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-hke stigmas, 

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

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



Evening.Primrose. CEnothera. 

 Calyx with the tube continued on beyond the ovary, bearing 4 narrow lobes turned down, i gen- 

 erally obeordate 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, &c. ffi. biennis. 



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



pods rather club-shaped, and 4-winged, stalked. W. & S. (E. fruticbsa. 



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



stalked, strongly 4-angled. Fields, &c. CE.pumila. 



Willow-herb. Ejnlbbium. 

 Calyx with its tube not continued beyond 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. Gkeat W. Stem simple, 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. Eioh ground, 

 especially where it has been burned over or newly cleared. E. angustifblium. 



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



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



37. CACTUS FAMILY. Order CACTACE^. 

 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 



Pkickly-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. Oj>imtia vulgaris. 



