70 
LADIES’ BOTANY. 
of the author’s style. We have borrowed letter 3rd, on the Evening 
Primrose Tribe, and the Myrth Tribe of Plants. 
‘ £ In the meadows and woods of Europe, North America, and the 
colder parts of Asia, are found a great number of herbs, which, with 
a great accordance in their general appearance, agree also in this re¬ 
markable circumstance, that every one of the parts of the flower con¬ 
sists either of four pieces or of some number which may be divided by 
four; in South America are many species of a similar nature, only 
they are shrubs, and are much more richly coloured. Botanists call 
these Onagrarioe, or the Evening Primrose tribe, because the charm¬ 
ing yellow flower which unfolds its bosom to the evening sun, and 
drinks up the dews of night with its petals, rendering darkness as 
lovely as noon-day, but which retires at the approach of the sun, 
rolling up its petals and protecting its stamens and pistils from the 
glare of light, is one of the tribe; it might be called the owl of the 
vegetable world, only it is more beautiful and delicate than that 
hard-hearted enemy of mice. 
If you have ever examined one of them accurately, you will be at 
no loss to recognise all the rest. For this purpose, suppose you take 
the Shrubby Evening Primrose (QEnothera fruticosa,) a beautiful 
little North American plant, with an absurd name, for it is not a 
shrub. 
The leaves of this plant are of a narrow figure, not unlike the head 
of a lance, and their veins are disposed in a netted manner, like all 
the preceding; it has, therefore, a stem which increases in size by 
addition of matter to the outside of the wood; or in one word it is 
Exogenous; the leaves do not grow opposite each other from op¬ 
posite sides of the stem, but are placed one a little above the other, 
so as to be alternate ; mark this. 
The flowers are of a bright yellow ; and are entirely different from 
those of any of the preceding tribes. In the first place the calyx has 
a long slender tube, from the top of which arise two leaves, both turned 
the same way, and notched at the point; it is in reality composed of 
four sepals, united at the base into a tube, but capable of being 
separated above the tube in four pieces, as you may easily see if you 
attempt to divide it with the point of a pin. 
From the top of the tube of the calyx, arise four petals.—Observe, 
again,—four,—which are of a bright yellow, and are rolled together, 
except in the night, when the flowers are expanded. Twice four sta¬ 
mens spring from the top of the tube; each has a very long anther 
which swings by its middle from the summit of the filament, and sheds 
its pollen in such way, that it looks as if it were mixed with cobweb. If 
