THE EVENING FRIMROSE 
J 01 
mitted during night, they will be roused from their state 
of sleep, or they may be kept closed by preventing the 
admission of the dawn. 
Although it is very evident that this peculiarity of 
the vegetable world had been noticed occasionally in 
earlier years, yet to Linnseus we are indebted for the 
most valuable and accurate information on the subject. 
It had not previously occupied the attention of the care- 
ful botanist ; and though Chaucer and Shakspere, and 
many others, had alluded to it, and many must have 
marked the flowers in their moonlight walks, and [)on- 
dered over their changes, still little progress had been 
made in ascertaining the state of these facts. A cir- 
cumstance which occurred in his own garden first led 
the Swedish naturalist to a series of investigations. A 
friend had sent him some seeds of a species of Lotus. 
The red flowers which sprang from them excited his 
admiration, and as his gardener was absent when they 
came in bloom, Linnseus, immediately upon his return, 
took him to the greenhouse to see this new floral treasure. 
It was evening, and with a lantern they proceeded to 
the spot ; but what was the surprise and vexation of 
Linnseus at finding that his beautiful blossoms had quite 
disappeared ! He concluded that they had been eaten 
by insects ; but on returning the next morning to his 
greenhouse, he saw them in full beauty upon the sa.me 
part of the plant on which he had left them the pre- 
ceding day. Again in the evening he accompanied his 
gardener to visit the plants, and again the flowers v/ere 
gone, while the next morning once more exhibited them 
in full glory. His gardener declared that his master 
must have mistaken, and that these could not be the 
same flowers, but must be fresh blossoms. Linnaeus was 
too much of a philosopher to be satisfied with such an 
idle conclusion, and in the evening he examined the 
plant, carefully taking up leaf by leaf, until he discovered 
that the blossoms had been quite hidden by the drooping 
foliage. This lotus is a papilionaceous or butterfly- 
shaped flower; and he found upon looking further that 
the lupins and the garden acacias, and peas, and many 
more flowers similarly shaped, were affected in nearly 
the same way by the influence of night. 
