166 LANGUAGE AND 
The ordinary marvel of Peru bedecks Lself 
with a profusion of gay blossoms, which it con¬ 
tinually replenishes, in mild seasons retaining 
its beauty from the beginning of July to the 
end of October. In warm weather the flowers 
do not unclose till the evening; but when the 
days are cooler, and the sun obscured, the timid 
little blooms keep open the whole day. 
The Forked Marvel is a native of Mexico, and 
its blossoms, which are smaller than 'those of 
the other varieties, do not vary in their color, 
which is a purple red. It is known as the 
“four o’clock flower,” because of the flower’s 
opening at that time of the day. 
The sweet-scented varieties of these flowers 
have white blossoms, and they, as do the other 
kinds, remain closed during the day, and keep 
“ Their odor to themselves all day, 
But when the sunlight dies away, 
Let the delicious secret out 
To every breeze that roams about.” 
The odor of these flowers, however, is not ad¬ 
mired by every one, since it is of musk, to which 
many have a decided antipathy. 
“The half-suppressed glance of an eye admiring, 
The tremulous rays of an evening sky, 
The startled fawn from the hunter retiring, 
The fluttering light of a taper expiring— 
Apt emblems afford of Timidity.” 
