338 Life and Immortality. 
seen reflexed and adjusting themselves back to back around 
the stem with many contortions. Whatever the function of 
this strange nocturnal movement may be, and it is still a 
matter of dispute with botanists, one thing we are certain 
about, that is, its essential condition to the life of the plant, 
careful experiment having demonstrated, according to one 
authority, that “if the leaves are prevented from so regulat- 
ing their surface, they lose their color and die in a few days” 
—a fact which Darwin has just as conclusively shown to be 
the case with other plants. 
Flowers that bloom by night could hardly be suspected of 
that vanity which Rhodora has been made to confess by 
Emerson in his beautiful lines to this flower. Our evening 
primrose does not bloom in the dark hours for mere senti- 
ment or moonshine, but from a nature which lies, figuratively 
speaking, much nearer her heart. ‘“ Often when the nights 
are very dark,” says an old writer, “her petals emit a mild 
phosphorescent light, and look as if illuminated for a holi- 
day. And he who does not fear to be out in her mild and 
lovely haunt may see a variety of nocturnal ephemerz hover- 
ing around the lighted petals, or sipping at the flowery 
fountains, while others rest among the branches or hurry 
up the stems as if fearing to be too late.” From the first 
moment of her wooing welcome it would seem that our 
evening primrose listens for murmuring wings, and awaits 
that supreme fulfilment with joyous expectancy, for it will 
invariably be found that these blossoms, which open in the 
twilight, have adapted themselves to crepuscular moths and 
other nocturnal insects, a fact which finds a striking illus- 
tration in the instances of very long tubular-shaped night- 
blooming flowers, like the honeysuckle and divers orchids, 
whose nectar is beyond the ability of any insect but a night- 
flying hawk-moth to attain. True, it is, that in other less 
deep nocturnal flowers the sweets could be reached by 
butterflies or bees if the blossoms were left open. But 
the night-murmurers receive the first invitation, which, if 
