288 EVENING FLOWERS. 



ing to mairs artificial or natural neeils, every por- 

 tion of every creature has its primary use in 

 ministering to tlie welfare of the organism of 

 which it forms a i)art. 



Most of us, for example, have probably noticed 

 that a great many white flowers, such as jasmine, 

 stephanotis, tuberose, night-flowering cereus, and 

 jonquil, have a very peculiar strong perfume — a 

 perfume which is pleasant enough in small quan- 

 tities, but which becomes overpoweringly heavy 

 and induces faintness or headache in large masses. 

 Now, this peculiar combination of very sweet 

 scent with white flowers is no mere accidental 

 coincidence, but has a meaning and a reason of 

 its own in the history of the beautiful plants 

 which commonly display it. If one examines a 

 large number of such plants one after another, 

 one is soon struck by the curious fact that they 

 are almost witliout exception night-blossomers. 

 Most of them open in the evening only, and 

 eitlier close entirely or fold back their petals 

 during the daytime. Moreover, their scent is 

 given forth at night alone, and it then seems to 

 hang heavily upon tlie surrounding air like a per- 

 fumed mist for severjil j'ards around, as everybody 

 must have noticed in the case of jasmine climbing 

 around the thick wooden door-posts of some pic- 

 turesque, old-fashioned cottage. The explanation 

 of this strange coincidence is simple enough — 



