A MIDNIGHT RAMBLE. 35 
accorded in many instances. It is true, as one authority avers, 
that “the evening primrose is perfectly visible in the darkest 
night,” from which fact phosphorescent proper- 
ties have been ascribed to it. “Many perfectly 
authenticated instances are on record of lumi- 
' nous, electrical, lightning-like phosphorescence 
playing about flowers. The daughter of Lin- 
naeus was the first 
to note it,’ ob- 
serves one writ- 
er. Pursh also 
subsequently ob- 
served and chroni- 
cled it. Similar 
flashes or corona 
have been dis- 
PONDWEED, 
cerned on nastur- 
tiums, double mari- 
gold, red poppy, 
geraniums, tuberose, sunflower, and evening primrose, according 
to various authorities. It is a rash and overweening commentator 
who would challenge this array of competence, and so I forbear. 
Saint Elmo’s light may have taken to dry land and favored the 
midnight watch of the primrose above the fog, but I have never 
seen it with my natural eye. 
