Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-03-27
FLOWERS OF THE NIGHT
SOME WHICH ONLY BLOOM IN
DARKNESS.
Many Blossoms of Rare Beauty That
Untold When the Sun
has Set.

From the London Globe.
1t is not only infthe animal world-among
men and beasts land birds-that we have
individuals who turn night into day" and
are in their brightest and most attractive
phase during the hours of darkness There
are also certain members of the plant COM
munity to which the evening shadows DO
not suggest repose, but which find in them
instead only a stimulus to increasing actlv-
ity and effort. And these flowers of the
night" are a most interesting group for
though they are not bound together by any
ties of family affinity, they have many lit
tie ways and curious characteristics in COM
mon.
The evening primrose is perhaps one OF
the most familiar night flowers. During the
day it is apt to have a slightly dissipated
look, for the flowers get limp as the sun
rises in the sky. To see it in it's beauty we
must visit 1t in the evening-say, toward
o'clock-for the green buds then begin to
burst open one after another and lour
large, delicate yellow petals pop out of eacn
and spread themselves like yellow stars.
Moreover, sweet fragrance, absent all
day, grows strong as the dusk falls, and
1t Is at this time that the flower is in It's
most radiant beauty. But it is beauty
that is short-lived; birth, maturity and
oodtH are oil COMPRISED III less lHdH d COlu-
plete days cycle, for by the next evening
the lovely fragile petals are hanging IN
shabby rags and other buds are just max
ing their debut Some of the thorn apples,
with their fine white trumpet shaped flow
ers, and likewise the marvel of Peru, which
halls from America, also bloom at night
and die next day in the daylight; while the
tobacco plants are we'll known night flow
erers, at their freshest and best In the
hours of darkness, for when their buds first
open and the honeysuckle-like scent is first
outpoured. 1t is only to meet the cleaning
of summer evening.
The Catchy.
A flower of the night which has par
ticularly fascinating and willy habits is one
fthe catchfies of champions-namely, that
known as the Nottingham catchfly. Its
flowers have three times the span of life
allotted to those Of the evening primrose,
for each makes it's appearance on three sue
cessive nights. The first evening the bud
opens, and all through the night the pretty
white bloom stands out in the darkness like
a ten-rayed star, and a delicate scent ex-
hales; but about o'clock in the morning,
when the dawn Is breaking it droops its
petal rays until they hang down crumpled
ana Withered looking. and the miserable
daylight look of the flower is intensified,
because the outside Of the petals is not
white, but dirty gray. When evening
comes again there is a transformation re-
AliAOAil5 uS VI CSItdlH beauties.
The apparently dead petals recover as the
dusk closes round them, and again in the
darkness the star-like flower shows It's real
nature, and pours out its scent And so the
night passes, the plant radiant and attrac-
tive, till the dawn gives the signal for the
droop Of the petals, and then, like Cinder-
ella, 1t slips back into dowdiness for yet
another day. During these two nights the
flower has been busy shedding it's yellow
pollen dust for the benefit of its neighbors,
and so far it has done. nothing to benefit
itself; but on the one night yet left to it ii
pushes out three little columns to catch the
yellow dust that some insect visitor may
bring from onefor two-night-old flower,
and, with a little luck, ittreceives the magic
touch which fertilizes it's seeds, and enables
1t to transmit descendants to posterty And
now its work is finished, and at day dawn
it closes for the last time and fades and
dies. All the worlds stage, even in plant
life, n5st. s--
But none of the flowers yet mentioned
can compete in beauty with the queen of the
night, cactus that flowers at night time
on the plains of Mexico. This has a mag
nificent yellow and white bloom, and it
stands out bravely, even brilliantly, from
the black earth and the dark green spines
which form its background. But it's glory
is short lived, for, despite the fact that it
is often eight inches across and has more
than hundred petals, its life is no sooner
begun than 1t is ended. 1t never sees the
light, for. though it may not open until
10 o'clock at night, its career Is finished
four or five hours later, in the small hours
of the morning.
After the Night Moths.
Now, When we come to ask why certain
plants choose the darkaess rather than the
light to bring out their flowers, we must
answer that it is because they have pre-
ferrcd to make a bid for the attentions oe
the night moths and the night flies rather
than for the more keenly contested visits of
the bees and butterflies OF the day. BY
some means or other they must get their
pollen carried from flower to flower and
they have found that the night insects are
quite capable in this way as the day ones
are and have not nearly so many claims
upon them But because the darkness is
apt to swallow up the plants the night
flowers make a great point of their scent,
an dthe strong, sweet fragrance is an I'M
falling telltale of their presence, no mat
ter how black the night Curiously enough
they manage to turn OFF, the scent in the
daytime, so that it is not wasted, for a
plant is nothing If not economical
Further, to make as much of their pres
ence as possible, these flowers are almost
invariably white or pale yellow in color,
and SO in the dusk they are strikingly OBJ
vious long after darker and more gorgeous
hued flowers have disappeared from sight.
Through the night they are generally WIS.,
ible to some extent, even to us, and doubt
less to the night-fying insects, whose or
gans of sight are specially adapted to the
darkness, they stand out still more plain
ly. Almost the only dark colored night
flower we know is the common hesperis,
or DANES violet, but-though the evening
quickly obliterates its dark purple blossoms,
as it does all deep-hued fiowers-lack of
brilliancy is made up for by strength of
fragrance, for its scent is SO peculiarly
strong that its presence cannot but be re-
vealed. Observation shows that it gets its
full share of visitors among the moths, and
hence though it makes no bid to attract
through the agency of sight, its appeal is
made (and not made in vain) through the
organ of smell.
One other fact about these plants is in
teresting. On the petals of the night flow
ers we never find those markings streaks
and lines which usually embelish ordinary
flowers and are SO evident in pansies, NAL
lows and wallowers. These markings are
known as 'pathfinders,' and they are pre-
sumably placed there to serve as guides
to insects in their search for honey, as they
always point to the heart of the blossom.
But they would be of no earthly use in the
night time, as they could not be seen; hence
in night flowers they are not produced and
the petals show only an unbroken white or
yellow face. Thus in the flowers of the
night we have yet one more instance of
natures wonderful and absolute adapt