Night Flowers 201 
« 
an open window on a sultry night. In a museum 
of natural history we may see them gathered ac- 
cording to their tribes, a mighty host, clad all in 
night’s sombre livery. It would be a formidable 
undertaking to count the species, and as for the 
individuals, they must be numberless as the sands 
‘of the shore. For them the night-flowers blow, 
and as the guests are many, the banquet is abun- 
dant. 
In our gardens and in the fields a number of 
blossoms expand in the twilight. Some of these 
close about sunrise, some wilt in the radiance of 
noon, and some remain open all through the day, 
and hence are never thought of as nocturnal flow- 
ers. But their first freshness and uttermost sweet- 
ness are given to the night-moths, and though we 
may see them blooming in the sunshine, they are 
really blossoms of the night. 
Among garden-flowers the most familiar night- 
bloomer is the honeysuckle. Its buds open late 
in the afternoon or in the evening before dusk 
falls. On a very cloudy day I have seen them ex- 
panding as early as half-past three, and in the 
long June afterglow it may be eight o’clock be- 
fore the last flowers unfold. They are slender 
vases filled to the brim with fragrance, which is 
