elmo's light may have taken to dry land and favored the 

 midnight watch of the primrose above the fog, but I have never 

 seen it with my natural eye. 



