THE EVENING-PRIMROSK FAMILY. 359 



THE EVENINQ=PRIMROSE FAHILY. 



Ojiaordcac. 



Mostly herbs with simple, alternate or opposite leaves, a nil icliieh bear 

 perfect 7'egular flowers, solitary or in various inflorescences^ their calyxes 

 being adnate to the ova/y, or often extending beyond it into a tidw. 



FLOATING JU5SI/EA. PRIMROSE WILLOW. {J^late CXV.) 

 fussiiha re pens grandiflora. 



FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Evening-primrose. YclliKi.<. Fragrant. South Carolina and west'^vard. May, June. 



Flcnvers : large; nearly two inches broad; solitary at the ends of long axillary 

 and pul)escent ])eduncles. Calyx-tube : elongated, 'with five long lanceolate and 

 jjointed lobes pubescent on the outside. Corolla : with five-rounded and delicately 

 nerved petals. Stavicns : eight, short, on the tube. Stvli': thick. Leave s : alter- 

 nate; linear-oblong, or lanceolate, pointed or blunt at the apex and tapering at 

 the base into short margined petioles; entire; feather-veined and covered along 

 the midrib, both al)ove and below, with fine hairs. Stem: creeping at the base 

 and rooting extensively from the nodes. 



Lifting their heads above shallow water these flowers look like exquisite 

 pale yellow cups, or even poppies that have lost their way. Often their 

 stems are marked with bright red and as they creep along root freely from 

 the nodes. Mingled with water lilies or the great lotuses, they are now be- 

 ginning to be much seen in cultivation. 



COMMON EVENING=PRIMROSE. 



Onoi^ra biennis. 



FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Evening-privirose. Yellow. Fragrant. General. J une-Septeniler. 



Floiuers : often two inches broad; growing in leafy spikes, which in fruit become 

 elongated. Calyx: with elongated tube and four hairy, reflexed lobes. Corolla: 

 with four obcordate petals, veined with green. Stamens: eight. Pistil: 

 one; stigma, four-branched. Capsule: cylindrical; sessile; four-valved, hairy. 

 Leaves: alternate ; lanceolate ; tapering at the base and sessile ; or the lowest pcti- 

 oled; entire, remotely serrate or toothed; thick and covered with a whitish pubes- 

 cence. Stems : erect; two to nine feet high; mostly simple; pubescent. 



Everywhere through fields and in waste places we find the common prim- 

 rose looking often dilapidated enough with its delicate petals hanging limp 

 and worn. As we know, however, it is of nocturnal habit and reserves its 

 beauty for the time when the twilight is dimming other things. Then 

 slowly a slit or opening first parts the calyx, and very gradually the sepals 



