hooks upon what is called the calyx, and when
the petals open they burst the hooks with a snapping noise. One of the
garden varieties has snow-white flowers. Another name for the plant is
'evening star.'

The most splendid of all the flowers of darkness is the cereus, the
blossoms of which begin to open at seven or eight o'clock in the
evening, and are fully out when midnight comes. Before daylight arrives
the flowers have generally decayed, so rapid is their progress. So huge
are these that they quite surpass the largest blooms found on the
sun-flower, being nearly three feet in circumference. The outer portion
is dark brown; the inner shades range from yellow to a pure white. When
a dozen or so happen to expand at the same time the effect is startling.
They also give out a fine scent.

One of these plants of the night caused such wonder when it arrived in
England, that folks called it the 'marvel of Peru.' It is not at all
uncommon now amongst the choice garden plants of other lands. The
flowers are of several colours and open when the sun has set; the most
conspicuous kind has long, dull, white flowers, which have a scent like
the orange blossom or the heliotrope. One kind, however, opens earlier
in the afternoon, and so that is known as the 'four-o'clock flower.'
They are plants fond of warmth, but they do well out of doors during a
hot summer.

One of the jessamines is named the night-flower, because it opens
towards evening; and that grand species of lily called the Victoria
Regina comes amongst the flowers that prefer night to-day.

We have in Britain a family of wild plants named the 'catch-flies.' They
do not catch flies or other insects by their flowers, as some plants
can, but they take them by the stems, which are sticky, and insects
coming against these are entangled. The Latin name of Silena arose from
an old legend that it belonged first to a young man whom the goddess
Minerva employed to catch flies for her owls. She found him one day
idling about, and in her anger turned him into a plant which should be
always catching flies. Yorkshire has a night-flowering plant of this
kind, with pale flowers and a forked stem. Then there is the white or
evening campion of our hedgerows, which opens generally in the twilight,
sending forth a perfume. Another, rather rarer, is the 'dame's rocket,'
also a night flower. Yet another well-known evening flower in gardens is
the tobacco plant, which has a white flower a