POPULAR FLORA. 153 



36. EVENING-PRIMROSE FAMILY. Order ONAGRACE^. 

 Herbs, or sometimes shrubs, known by having the parts of the blossom in fours, the tube 

 of the calyx coherent with the 4-celled ovary, and often prolonged beyond, its summit 

 bearing 4 petals, and 4 or 8 stamens. Style 1, slender: stigmas generally 4. In green- 

 house cultivation we have several species of Fuchsia, well known for their pretty hanging 

 flowers, the smaller kinds called Ladies' Eardrop. The showy part is a colored (generally 

 red) calyx, its 4 lobes longer than the purple petals. Fuchsias are shrubs ; the rest of the 

 family are herbs Clarkia, known by the long-clawed petals, and broad petal-like stigmas, 

 is sometimes cultivated, and so are several Evening-Primroses. The commonest wild 

 plants of the family are Evening-Primkoses and Willow-herbs. 



Evening-Primrose. (Enotliera. 

 Calyx with the tube continued on beyond the ovary, bearing 4 nan'ow lobes turned down, 4 gen- 

 erally obcordate petals, and 8 stamens. — Several species are cultivated more or less commonly in 

 flower-gardens. The following are common wild, and have yellow flowers, in summer. 



1. Common E. Tall; leaves lance-shaped ; flowers in a spike, opening at sunset or in cloudy weather, 



sweet-scented; pod cylindrical ; root biennial. Fields, &o. (E. biennis. 



2. Low E. Stems several from a perennial I'oot, 1° to 3° high; flowers large, opening in sunshine; 



pods rather club-shaped, and 4-winged, stalked. W. & S. , OS. fniticdsa. 



3. Small E. Stems J" to 1° high ; flowers small, i' wide, open in sunshine ; pods club-shaped, scarcely 



stalked, strongly 4-angled. Fields, &o. (E.pumila. 



Willow-herb. Spildbium. 

 Calyx with its tube not continued be3'ond the ovary. Petals 4, purple or whitish. Stamens 8. Pod 

 long and slender, many-seeded; the seeds bearing a long tuft of downy hairs. 



1. Great W. Stem siniple, 4° to 7° high; leaves lance-shaped; flowers showy, pink-purple, in a long 



loose spike; petals on claws, widely spreading ; stamens and style turned down. Rich gi-ound, 

 especially where it has been burned over or newly cleared. K angustifoKum. 



2. Small W. Branching, 1° to 2° high; leaves lance-oblong, commonly purple-veired; flowers very 



small ; petals purplish. Wet places, everywhere. -E. coloraium. 



37. CACTUS FAMILY. Order CACTACEiE. 

 Fleshy and generally prickly plants, without any leaves, except little scales or points, of 

 very various and strange shapes, generally the petals and always the stamens very numer- 

 ous, and on the one-celled ovary, which in fruit makes a berry. Being house-plants (with 

 one exception) they must here be passed by, merely mentioning the 



Prickly-Pear Cactus, which grows in dry sandy or rocky places, southward, and consists of flat 

 and rather leaf-like rounded joints of stem, growing one out of another, prickly at the buds, 

 and bearing yellow flowers of rather few petals ; the ovary making a large berry full of sweet and 

 eatable pulp. Opuntia vulgaris. 



