A MIDNIGHT RAMBLE. 21 
ink have been devoted towards a 
solution of the problem, one authority 
finding a last resource in his exasper- 
ation in the belief that the antique 
poet “stood in need for the metre of 
his verse of two long syllables which the 
word ¢rzstzs supplied him with.” 
The plant is certainly bright and cheery 
enough by day, and whatever its changed 
aspect by night, it is certainly not one of 
sadness. The blue flower-spikes rise up { 
precisely as at mid-day, but the foliage ©) 9 
presents a striking contrast, every wheel- — yasrurrrums, 
shaped leaf now drooping like a closed 
parasol against the stem. The various lupines are full of indi- 
vidual whims in their choice of sleeping postures, some species 
raising their leaflets in the form of a beaker, and others following 
