urk in deep woods, under the triple shadow of tree and bush and fern.
Some take to sandy hill-tops; others must stand knee-deep in water. One
insists upon the richest of meadow loam; another is content with the
face of a rock. We may say of them as truly as of ourselves, _De
gustibus non est disputandum_. Otherwise, how would the earth ever be
clothed with verdure?

[17] The _Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club_ for January, 1888, page
13.

But plants are subject to other whims not less pronounced than these
which have to do with the choice of a dwelling-place. We may call it the
general rule that leaves come before flowers; but how many of our trees
and shrubs reverse this order! The singular habit of the witch-hazel,
whose blossoms open as the leaves fall, may be presumed to be familiar
to all readers; and hardly less curious is the freak of the chestnut,
which, almost if not quite alone among our amentaceous trees, does not
put on its splendid coronation robes till late in June, and is
frequently at the height of its magnificence in mid-July. What a pretty
piece of variety have we, again, in the diurnal and the nocturnal
bloomers! For my own part, being a watcher of birds, and therefore
almost of necessity an early stirrer abroad, I profess a special regard
for such plants as save their beauty for night-time and cloudy weather.
The evening primrose is no favorite with most people, I take it, but I
seldom fail to pick a blossom or two with the dew on them. Those to whom
I carry them usually exclaim as over some wonderful exotic, though the
primrose is an inveterate haunter of the roadside. Yet its blossoms
have only to be looked at and smelled of to make their way, homely as is
the stalk that produces them. They love darkness rather than light, but
it certainly is not "because their deeds are evil." One might as well
cast the opprobrious text in the face of the moon and stars. Now and
then some enterprising journalist, for want of better employment,
investigates anew the habits of literary workers; and it invariably
transpires that some can do their best only by daylight, while the minds
of others seem to be good for nothing till the sun goes down; and the
wise reader, who reads not so much to gain information as to see whether
the writer tells the truth, shakes his head, and says, "Oh, it is all in
use." Of course it is all in use, just as it is with whippoorwills and
the morning-glory.

The mention of the eveni