[Illustration]
There are several kinds of Sphaerostigma; leaves alternate; flowers
yellow, white or pink, turning green or reddish; stamens eight, with
oblong, swinging anthers; style threadlike, with a round-top stigma;
capsule four-celled, usually long and narrow, four-angled, often
twisted, with no stalk.
[Sidenote: =Evening Primrose=
_Sphaerostígma bistórta (Oenothera)_
=Yellow
Spring
California=]
A common kind, very variable in its manner of growth, being tall and
erect in moist, shady places and spreading flat on the ground in dry,
sunny spots. The leaves are dull green, more or less downy and more or
less toothed, and the flowers are three-quarters of an inch across,
clear yellow, usually with a speck, or blotch, of reddish-brown at
the base of each petal; the stamens and pistil also yellow; the pods
reddish and very much twisted. Gravelly washes are often thickly
sprinkled with these gay and charming flowers.
[Sidenote: _Sphaerostígma Veitchiànum (Oenothera)_
=Yellow
Spring
California=]
Much like the last, but the flowers are only a little over a quarter of
an inch across. The pods are dark red and shiny, with a few hairs.
[Sidenote: =Beach Primrose=
_Sphaerostígma viridéscens (Oenothera cheiranthifolia
var. suffruticosa)_
=Yellow
All seasons
California=]
A beautiful seashore plant, forming large, low clumps of reclining
stems and pale gray, downy foliage, the twigs and younger leaves
silvery-white. The flowers are about an inch and a quarter across,
clear yellow, often with two, dark red dots at the base of each petal;
the stamens and pistil also yellow of the same shade; the pods pinkish,
downy, and much twisted. The flat masses of pale foliage, strewn with
golden disks, are exceedingly effective, growing in drifting sand hills
along the coast, from San Francisco south.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: S. Veitchianum.
Beach Primrose--Sphaerostigma viridescens.