THE SCENTS 0¥ THE GARDEN 239 



»re the flowers that hang their heads and seem to sleep 

 in the daytime, and that awaken as the sun goes down, 

 and live their waking life at night. And those that 

 are most familiar in our gardens have powerful 

 perfumes, except the Evening Primrose {(Enothera), 

 which has only a milder sweetness. It is vain to try 

 and smell the night-given scent in the daytime ; it 

 is either withheld altogether, or some other smell, 

 quite different, and not always pleasant, is there instead. 

 I have tried hard in daytime to get a whiff of the 

 night sweetness of Nicotiana affinis, but can only get hold 

 of something that smells like a horse ! Some of the best 

 of the night-scents are those given by the Stocks and 

 Rockets. They are sweet in the hand in the daytime, 

 but the best of the sweet scent seems to be like a thin 

 film on the surface. It does not do to smell them too 

 vigorously, for, especially m Stocks and Wallflowers, 

 there is a strong, rank, cabbage-Hke iinder-smell; But 

 in the sweetness given off so freely ia the summer 

 evening there is none of this ; then they only give 

 their very best. 



But of all the family, the finest fragrance comes 

 from the small annual Night-scented Stock (Matthiola 

 Mcornis), a plant that in daytime is almost ugly ; for the 

 leaves are of a duU-grey colour, and the flowers are 

 small and also dull- coloured, and they are closed and 

 droop and look unhappy. But when the sun has set 

 the modest little plant seems to come to life ; the grey 

 foliage is almost beautiful in its harmonious relation to 



