OCTANDRIA. MONOGYNIA. CEnothera. 473 
(O. bien'nis. Leaves egg-spear-shaped, flat: stem covered with sharp 
points and soft hairs: stamens equal: petals undivided. E. Bot. 
E. Bot. 1534— FI. Dan. 44 6—Kniph. 67. 
This plant has been discovered in such various and little frequented parts 
of the kingdom, that we can no longer hesitate to acknowledge it as 
British. Mr. Norris says, it has established itself, during five years, if 
not longer, in a neglected concavity, whence a coarse sand-stone had 
been formerly extracted, in Bowood Park, near Devizes. The seeds are 
regularly ripened every year, and produce abundantly; the plants in 
general do not flower before the second season, after which the root dies, 
being biennial. They seem perfectly naturalized and increase in number 
yearly. Mr. Norris lately saw more than twenty distinct ones in flower, 
surrounded by a multitude of younger, which will not blossom till the 
succeeding season. The spot is not near any house nor vestiges of such. 
About Bath, and some other places, it is commonly found in parallel 
circumstances with Datura Stramonium. It attains the height of five or 
six feet. The main stem and larger branches are every where beset with 
minute asperities, terminating in fine transparent hairs, feeling not unlike 
a rough file. Leaves rather waved than flat. Blossoms fragrant, large 
and yellow, expanding in an evening. 
Evening Primrose. Ballast Hills, near Sunderland, Durham. Mr. Rob¬ 
son. In Worcestershire. Rev. Mr. Bourne. Fields between Crosby and 
the sea, near Liverpool. Dr. Bostock. (In a wild part of the Vale of 
Clwyd, by the road side between Denbigh and Ruthin. Mr. W. Christy. 
Banks of the Arrow, where a considerable depth of soil had been removed 
for the purpose of widening the river, by which means the seeds, which 
had probably lain dormant many years, were brought forth to vegeta¬ 
tion. Purton. For a similar instance vid. Osmunda regalis. With. v. 4. 
E.) B. July—Sept.* 
* (Lately introduced as a culinary vegetable, and cultivated in the same manner as 
Rampions, (Campanula Rapunculus ) ; the roots eaten raw being esteemed a delicacy. Mr. 
Griffith. The flowers generally open in the eveuing, just as the sun sinks below the 
horizon. This opening is effected by a very sudden retraction of the calyx leaves, which 
are forcibly thrown against the peduncles, and followed by an immediate expansion of the 
petals. The flowers continue thus expanded till the sun is an hour or two high, when they 
partially close, and again open at evening; or rather others succeed them. Mr. Pursh has 
noticed an appearance of phosphoric light emanating from the flowers during very dark 
nights. Barton. This phenomenon has likewise been remarked in some few other pheno- 
gamous plants, and in certain mosses growing in the moist, cavernous recesses of Dartmoor, 
as we are informed by the Rev. R. Palk Welland. The Evening Primrose is a plant well 
adapted to the garden or shrubbery, which has the advantage of flourishing even in the 
smoky atmosphere of large towns. Bearing its primrose-coloured flowers on branches 
several feet high, it has been called the Tree-primrose , and from the season of its blossoms 
expanding, the Evening Star. This latter peculiarity has not escaped the moral muse of 
Bernard Barton, whose beautiful poem we dare not mutilate. 
“ Fair flow’r, that shun’st the glare of day, 
Yet lov’st to open, meekly bold, 
To evening’s hues of sober grey 
Thy cup of paly gold;— 
I love to watch at silent eve 
Thy scatter’d blossoms’ lonely light, 
And have my inmost heart receive 
The influence of that sight. 
I love at such an hour to mark 
Their beauty greet the night-breeze chill, 
And shine, mid shadows gathering dark, 
The garden’s glory still. 
