EVENING PRIMROSE FAMILY, Onagraceae. 
capsule is oblong and hairy. This is common on prairies 
and plains, from Nebraska to Utah, and south to New 
Mexico, reaching an altitude of nine thousand feet. 
There are several kinds of Onagra, differing from 
Anogra in having yellow flowers and in the arrangement of 
the seeds; with stems; leaves alternate, with wavy or 
toothed margins; buds erect; flowers night-blooming, in 
terminal clusters; calyx-tube long; petals four; stamens 
eight, equal in length; stigma four-cleft; capsule four- 
angled, more or less tapering. 
: : A fine biennial, with stout, leafy stems, 
Evening Primrose ; : : 
Onagra Héokeri {Tom three to six feet high, bearing 
(Ocenothera) splendid flowers, over three inches across, 
Yellow with clear yellow petals, fading to pink, 
Summer 
and reddish calyx-lobes. The leaves, 
stems, and buds all downy and the buds 
erect. The stigma has four, slender lobes, forming a little 
cross, and the yellow pollen is loosely connected by cob- 
webby threads, clinging to visiting insects, and is thus 
carried from flower to flower; the capsule is an inch long. 
This is much handsomer than the common Evening Prim- 
rose, O. biénnis, and especially fine in Yosemite. As the 
mountain shadows begin to slant across the Valley the 
blossoms commence to open, until the meadows are 
thickly strewn with ‘‘patens of bright gold.””’ They stay 
open all night, withering with the noonday sun. 
There are several kinds of Lavauxia; low, usually stem- 
less; leaves mostly from the root; calyx-tube slender; petals 
four; stamens eight, the alternate ones longer; ovary short, 
stigma four-cleft; capsule stout, four-angled or winged. 
An attractive little plant, in the desert, 
Sun-cups 2 2 
Laveaxia primi. With no stem, the flowers with long, 
véris (Oenothera) Slender calyx-tubes, resembling stems, 
Yellow springing from a clump of rather downy 
—— root-leaves. The buds are hairy and the 
flowers are about an inch across, light 
yellow, with pale yellow stamens and stigma. This plant 
varies a good deal in size, bearing one or several flowers, 
and the margins of the leaves almost toothless or irregu- 
larly slashed. It superficially resembles Tardxia ovdta, 
the Sun-cups so common on the southwestern coast, for 
the flowers have the same little fresh, sunny faces, but the 
latter has a round-topped stigma. 
330 
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