Flowers of Evening Perfume 
of relaxation, as if inanimate or asleep. But 
as soon as the light fails the limp plant stiffens, 
the leaves become firm, the flowers rise up and 
expand ; the whole plant acquires a kind of 
modest beauty, and the bloom pours forth its 
delicious scent, which is wafted many yards 
away. 
The White Tobacco (Nicotiana affmis) is 
another flower of evening perfume. The bloom 
is partly closed in the daytime and gives no 
scent, though the whole plant has a rather rank, 
heavy smell, of an unpleasant quality. But 
when twilight comes the white flowers open and 
the strong sweet scent, of a luscious, tropical 
quality, is freely given off. Other notably 
night-scented plants are (Enothera Lamarckiana 
(the Evening Primrose) and the tall Mullein 
(V erbascum phlomoides ) ; the latter also faintly 
scented in cloudy weather as well as in the 
evening. Heliotrope and Verbena are not true 
annuals, though they are included in this book 
because they are often grown from seed for 
the summer only. Both are sweetest in sun- 
shine. Snapdragons of all sizes have a good, 
sweet smell, and so have the large forms of 
Scabious and the Sweet Sultans ; the scent of 
the last has some affinity with that mysterious, 
elusive, and delicious sweetness of the dying 
wild strawberry leaves. 
The yellow annual Lupin has a sweet smell 
55 
