3u6 Evening Primrose. 



Evening Primrose, 



The (Exotheras Biexxis — Evexixgj- Primrose, is in the 



class Octarulrea, order Monogynia. Its characters are : . 



Calyx four cleft tubular caducous ; petals inserted on the 

 calyx, four; stigma, four cleft; capsule correspondingly four 

 celled ; four valved. Seeds affixed to a central four-sided 

 columella. Lindley observes, that in the meadows and woods 

 of Europe, North America, and the colder parts of Asia, are 

 found a great number of herbs which with a great accordance 

 in their general appearance, agree also in this remarkable 

 circumstance, that everyone of the parts of the flower consists 

 either of four pieces or of some number that may be divided 

 by four. In South America, are many species of a similar 

 nature, only that they are shrubs and much more richly 

 colored. These are called the Evening Primrose tribe, 

 because the charming yellow flower which unfolds its bosom 

 to the evening sun, and drinks up the dews of night with its 

 petals, rendering darkness as lovely as noonday, but which 

 retires at the approach of the sun, rolling up its petals and 

 carefully protecting its stamens and pistils from the glare of 

 light, is one of the tribe ; it might be called the owl of the 

 vegetable world, only it is much more beautiful and delicate 

 than that hard hearted enemy of mice. Taking the (Eno- 

 thera Fructicosa — Shubby Evening! Primrose, one of our 

 own beautiful little plants, but with an absurd name, for it is 

 not a shrub. Let us examine it, as by doing so accurately 

 with one of them there will be no after difficulty in recognising 

 the rest. Its leaves are of a narrow figure, not unlike the 

 head of a lance, and their veins disposed in a netted manner ; 

 it has therefore a stem which increases in size by the addition 

 of matter to the outside of the wood ; or in other words, it is 

 Exogenous ; the leaves do not grow opposite each other from 

 opposite sides of the stem, but are placed one a little above 

 the other so as to be alternate. The flowers are of a bright 

 yellow, and are entirely different from any of those of the 

 preceding tribes. In the first place, the calyx has a long 



