The periodical change of colour in some flowers is also worthy of remark. Thus, the flowers of the speckled French Honeysuckle (Hedysarum maculatum) are purple in the morning and green at noon. The changeable Hibiscus (Hibiscus mutabilis) is white in the morning, flesh-coloured at noon, and rose-red in the evening. Thus, too, the great Corn-flag (Gladiolus grandis) changes its colour several times in the course of the day.
Neither is the scent of flowers equally strong and agreeable at all hours of the day: many, even of our indigenous flowers, have the strongest 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 Epidendrum, 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 Hyacinth.
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, comprehending the hours between three in the morning and eight in the evening.
It is, of course, impossible to ensure the accurate going of such a dial, because the temperature, the dryness, and the dampness of the air, have a considerable influence on the opening and shutting of flowers.
THE END.
