Night Flowers 231 
stems. The full-grown moths appear in June, and 
on any warm, clear evening, from midsummer till 
frost, they may be seen, hovering like humming- 
birds above the blossoms of their choice. 
‘‘The flowers of the great convolvulus (Fig. 61) 
or hedge bind-weed close,” says Miiller, ‘‘ on cloudy 
evenings’’——but on moonlight nights they are all 
wide awake, and watching for their best friend, the 
Sphinx convolvuli. In England, where this great 
night-moth is rare, the hedge bind-weed seldom 
produces seed, though it may be visited and fer- 
tilized in the morning hours by the sunshine-lov- 
ing butterflies. 
But in our warm summer twilights Sphinx con- 
volvuli is not uncommon, and one may catch him, 
as he has been caught aforetime, by a naturalist 
who ‘‘stood by a moonlit hedge, overgrown with 
convolvulus, held thumb and finger over a flower, 
and closed its orifice when the moth had entered.” 
The pretty roadside saponaria, familiarly known 
as ‘‘bouncing Bet,’’ expands about sundown, and 
in the twilight its sweets are sipped by sphinx- 
moths, which, doubtless, help to transfer its pollen. 
It remains open throughout the following day and 
entertains butterflies; but the strong fragrance of 
the flowers at evening shows that night-moths are 
