not known to _all_ my readers that some flowers not
only brighten the earth by day with their lovely faces, but emit light
at dusk. In a note to Darwin's _Loves of the Plants_ it is stated that
the daughter of Linnaeus first observed the Nasturtium to throw out
flashes of light in the morning before sunrise, and also during the
evening twilight, but not after total darkness came on. The philosophers
considered these flashes to be electric. Mr. Haggren, Professor of
Natural History, perceived one evening a faint flash of light repeatedly
darted from a marigold. The flash was afterwards often seen by him on
the same flower two or three times, in quick succession, but more
commonly at intervals of some minutes. The light has been observed also
on the orange, the lily, the monks hood, the yellow goats beard and the
sun flower. This effect has sometimes been so striking that the flowers
have looked as if they were illuminated for a holiday.

Lady Blessington has a fanciful allusion to this flower light. "Some
flowers," she says, "absorb the rays of the sun so strongly that in the
evening they yield slight phosphoric flashes, may we not compare the
minds of poets to those flowers which imbibing light emit it again in a
different form and aspect?"

[097] The Shan and other Poems

[098] My Hindu friend is not answerable for the following notes.

[099]
And infants winged, who mirthful throw
Shafts rose-tipped from nectareous bow.

Kam Deva, the Cupid of the Hindu Mythology, is thus represented. His bow
is of the sugar cane, his string is formed of wild bees, and his arrows
are tipped with the rose.--_Tales of the Forest_.

[100] In 1811 this plant was subjected to a regular set of experiments
by Dr. G. Playfair, who, with many of his brethren, bears ample
testimony of its efficacy in leprosy, lues, tenia, herpes, dropsy,
rheumatism, hectic and intermittent fever. The powdered bark is given in
doses of 5-6 grains twice a day.--_Dr. Voight's Hortus Suburbanus
Calcuttensis_.

[101] It is perhaps of the Flax tribe. Mr. Piddington gives it the
Sanscrit name of _Atasi_ and the Botanical name _Linum usitatissimum_.

[102] Roxburgh calls it "intensely fragrant."

[103] Sometimes employed by robbers to deprive their victims of the
power of resistance. In a strong dose it is poison.

[104] It is said to be used by the Chinese to blacken their eyebrows and
their shoes.

[105] _Mirabilis jalapa_, or Marvel of Peru, is