268 PLANTS GROWING IN DRY SOIL. 



LARGE=FLOWERED VERBENA. (Plate CXXXIX.) 



Verbena Canadtnsis. 



FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Vervain. Purple. Scentless. Florida to S. Carolina May-A ugust. 



and westward. 



Flowers : growing closely in terminal spikes. Calyx : tubular ; with five un- 

 equal teeth, long, slender. Corolla : salver-shape ; long ; with five lobes : 

 bearded in the throat. Stamens : four, included. Pistil : one ; stigma, two- 

 lobed. Leaves: opposite; tapering into a long petiole; thrice divided and 

 the lobes deeply toothed ; hairy. Stem : creeping at the base ; forking ; hairy. 



Asa hardy plant this verbena is rivalled by few in brightness 

 of expression. It is not so beautiful as the Brazilian varieties 

 which receive so much consideration from the gardeners, but it 

 has many of their characteristics, and is intermingled with 

 them in cultivation. In the language of flowers these plants 

 have been chosen as emblems of sensibility. 



COMMON EVENING=PRIMROSE. 



Onagra biennis. 



FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Evening primrose. Pale yellow. Fragrant. General. June-September. 



Flowers; large; clustered on a leafy spike. Calyx: tubular, of four long, 

 pointed sepals. Corolla: often two inches broad, of four obcorclate petals del- 

 icately veined with green. Stamens : eight. Pistil : one ; stigma, four- 

 branched. Leaves; alternate; lanceolate; slender. Stem: erect. 



Those that see the evening-primrose only in the daytime have 

 no conception of its fairness when it opens its petals to commune 

 with the night revellers. Among them are the rarest of Na- 

 ture's children which under the stars come out from their hid- 

 ing places. Many of the loveliest flowers reserve their beauty 

 and exquisite fragrance to bestow upon the night. They are 

 visited by moths and insects that far surpass in beauty those 

 of the day and which are never seen until the earth is wrapped 

 in her dark mantle. The sweetest singing birds and the most 

 beautiful animals are then flying and roving about. There is 

 music in the flap of the pink night moth's wing and all the buzz- 

 ing noises of the night. 



