98 THE ASSOCIATIONS OF FLOWERS 
with the large blue, lilac, or- white blossoms of plants, 
of so magnificent an appearance that they well deserA e 
their appellation of the ‘‘glory of the night.” 
The evening primrose opens generally at about six' or 
seven o’clock in the evening. 
The periodical opening of flowers is, in many cases, 
so regular, as not to vary live minutes throughout the 
season ; but this is not the case wuth this plant, as it is 
affected by the temperature of the air. Its time of un- 
folding is, however, sufficiently constant to justify its name, 
as it never fails to welcome the approach of evening, 
and to be ail night tlie companion of the moon, wdrile 
the other flowers are folded in sleep. vSometimes, when 
it has lost its vigour, it continues open b\' day as well 
as night. 
We are so little abroad in. the meadoAvs and gardens 
during night, that many are little acquainted with the 
aspect of vegetation at that period. Most have, however, 
experienced some nights of the wakefulness which at- 
tends sickness or grief, or have “ watched the stars out 
by the bed of pain.” If, upon such occasions, we have 
gazed from a window into the thoroughfare of a populous 
city, we have been struck with its stillness. There is 
something almost overpowering in the solemnity which 
night spreads over the scene, lately so full of life. 
“When all that mighty heart is lying still,” it seems as 
if the city was one vast cemetery— emphatically a “ city 
of silence.” But our windov/s may have fronted field or 
garden, and so much light may have been shed over the 
landscape, by moon or stars, as to enable us to see the 
folded flow'ers ; and the robinias and labernums, with 
their drooping leaves. Here and there only, are to be 
seen a little cluster of the blossoms of night-flowering 
plants, which the dews serve only to animate and beau- 
tify, and from tvhich an odour is borne sweetly to us 
upon the night breeze. The country, however, seems 
not to lie in all the solemn stillness of the town, for its 
stillness is not heightened by the contrast with the scenes 
of the preceding day, and it is, at all times, compara- 
tively at repose. The nightingale too is interrupting the 
silence with strains of melody, which seem as if they 
would rend her throat in the expression ; and tlm bird 
