When the heat of the day is over and the morning-glories are folding together their faded chalices, the bright little four-o'clocks begin to open their myriad magenta-colored eyes upon the closing day, and they, together with the evening primroses, will keep the vigils of the night. These diaphanous little flowers, with their long stamens resting on the lower side of the perianth, are like diminutive azaleas.
They are very puzzling, and the part that baffles the young botanist is the calyx, which, as it sometimes has two or three corollas within it, cannot be considered a calyx at all, but must be called an involucre. In reality the corolla is absent, and the calyx, which is colored like a corolla, is called a perianth. This appears to sit upon the top of the round ovary, but in reality a green continuation of it is drawn down tightly over the ovary.
[Illustration CALIFORNIAN FOUR-O'CLOCK--_Mirabilis Californica_.]
_Convolvulus Soldanella_, L. Morning-glory Family.
_Stems._--A foot or less long; trailing. _Leaves._--Kidney-shaped; long-petioled; leathery; an inch or two broad. _Flowers._--Pink to lavender; one to nearly three inches across, with a pair of thin bracts just below the calyx, partly enveloping it. (Otherwise as _C. luteolus_.) _Hab._--The seashore from Puget Sound to San Diego.
The beach morning-glory trails its stems over the shifting sands of the seashore, making clusters of beautiful foliage, over which the large, delicate flowers raise their exquisite satin funnels.
_Calypso borealis_, Salisb. Orchis Family.
_Bulb._--Small; solid. _Stem._--Three to six inches high. _Leaf._--An inch or two long. _Sepals_ and petals light to deep rose-color; six to nine lines long. _Lip._--Brownish pink, mottled with purple. _Style._--Petaloid, oval, and concave, bearing the hemispherical anther on its summit underneath. _Hab._--The northern Coast Ranges; also across the continent.
It has never been my good fortune to find this rare and exquisite little orchid, but beautiful specimens have been sent from the redwoods of Sonoma County and from Oregon. The books speak of it as growing in bogs; but I am told by those who gathered them that the little plants sit lightly upon the layer of needles that carpet the forest-floor. The roots scarcely penetrate the soil, so that the plants are easily disengaged without digging.
