356 
DIAL OF FLOWERS. 
Neither is the scent of flowers equally strong 
and agreeable at all hours of the day: many, 
even of our indigenous flowers, have the strong¬ 
est scent at night. The Ixia cinnamomea gives 
out its fragrance in the evening only; the highly- 
scented Lesser Orpine ( Crassula odoratissima ) 
only in the night; the Epidendrum fragrans, 
morning and evening ; another species of Epi¬ 
dendrum, hung up in a room, without earth or 
water, yields an agreeable perfume for years. 
The flowers of the Hebenstreitia dentata are 
scentless in the morning, have a disagreeable 
smell at noon, and give out in the evening 
a fragrant odour, not unlike that of the Hya¬ 
cinth. 
These properties of flowers, and the opening 
and shutting of many at particular times of the 
day, led to the idea of planting them in such a 
manner as to indicate the succession of the 
hours, and to make them supply the place of a 
watch or clock. Those who are disposed to try 
the experiment may easily compose such a dial 
by consulting the following table, comprehend¬ 
ing the hours between three in the morning 
and eight in the evening. 
