96 THE ASSOCIATIONS OF FLOWERS 
CHAPTER VIL 
E'ocnmg Primrose — Garden CEnothera — Showy (Enothera 
— Introduction mto England of Evening Primrose — 
Singular manner of Expansion — Aspect of Country 
Landscape during Night — -Use of Darkness — Sleep of 
Plants — Expansion of T'lowers at various thnes of Day 
— List of times at which many Flowers open and close 
— Changes of the Insect World in Tropical Climates. 
Now came still evening on, and twilight gray 
Had in her sober livery all things clad; 
Silence accompanied, for beast and bird, 
They to their grassy couch, these to their nests 
Were slunk; all but the wakeful nightingale. 
She all night long her amorous descant sung; 
Silence was pleased ; now glowed the firmament 
With living sapphires; Hesperus, that led 
The starry host, rode brightest; till the moon 
Riding in clouded majesty, at length. 
Apparent queen, unveiled her peerless light. 
And o’er the dark her silver mantle threw.’’ 
— Milton. 
The evening primrose (CEnothera biennis) is so common 
a flower as to need no description. Its pale yellow 
blossoms are to be found unfolded during evening, all 
the summer long, in almost every garden, whether that 
spot be the wide-spreading parterre of the rich, or the 
limited plot of the poor. Its gentle odour needs not, 
like that of most flowers, the strong influences of the sun 
to draw it forth, but is wafted upon the air of evening 
and night. 
The Oenotheras of the garden, of which there are nearly 
