ABSTRACT
The evening primroses are wild plants, mostly with yellow or white flowers, that occur in natural places and along roadsides throughout the United States. The reason that the neglected plants were gradually proving of interest to giant chemical concerns in Europe was the discovery that the oil in their seeds is one of the only two known rich natural sources of a nutrient called gamma-linolenic acid. Plants, animals, and microorganisms working together in complex interrelationships that are still very poorly understood make up the biosphere, and the worldwide web of life of which we human beings are a part. The extinction of plants and animals worldwide is probably, as Professor E. 0. Wilson has pointed out, the most significant event that is occurring in the world during our lifetime. The legumes are a large group of plants comprising some 18,000 species.
