The Botanic Garden. Part 2, Containing the Loves of the Plants. A Poem.
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Title: The Botanic Garden. Part 2, Containing the Loves of the Plants. A Poem.
Author: Erasmus Darwin
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Most recently updated: October 28, 2024
Language: English
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BOTANIC GARDEN. PART 2, CONTAINING THE LOVES OF THE PLANTS. A POEM. ***
[Illustration: FLORA at Play with CUPID.]
THE
BOTANIC GARDEN.
PART II.
CONTAINING
THE LOVES OF THE PLANTS.
A POEM.
WITH
PHILOSOPHICAL NOTES.
VOLUME THE SECOND.
VIVUNT IN VENEREM FRONDES; NEMUS OMNE PER ALTUM
FELIX ARBOR AMAT; NUTANT AD MUTUA PALMÆ
FÆDERA, POPULEO SUSPIRAT POPULUS ICTU,
ET PLATANI PLATANIS, ALNOQUE ASSIBILAT ALNUS.
CLAUD. EPITH.
THE SECOND EDITION.
LONDON:
PRINTED BY J. NICHOLS,
FOR J. JOHNSON, ST. PAUL'S CHURCH YARD. M, DCC, XC.
ADVERTISEMENT.
The general design of the following sheets is to inlist Imagination
under the banner of Science, and to lead her votaries from the looser
analogies, which dress out the imagery of poetry, to the stricter ones,
which form the ratiocination of philosophy. While their particular design
is to induce the ingenious to cultivate the knowledge of BOTANY; by
introducing them to the vestibule of that delightful science, and
recommending to their attention the immortal works of the Swedish
Naturalist LINNEUS.
In the first Poem, or Economy of Vegetation, the physiology of Plants
is delivered; and the operation of the Elements, as far as they may be
supposed to affect the growth of Vegetables. But the publication of this
part is deferred to another year, for the purpose of repeating some
experiments on vegetation, mentioned in the notes. In the second poem, or
LOVES OF THE PLANTS, which is here presented to the Reader, the Sexual
System of LINNEUS is explained, with the remarkable properties of many
particular plants.
The author has withheld this work, (excepting a few pages) many years
from the press, according to the rule of Horace, hoping to have rendered
it more worthy the acceptance of the public,--but finds at length, that
he is less able, from disuse, to correct the poetry; and, from want of
leizure, to amplify the annotations.
In this second edition, the plants Amaryllis, Orchis, and Cannabis are
inserted with two additional prints of flowers; some alterations are made
in Gloriosa, and Tulipa; and the description of the Salt-mines in Poland
is removed to the first poem on the Economy of Vegetation.
PREFACE.
Linneus has divided the vegetable world into 24 Classes; these Classes
into about 120 Orders; these Orders contain about 2000 Families, or
Genera; and these Families about 20,000 Species; besides the innumerable
Varieties, which the accidents of climate or cultivation have added to
these Species.
The Classes are distinguished from each other in this ingenious system,
by the number, situation, adhesion, or reciprocal proportion of the males
in each flower. The Orders, in many of these Classes, are distinguished
by the number, or other circumstances of the females. The Families, or
Genera, are characterized by the analogy of all the parts of the flower
or fructification. The Species are distinguished by the foliage of the
plant; and the Varieties by any accidental circumstance of colour, taste,
or odour; the seeds of these do not always produce plants similar to the
parent; as in our numerous fruit-trees and garden flowers; which are
propagated by grafts or layers.
The first eleven Classes include the plants, in whose flowers both the
sexes reside; and in which the Males or Stamens are neither united, nor
unequal in height when at maturity; and are therefore distinguished from
each other simply by the number of males in each flower, as is seen in
the annexed PLATE, copied from the Dictionaire Botanique of M. BULLIARD,
in which the numbers of each division refer to the Botanic Classes.
CLASS I. ONE MALE, _Monandria_; includes the plants which possess but One
Stamen in each flower.
II. TWO MALES, _Diandria_. Two Stamens.
III. THREE MALES, _Triandria_. Three Stamens.
IV. FOUR MALES, _Tetrandria_. Four Stamens.
V. FIVE MALES, _Pentandria_. Five Stamens.
VI. SIX MALES, _Hexandria_. Six Stamens.
VII. SEVEN MALES, _Heptandria_. Seven Stamens.
VIII. EIGHT MALES, _Octandria_. Eight Stamens.
IX. NINE MALES, _Enneandria_. Nine Stamens.
X. TEN MALES, _Decandria_. Ten Stamens.
XI. TWELVE MALES, _Dodecandria_. Twelve Stamens.
The next two Classes are distinguished not only by the number of equal
and disunited males, as in the above eleven Classes, but require an
additional circumstance to be attended to, _viz._ whether the males or
stamens be situated on the calyx, or not.
XII. TWENTY MALES, _Icosandria_. Twenty Stamens inserted on the calyx or
flower-cup; as is well seen in the last Figure of No. xii. in the annexed
Plate.
XIII. MANY MALES, _Polyandria_. From 20 to 100 Stamens, which do not
adhere to the calyx; as is well seen in the first Figure of No. xiii. in
the annexed Plate.
In the next two Classes, not only the number of stamens are to be
observed, but the reciprocal proportions in respect to height.
XIV. TWO POWERS, _Didynamia_. Four Stamens, of which two are lower than
the other two; as is seen in the two first Figures of No. xiv.
XV. FOUR POWERS, _Tetradynamia_. Six Stamens; of which four are taller,
and the two lower ones opposite to each other; as is seen in the third
Figure of the upper row in No. 15.
The five subsequent Classes are distinguished not by the number of the
males, or stamens, but by their union or adhesion, either by their
anthers, or filaments, or to the female or pistil.
XVI. ONE BROTHERHOOD, _Monadelphia_. Many Stamens united by their
filaments into one company; as in the second Figure below of No. xvi.
XVII. TWO BROTHERHOODS, _Diadelphia_. Many Stamens united by their
filaments into two Companies; as in the uppermost Fig. No. xvii.
XVIII. MANY BROTHERHOODS, _Polyadelphia_. Many Stamens united by their
filaments into three or more companies, as in No. xviii.
XIX. CONFEDERATE MALES, _Syngenesia_. Many Stamens united by their
anthers; as in first and second Figures, No. xix.
XX. FEMININE MALES, _Gynandria_. Many Stamens attached to the pistil.
The next three Classes consist of plants, whose flowers contain but one
of the sexes; or if some of them contain both sexes, there are other
flowers accompanying them of but one sex.
XXI. ONE HOUSE, _Monoecia_. Male flowers and female flowers separate, but
on the same plant.
XXII. TWO HOUSES, _Dioecia_. Male flowers and female flowers separate, on
different plants.
XXIII. POLYGAMY, _Polygamia_. Male and female flowers on one or more
plants, which have at the same time flowers of both sexes.
The last Class contains the plants whose flowers are not discernible.
XXIV. CLANDESTINE MARRIAGE, _Cryptogamia_.
The Orders of the first thirteen Classes are founded on the number
of Females, or Pistils, and distinguished by the names, ONE FEMALE,
_Monogynia_. TWO FEMALES, _Digynia_. THREE FEMALES, _Trigynia_, &c. as is
seen in No. i. which represents a plant of one male, one female; and in
the first Figure of No. xi. which represents a flower with twelve males,
and three females; (for, where the pistils have no apparent styles, the
summits, or stigmas, are to be numbered) and in the first Figure of No.
xii. which represents a flower with twenty males and many females; and in
the last Figure of the same No. which has twenty males and one female;
and in No. xiii. which represents a flower with many males and many
females.
The Class of TWO POWERS, is divided into two natural Orders; into such
as have their seeds naked at the bottom of the calyx, or flower cup; and
such as have their seeds covered; as is seen in No. xiv. Fig. 3. and 5.
The Class of FOUR POWERS, is divided also into two Orders; in one of
these the seeds are inclosed in a silicule, as in _Shepherd's purse_.
No. xiv. Fig. 5. In the other they are inclosed in a silique, as in
_Wall-flower_. Fig. 4.
In all the other Classes, excepting the Classes Confederate Males, and
Clandestine Marriage, as the character of each Class is distinguished by
the situations of the males; the character of the Orders is marked by the
numbers of them. In the Class ONE BROTHERHOOD, No. xvi. Fig. 3. the Order
of ten males is represented. And in the Class TWO BROTHERHOODS, No. xvii.
Fig. 2. the Order ten males is represented.
In the Class CONFEDERATE MALES, the Orders are chiefly distinguished by
the fertility or barrenness of the florets of the disk, or ray of the
compound flower.
And in the Class of CLANDESTINE MARRIAGE, the four Orders are termed
FERNS, MOSSES, FLAGS, and FUNGUSSES.
The Orders are again divided into Genera, or Families, which are all
natural associations, and are described from the general resemblances of
the parts of fructification, in respect to their number, form, situation,
and reciprocal proportion. These are the Calyx, or Flower-cup, as seen in
No. iv. Fig. 1. No. x. Fig. 1. and 3. No. xiv. Fig. 1. 2. 3. 4. Second,
the Corol, or Blossom, as seen in No. i. ii. &c. Third, the Males, or
Stamens; as in No. iv. Fig. 1. and No. viii. Fig. 1. Fourth, the Females,
or Pistils; as in No. i. No. xii. Fig. 1. No. xiv. Fig. 3. No. xv. Fig.
3. Fifth, the Pericarp or Fruit-vessel; as No. xv. Fig. 4. 5. No. xvii.
Fig. 2. Sixth, the Seeds.
The illustrious author of the Sexual System of Botany, in his preface to
his account of the Natural Orders, ingeniously imagines, that one
plant of each Natural Order was created in the beginning; and that the
intermarriages of these produced one plant of every Genus, or Family; and
that the intermarriages of these Generic, or Family plants, produced all
the Species: and lastly, that the intermarriages of the individuals of
the Species produced the Varieties.
In the following POEM, the name or number of the Class or Order of each
plant is printed in italics; as "_Two_ brother swains." "_One_ House
contains them." and the word "_secret_" expresses the Class of
Clandestine Marriage.
The Reader, who wishes to become further acquainted with this delightful
field of science, is advised to study the words of the Great Master, and
is apprized that they are exactly and literally translated into English,
by a Society at LICHFIELD, in four Volumes Octavo.
To the SYSTEM OF VEGETABLES is prefixed a copious explanation of all the
Terms used in Botany, translated from a thesis of Dr. ELMSGREEN, with the
plates and references from the Philosophia Botannica of LINNEUS.
To the FAMILIES OF PLANTS is prefixed a Catalogue of the names of plants,
and other Botanic Terms, carefully accented, to shew their proper
pronunciation; a work of great labour, and which was much wanted, not
only by beginners, but by proficients in BOTANY.
* * * * *
PROEM.
GENTLE READER!
Lo, here a CAMERA OBSCURA is presented to thy view, in which are lights
and shades dancing on a whited canvas, and magnified into apparent
life!--if thou art perfectly at leasure for such trivial amusement, walk
in, and view the wonders of my INCHANTED GARDEN.
Whereas P. OVIDIUS NASO, a great Necromancer in the famous Court of
AUGUSTUS CAESAR, did by art poetic transmute Men, Women, and even Gods
and Goddesses, into Trees and Flowers; I have undertaken by similar
art to restore some of them to their original animality, after having
remained prisoners so long in their respective vegetable mansions; and
have here exhibited them before thee. Which thou may'st contemplate
as diverse little pictures suspended over the chimney of a Lady's
dressing-room, _connected only by a slight festoon of ribbons_. And
which, though thou may'st not be acquainted with the originals, may amuse
thee by the beauty of their persons, their graceful attitudes, or the
brilliancy of their dress.
FAREWELL.
[Illustration]
THE
LOVES
OF THE
PLANTS.
CANTO I.
Descend, ye hovering Sylphs! aerial Quires,
And sweep with little hands your silver lyres;
With fairy footsteps print your grassy rings,
Ye Gnomes! accordant to the tinkling strings;
5 While in soft notes I tune to oaten reed
Gay hopes, and amorous sorrows of the mead.--
From giant Oaks, that wave their branches dark,
To the dwarf Moss, that clings upon their bark,
What Beaux and Beauties crowd the gaudy groves,
10 And woo and win their vegetable Loves.
How Snowdrops cold, and blue-eyed Harebels blend
Their tender tears, as o'er the stream they bend;
The lovesick Violet, and the Primrose pale
Bow their sweet heads, and whisper to the gale;
15 With secret sighs the Virgin Lily droops,
And jealous Cowslips hang their tawny cups.
How the young Rose in beauty's damask pride
Drinks the warm blushes of his bashful bride;
With honey'd lips enamour'd Woodbines meet,
20 Clasp with fond arms, and mix their kisses sweet.--
Stay thy soft-murmuring waters, gentle Rill;
Hush, whispering Winds, ye ruflling Leaves, be still;
Rest, silver Butterflies, your quivering wings;
Alight, ye Beetles, from your airy rings;
[_Vegetable Loves_. l. 10. Linneus, the celebrated Swedish naturalist,
has demonstrated, that ail flowers contain families of males or females,
or both; and on their marriages has constructed his invaluable system of
Botany.]
25 Ye painted Moths, your gold-eyed plumage furl,
Bow your wide horns, your spiral trunks uncurl;
Glitter, ye Glow-worms, on your mossy beds;
Descend, ye Spiders, on your lengthen'd threads;
Slide here, ye horned Snails, with varnish'd shells;
30 Ye Bee-nymphs, listen in your waxen cells!--
BOTANIC MUSE! who in this latter age
Led by your airy hand the Swedish sage,
Bad his keen eye your secret haunts explore
On dewy dell, high wood, and winding shore;
35 Say on each leaf how tiny Graces dwell;
How laugh the Pleasures in a blossom's bell;
How insect Loves arise on cobweb wings,
Aim their light shafts, and point their little stings.
First the tall CANNA lifts his curled brow
40 Erect to heaven, and plights his nuptial vow;
[_Canna_. l. 39. Cane, or Indian Reed. One male and one female inhabit
each flower. It is brought from between the tropics to our hot-houses,
and bears a beautiful crimson flower; the seeds are used as shot by the
Indians, and are strung for prayer-beads in some catholic countries.]
The virtuous pair, in milder regions born,
Dread the rude blast of Autumn's icy morn;
Round the chill fair he folds his crimson vest,
And clasps the timorous beauty to his breast.
45 Thy love, CALLITRICHE, _two_ Virgins share,
Smit with thy starry eye and radiant hair;--
On the green margin sits the youth, and laves
His floating train of tresses in the waves;
Sees his fair features paint the streams that pass,
50 And bends for ever o'er the watery glass.
_Two_ brother swains, of COLLIN'S gentle name,
The same their features, and their forms the same,
[_Callitriche_, l. 45. Fine-Hair, Stargrass. One male and two females
inhabit each flower. The upper leaves grow in form of a star, whence it
is called Stellaria Aquatica by Ray and others; its stems and leaves
float far on the water, and are often so matted together, as to bear a
person walking on them. The male sometimes lives in a separate flower.]
[_Collinsonia_. l. 51. Two males one female. I have lately observed a
very singular circumstance in this flower; the two males stand widely
diverging from each other, and the female bends herself into contact
first with one of them, and after some time leaves this, and applies
herself to the other. It is probable one of the anthers may be mature
before the other? See note on Gloriosa, and Genista. The
females in Nigella, devil in the bush, are very tall compared to the
males; and bending over in a circle to them, give the flower some
resemblance to a regal crown. The female of the epilobium angustisolium,
rose bay willow herb, bends down amongst the males for several days,
and becomes upright again when impregnated.]
[_Genista_. l. 57. Dyer's broom. Ten males and one female inhabit this
flower. The males are generally united at the bottom in two sets, whence
Linneus has named the class "two brotherhoods." In the Genista, however,
they are united in but one set. The flowers of this class are called
papilionaceous, from their resemblance to a butterfly, as the pea-blossom.
In the Spartium Scoparium, or common broom, I have lately observed
a curious circumstance, the males or stamens are in two sets, one set
rising a quarter of an inch above the other; the upper set does not arrive
at their maturity so soon as the lower, and the stigma, or head of the
female, is produced amongst the upper or immature set; but as soon as
the pistil grows tall enough to burst open the keel-leaf, or hood of the
flower, it bends itself round in an instant, like a French horn, and
inserts its head, or stigma, amongst the lower or mature set of males.
The pistil, or female, continues to grow in length; and in a few days
the stigma arrives again amongst the upper set, by the time they become
mature. This wonderful contrivance is readily seen by opening the
keel-leaf of the flowers of broom before they burst spontaneously. See
note on Collinsonia, Gloriosa, Draba.]
With rival love for fair COLLINIA sigh,
Knit the dark brow, and roll the unsteady eye.
55 With sweet concern the pitying beauty mourns,
And sooths with smiles the jealous pair by turns.
Sweet blooms GENISTA in the myrtle shade,
And _ten_ fond brothers woo the haughty maid.
_Two_ knights before thy fragrant altar bend,
60 Adored MELISSA! and _two_ squires attend.
MEADIA'S soft chains _five_ suppliant beaux confess,
And hand in hand the laughing belle address;
Alike to all, she bows with wanton air,
Rolls her dark eye, and waves her golden hair.
[_Melissa_. l. 60. Balm. In each flower there are four males and one
female; two of the males stand higher than the other two; whence the name
of the class "two powers." I have observed in the Ballota, and others of
this class, that the two lower stamens, or males become mature before the
two higher. After they have shed their dust, they turn themselves away
outwards; and the pistil, or female, continuing to grow a little taller,
is applied to the upper stamens. See Gloriosa, and Genista.
All the plants of this class, which have naked seeds, are aromatic. The
Marum, and Nepeta are particularly delightful to cats; no other brute
animals seem pleased with any odours but those of their food or prey.]
[_Meadia_. l. 61. Dodecatheon, American Cowslip. Five males and one
female. The males, or anthers, touch each other. The uncommon beauty of
this flower occasioned Linneus to give it a name signifying the twelve
heathen gods; and Dr. Mead to affix his own name to it. The pistil is
much longer than the stamens, hence the flower-stalks have their elegant
bend, that the stigma may hang downwards to receive the fecundating dust
of the anthers. And the petals are so beautifully turned back to prevent
the rain or dew drops from sliding down and washing off this dust
prematurely; and at the same time exposing it to the light and air. As
soon as the seeds are formed, it erects all the flower-stalks to prevent
them from falling out; and thus loses the beauty of its figure. Is this
a mechanical effect, or does it indicate a vegetable storgé to preserve
its offspring? See note on Ilex, and Gloriosa.
In the Meadia, the Borago, Cyclamen, Solanum, and many others, the
filaments are very short compared with the slyle. Hence it became
necessary, 1st. to furnish the stamens with long anthers. 2d. To lengthen
and bend the peduncle or flower-slalk, that the flower might hang
downwards. 3d. To reflect the petals. 4th. To erect these peduncles when
the germ was fecundated. We may reason upon this by observing, that all
this apparatus might have been spared, if the filaments alone had grown
longer; and that thence in these flowers that the filaments are the most
unchangeable parts; and that thence their comparative length, in respect
to the style, would afford a most permanent mark of their generic
character.]
[Illustration: Meadia]
65 Woo'd with long care, CURCUMA cold and shy
Meets her fond husband with averted eye:
_Four_ beardless youths the obdurate beauty move
With soft attentions of Platonic love.
With vain desires the pensive ALCEA burns,
70 And, like sad ELOISA, loves and mourns.
The freckled IRIS owns a fiercer flame,
And _three_ unjealous husbands wed the dame.
CUPRESSUS dark disdains his dusky bride,
_One_ dome contains them, but _two_ beds divide.
75 The proud OSYRIS flies his angry fair,
_Two_ houses hold the fashionable pair.
[_Curcuma_. l. 65. Turmeric. One male and one female inhabit this
flower; but there are besides four imperfect males, or filaments without
anthers upon them, called by Linneus eunuchs. The flax of our country
has ten filaments, and but five of them are terminated with anthers;
the Portugal flax has ten perfect males, or stamens; the Verbena of our
country has four males; that of Sweden has but two; the genus Albuca, the
Bignonia Catalpa, Gratiola, and hemlock-leaved Geranium have only half
their filaments crowned with anthers. In like manner the florets, which
form the rays of the flowers of the order frustraneous polygamy of the
class syngenesia, or confederate males, as the sun-flower, are furnished
with a style only, and no stigma: and are thence barren. There is also
a style without a stigma in the whole order dioecia gynandria; the male
flowers of which are thence barren. The Opulus is another plant, which
contains some unprolific flowers. In like manner some tribes of insects
have males, females, and neuters among them: as bees, wasps, ants.
There is a curious circumstance belonging to the class of insects which
have two wings, or diptera, analogous to the rudiments of stamens above
described; viz. two little knobs are found placed each on a stalk or
peduncle, generally under a little arched scale; which appear to be
rudiments of hinder wings; and are called by Linneus, halteres, or
poisers, a term of his introduction. A.T. Bladh. Amaen. Acad. V. 7. Other
animals have marks of having in a long process of time undergone
changes in some parts of their bodies, which may have been effected to
accommodate them to new ways of procuring their food. The existence of
teats on the breasts of male animals, and which are generally replete with
a thin kind of milk at their nativity, is a wonderful instance of this
kind. Perhaps all the productions of nature are in their progress to
greater perfection? an idea countenanced by the modern discoveries and
deductions concerning the progressive formation of the solid parts of the
terraqueous globe, and consonant to the dignity of the Creator of all
things.]
[_Alcea_, l. 69. Flore pleno. Double hollyhock. The double flowers,
so much admired by the florists, are termed by the botanist vegetable
monsters; in some of these the petals are multiplied three or four times,
but without excluding the stamens, hence they produce some seeds, as
Campanula and Stramoneum; but in others the petals become so numerous as
totally to exclude the stamens, or males; as Caltha, Peonia, and Alcea;
these produce no seeds, and are termed eunuchs. Philos. Botan. No. 150.
These vegetable monsters are formed in many ways. 1st. By the
multiplication of the petals and the exclusion of the nectaries, as in
larkspur. 2d. By the multiplication of the nectaries and exclusion of
the petals; as in columbine. 3d. In some flowers growing in cymes, the
wheel-shape flowers in the margin are multiplied to the exclusion of
the bell-shape flowers in the centre; as in gelder-rose. 4th. By the
elongation of the florets in the centre. Instances of both these are
found in daisy and feverfew; for other kinds of vegetable monsters, see
Plantago.
The perianth is not changed in double flowers, hence the genus or family
may be often discovered by the calyx, as in Hepatica, Ranunculus, Alcea.
In those flowers, which have many petals, the lowest series of the petals
remains unchanged in respect to number; hence the natural number of the
petals is easily discovered. As in poppies, roses, and Nigella, or devil
in a bulb. Phil. Bot. p. 128.]
[_Iris_. l. 71. Flower de Luce. Three males, one female. Some of the
species have a beautifully freckled flower; the large stigma or head
of the female covers the three males, counterfeiting a petal with its
divisions.]
[_Cupressus_. l. 73. Cypress. One House. The males live in separate
flowers, but on the same plant. The males of some of these plants, which
are in separate flowers from the females, have an elastic membrane; which
disperses their dust to a considerable distance, when the anthers burst
open. This dust, on a fine day, may often be seen like a cloud hanging
round the common nettle. The males and females of all the cone-bearing
plants are in separate flowers, either on the same or on different
plants; they produce resins, and many of them are supposed to supply the
most durable timber: what is called Venice-turpentine is obtained from
the larch by wounding the bark about two feet from the ground, and
catching it as it exsudes; Sandarach is procured from common juniper; and
Incense from a juniper with yellow fruit. The unperishable chests, which
contain the Egyptian mummies, were of Cypress; and the Cedar, with which
black-lead pencils are covered, is not liable to be eaten by worms. See
Miln's Bot. Dict. art. coniferæ. The gates of St. Peter's church at
Rome, which had lasted from the time of Constantine to that of Pope
Eugene the fourth, that is to say eleven hundred years, were of Cypress,
and had in that time suffered no decay. According to Thucydides, the
Athenians buried the bodies of their heroes in coffins of Cypress, as
being not subject to decay. A similar durability has also been ascribed
to Cedar. Thus Horace,
_----speramus carmina fingi
Posse linenda cedre, & lavi servanda cupresso._
[_Osyris_. l. 75. Two houses. The males and females are on different
plants. There are many instances on record, where female plants have been
impregnated at very great distance from their male; the dust discharged
from the anthers is very light, small, and copious, so that it may spread
very wide in the atmosphere, and be carried to the distant pistils,
without the supposition of any particular attraction; these plants
resemble some insects, as the ants, and cochineal insect, of which the
males have wings, but not the female.]
With strange deformity PLANTAGO treads,
A Monster-birth! and lifts his hundred heads;
Yet with soft love a gentle belle he charms,
80 And clasps the beauty in his hundred arms.
So hapless DESDEMONA, fair and young,
Won by OTHELLO'S captivating tongue,
Sigh'd o'er each strange and piteous tale, distress'd,
And sunk enamour'd on his sooty breast.
85 _Two_ gentle shepherds and their sister-wives
With thee, ANTHOXA! lead ambrosial lives;
[_Plantago_. l. 77. Rosea. Rose Plantain. In this vegetable monster the
bractes, or divisions of the spike, become wonderfully enlarged; and are
converted into leaves. The chaffy scales of the calyx in Xeranthemum, and
in a species of Dianthus, and the glume in some alpine grasses, and the
scales of the ament in the salix rosea, rose willow, grow into leaves;
and produce other kinds of monsters. The double flowers become monsters
by the multiplication of their petals or nectaries. See note on Alcea.
[_Anthoxanthum_. l. 83. Vernal grass. Two males, two females. The other
grasses have three males and two females. The flowers of this grass give
the fragrant scent to hay. I am informed it is frequently viviparous,
that is, that it bears sometimes roots or bulbs instead of seeds, which
after a time drop off and strike root into the ground. This circumstance
is said to obtain in many of the alpine grasses, whose seeds are
perpetually devoured by small birds. The Festuca Dometorum, fescue grass
of the bushes, produces bulbs from the sheaths of its straw. The Allium
Magicum, or magical onion, produces onions on its head, instead of seeds.
The Polygonum Viviparum, viviparous bistort, rises about a foot high,
with a beautiful spike of flowers, which are succeeded by buds or bulbs,
which fall off and take root. There is a bulb, frequently seen on
birch-trees, like a bird's nest, which seems to be a similar attempt of
nature, to produce another tree; which falling off might take root in
spongy ground.
There is an instance of this double mode of production in the animal
kingdom, which is equally extraordinary: the same species of Aphis is
viviparous in summer, and oviparous in autumn. A. T. Bladh. Amoen. Acad.
V. 7.]
Where the wide heath in purple pride extends,
And scatter'd furze its golden lustre blends,
Closed in a green recess, unenvy'd lot!
90 The blue smoak rises from their turf-built cot;
Bosom'd in fragrance blush their infant train,
Eye the warm sun, or drink the silver rain.
The fair OSMUNDA seeks the silent dell,
The ivy canopy, and dripping cell;
95 There hid in shades _clandestine_ rites approves,
Till the green progeny betrays her loves.
[_Osmunda_. l. 93. This plant grows on moist rocks; the parts of its
flower or its seeds are scarce discernible; whence Linneus has given the
name of clandestine marriage to this class. The younger plants are of a
beautiful vivid green.]
With charms despotic fair CHONDRILLA reigns
O'er the soft hearts of _five_ fraternal swains;
If sighs the changeful nymph, alike they mourn;
100 And, if she smiles, with rival raptures burn.
So, tun'd in unison, Eolian Lyre!
Sounds in sweet symphony thy kindred wire;
Now, gently swept by Zephyr's vernal wings,
Sink in soft cadences the love-sick strings;
105 And now with mingling chords, and voices higher,
Peal the full anthems of the aerial choir.
[_Chondrilla_. l. 97. Of the class Confederate Males. The numerous
florets, which constitute the disk of the flowers in this class, contain
in each five males surrounding one female, which are connected at top,
whence the name of the class. An Italian writer, in a discourse on the
irritability of flowers, asserts, that if the top of the floret be
touched, all the filaments which support the cylindrical anther will
contrast themselves, and that by thus raising or depressing the anther
the whole of the prolific dust is collected on the stigma. He adds, that
if one filament be touched after it is separated from the floret, that it
will contract like the muscular fibres of animal bodies, his experiments
were tried on the Centauréa Calcitrapoides, and on artichokes, and
globe-thistles. Discourse on the irratability of plants. Dodsley.]
_Five_ sister-nymphs to join Diana's train
With thee, fair LYCHNIS! vow,--but vow in vain;
Beneath one roof resides the virgin band,
110 Flies the fond swain, and scorns his offer'd hand;
But when soft hours on breezy pinions move,
And smiling May attunes her lute to love,
Each wanton beauty, trick'd in all her grace,
Shakes the bright dew-drops from her blushing face;
115 In gay undress displays her rival charms,
And calls her wondering lovers to her arms.
When the young Hours amid her tangled hair
Wove the fresh rose-bud, and the lily fair,
[_Lychnis._ l. 108. Ten males and five females. The flowers which
contain the five females, and those which contain the ten males, are
found on different plants; and often at a great distance from each other.
Five of the ten males arrive at their maturity some days before the other
five, as may be seen by opening the corol before it naturally expands
itself. When the females arrive at their maturity, they rise above the
petals, as if looking abroad for their distant husbands; the scarlet ones
contribute much to the beauty of our meadows in May and June.]
Proud GLORIOSA led _three_ chosen swains,
120 The blushing captives of her virgin chains.--
--When Time's rude hand a bark of wrinkles spread
Round her weak limbs, and silver'd o'er her head,
_Three_ other youths her riper years engage,
The flatter'd victims of her wily age.
125 So, in her wane of beauty, NINON won
With fatal smiles her gay unconscious son.--
[_Gloriosa_. l. 119. Superba. Six males, one female. The petals of this
beautiful flower with three of the stamens, which are first mature, stand
up in apparent disorder; and the pistil bends at nearly a right angle
to insert its stigma amongst them. In a few days, as these decline,
the other three stamens bend over, and approach the pistil. In the
Fritillaria Persica, the six stamens are of equal lengths, and the
anthers lie at a distance from the pistil, and three alternate ones
approach first; and, when these decline, the other three approach: in the
Lithrum Salicaria, (which has twelve males and one female) a beautiful
red flower, which grows on the banks of rivers, six of the males arrive
at maturity, and surround the female some time before the other six; when
these decline, the other six rise up, and supply their places. Several
other flowers have in similar manner two sets of stamens of different
ages, as Adoxa, Lychnis, Saxifraga. See Genista. Perhaps a difference
in the time of their maturity obtains in all these flowers, which have
numerous stamens. In the Kahnia the ten stamens lie round the pistil like
the radii of a wheel; and each anther is concealed in a nich of the corol
to protect it from cold and moisture; these anthers rise separately from
their niches, and approach the pistil for a time, and then recede to
their former situations.]
[Illustration: Gloriosa Superba]
Clasp'd in his arms she own'd a mother's name,--
"Desist, rash youth! restrain your impious flame,
"First on that bed your infant-form was press'd,
130 "Born by my throes, and nurtured at my breast."--
Back as from death he sprung, with wild amaze
Fierce on the fair he fix'd his ardent gaze;
Dropp'd on one knee, his frantic arms outspread,
And stole a guilty glance toward the bed;
135 Then breath'd from quivering lips a whisper'd vow,
And bent on heaven his pale repentant brow;
"Thus, thus!" he cried, and plung'd the furious dart,
And life and love gush'd mingled from his heart.
The fell SILENE and her sisters fair,
140 Skill'd in destruction, spread the viscous snare.
[_Silene_. l. 139. Catchfly. Three females and ten males inhabit each
flower; the viscous material, which surrounds the stalks under the
flowers of this plant, and of the Cucubulus Otites, is a curious
contrivance to prevent various insects from plundering the honey, or
devouring the seed. In the Dionaea Muscipula there is a still more
wonderful contrivance to prevent the depredations of insects: The leaves
are armed with long teeth, like the antennæ of insects, and lie spread
upon the ground round the stem; and are so irritable, that when an
insect creeps upon them, they fold up, and crush or pierce it to death.
The last professor Linneus, in his Supplementum Plantarum, gives the
following account of the Arum Muscivorum. The flower has the smell of
carrion; by which the flies are invited to lay their eggs in the chamber
of the flower, but in vain endeavour to escape, being prevented by the
hairs pointing inwards; and thus perish in the flower, whence its name
of fly-eater. P. 411. in the Dypsacus is another contrivance for this
purpose, a bason of water is placed round each joint of the stem. In
the Drosera is another kind of fly-trap. See Dypsacus and Drosera;
the flowers of Siléne and Cucúbalus are closed all day, but are open
and give an agreeable odour in the night. See Cerea. See additional
notes at the end of the poem.]
[Illustration: Dionna Muscipula]
[Illustration: Amaryllis formosissima]
The harlot-band _ten_ lofty bravoes screen,
And frowning guard the magic nets unseen.--
Haste, glittering nations, tenants of the air,
Oh, steer from hence your viewless course afar!
145 If with soft words, sweet blushes, nods, and smiles,
The _three_ dread Syrens lure you to their toils,
Limed by their art in vain you point your stings,
In vain the efforts of your whirring wings!--
Go, seek your gilded mates and infant hives,
150 Nor taste the honey purchas'd with your lives!
When heaven's high vault condensing clouds deform,
Fair AMARYLLIS flies the incumbent storm,
[_Amaryllis_, l. 152. Formosissima. Most beautiful Amaryllis. Six males,
one female. Some of the bell-flowers close their apertures at night, or
in rainy or cold weather, as the convolvulus, and thus protect their
included stamens and pistils. Other bell-flowers hang their apertures
downwards, as many of the lilies; in those the pistil, when at maturity,
is longer than the stamens; and by this pendant attitude of the bell,
when the anthers burst, their dust falls on the stigma: and these are at
the same time sheltered as with an umbrella from rain and dews. But, as
a free exposure to the air is necessary for their fecundation, the style
and filaments in many of these flowers continue to grow longer after the
bell is open, and hang down below its rim. In others, as in the martagon,
the bell is deeply divided, and the divisions are reflected upwards, that
they may not prevent the access of air, and at the same time afford
some shelter from perpendicular rain or dew. Other bell-flowers, as the
hemerocallis and amaryllis, have their bells nodding only, as it were, or
hanging obliquely toward the horizon; which, as their stems are slender,
turn like a weathercock from the wind; and thus very effectually preserve
their inclosed stamens and anthers from the rain and cold. Many of these
flowers, both before and after their season of fecundation, erect their
heads perpendicular to the horizon, like the Meadia, which cannot be
explained from meer mechanism.
The Amaryllis formosissima is a flower of the last mentioned kind, and
affords an agreeable example of _art_ in the vegetable economy, 1. The
pistil is of great length compared with the stamens; and this I suppose
to have been the most unchangeable part of the flower, as in Meadia,
which see. 2. To counteract this circumstance, the pistil and stamens are
made to decline downwards, that the prolific dust might fall from the
anthers on the stigma. 3. To produce this effect, and to secure it when
produced, the corol is lacerated, contrary to what occurs in other
flowers of this genus, and the lowest division with the two next lowest
ones are wrapped closely over the style and filaments, binding them
forceibly down lower toward the horizon than the usual inclination of the
bell in this genus, and thus constitutes a most elegant flower. There is
another contrivance for this purpose in the Hemerocallis flava: the long
pistil often is bent somewhat like the capital letter _N_, with design to
shorten it, and thus to bring the stigma amongst the anthers.]
Seeks with unsteady step the shelter'd vale,
And turns her blushing beauties from the gale.--
155 _Six_ rival youths, with soft concern impress'd,
Calm all her fears, and charm her cares to rest.--
So shines at eve the sun-illumin'd fane,
Lifts its bright cross, and waves its golden vane;
From every breeze the polish'd axle turns,
160 And high in air the dancing meteor burns.
_Four_ of the giant brood with ILEX stand,
Each grasps a thousand arrows in his hand;
[_Ilex_. l. 161. Holly. Four males, four females. Many plants, like many
animals, are furnished with arms for their protection; these are either
aculei, prickles, as in rose and barberry, which are formed from the
outer bark of the plant; or spinæ, thorns, as in hawthorn, which are an
elongation of the wood, and hence more difficult to be torn off than the
former; or stimuli, stings, as in the nettles, which are armed with a
venomous fluid for the annoyance of naked animals. The shrubs and trees,
which have prickles or thorns, are grateful food to many animals, as
goosberry, and gorse; and would be quickly devoured, if not thus armed;
the stings seem a protection against some kinds of insects, as well
as the naked mouths of quadrupeds. Many plants lose their thorns by
cultivation, as wild animals lose their ferocity; and some of them
their horns. A curious circumstance attends the large hollies in
Needwood-forest, they are armed with thorny leaves about eight feet
high, and have smooth leaves above; as if they were conscious that
horses and cattle could not reach their upper branches. See note on
Meadia, and on Mancinella. The numerous clumps of hollies in
Needwood-forest serve as landmarks to direct the travellers
across it in various directions; and as a shelter to the deer and cattle
in winter; and in scarce seasons supply them with much food. For when the
upper branches, which are without prickles, are cut down, the deer crop
the leaves and peel off the bark. The bird-lime made from the bark of
hollies seems to be a very similar material to the elastic gum, or Indian
rubber, as it is called. There is a fossile elastic bitumen found at
Matlock in Derbyshire, which much resembles these substances in its
elasticity and inflammability. The thorns of the mimosa cornigere
resemble cow's horns in appearance as well as in use. System of
Vegetables, p. 782.]
A thousand steely points on every scale
Form the bright terrors of his bristly male.--
165 So arm'd, immortal Moore uncharm'd the spell,
And slew the wily dragon of the well.--
Sudden with rage their _injur'd_ bosoms burn,
Retort the insult, or the wound return;
_Unwrong'd_, as gentle as the breeze that sweeps
170 The unbending harvests or undimpled deeps,
They guard, the Kings of Needwood's wide domains,
Their sister-wives and fair infantine trains;
Lead the lone pilgrim through the trackless glade,
Or guide in leafy wilds the wand'ring maid.
175 So WRIGHT's bold pencil from Vesuvio's hight
Hurls his red lavas to the troubled night;
From Calpè starts the intolerable flash,
Skies burst in flames, and blazing oceans dash;--
Or bids in sweet repose his shades recede,
180 Winds the still vale, and slopes the velvet mead;
On the pale stream expiring Zephyrs sink,
And Moonlight sleeps upon its hoary brink.
Gigantic Nymph! the fair KLEINHOVIA reigns,
The grace and terror of Orixa's plains;
[_Hurls his red lavas_. l. 176. Alluding to the grand paintings of the
eruptions of Vesuvius, and of the destruction of the Spanish vessels
before Gibraltar; and to the beautiful landscapes and moonlight scenes,
by Mr. Wright of Derby.]
[_Kleinhovia_. l. 183. In this class the males in each flower are
supported by the female. The name of the class may be translated
"Viragoes," or "Feminine Males."
The largest tree perhaps in the world is of the same natural order as
Kleinhovia, it is the Adansonia, or Ethiopian Sour-gourd, or African
Calabash tree. Mr. Adanson says the diameter of the trunk frequently
exceeds 25 feet, and the horizontal branches are from 45 to 55 feet long,
and so large that each branch is equal to the largest trees of Europe.
The breadth of the top is from 120 to 150 feet. And one of the roots
bared only in part by the wasting away of the earth by the river, near
which it grew, measured 110 feet long; and yet these stupendous trees
never exceed 70 feet in height. Voyage to Senegal.]
O'er her warm cheek the blush of beauty swims,
And nerves Herculean bend her sinewy limbs;
With frolic eye she views the affrighted throng,
190 And shakes the meadows, as she towers along,
With playful violence displays her charms,
And bears her trembling lovers in her arms.
So fair THALESTRIS shook her plumy crest,
And bound in rigid mail her jutting breast;
195 Poised her long lance amid the walks of war,
And Beauty thunder'd from Bellona's car;
Greece arm'd in vain, her captive heroes wove
The chains of conquest with the wreaths of love.
When o'er the cultured lawns and dreary wastes
200 Retiring Autumn flings her howling blasts,
Bends in tumultuous waves the struggling woods,
And showers their leafy honours on the floods,
In withering heaps collects the flowery spoil,
And each chill insect sinks beneath the soil;
205 Quick flies fair TULIPA the loud alarms,
And folds her infant closer in her arms;
In some lone cave, secure pavilion, lies,
And waits the courtship of serener skies.--
So, six cold moons, the Dormouse charm'd to rest,
210 Indulgent Sleep! beneath thy eider breast,
In fields of Fancy climbs the kernel'd groves,
Or shares the golden harvest with his loves.--
[_Tulipa_. l. 205. Tulip. What is in common language called a bulbous
root, is by Linneus termed the Hybernacle, or Winter-lodge of the young
plant. As these bulbs in every respect resemble buds, except in their
being produced under ground, and include the leaves and flower in
miniature, which are to be expanded in the ensuing spring. By cautiously
cutting in the early spring through the concentric coats of a
tulip-root, longitudinally from the top to the base, and taking them off
successively, the whole flower of the next summer's tulip is beautifully
seen by the naked eye, with its petals, pistil, and stamens; the flowers
exist in other bulbs, in the same manner, as in Hyacinths, but the
individual flowers of these being less, they are not so easily differed,
or so conspicuous to the naked eye.
In the seeds of the Nymphæa Nelumbo, the leaves of the plant are seen
so distinctly, that Mr. Ferber found out by them to what plant the seeds
belonged. Amoen. Acad. V. vi. No. 120. He says that Mariotte first
observed the future flower and foliage in the bulb of a Tulip; and adds,
that it is pleasant to see in the buds of the Hepatica, and Pedicularia
hirsuta, yet lying in the earth; and in the gems of Daphne Mezereon;
and at the base of Osmunda Lunaria, a perfect plant of the future year
compleat in all its parts. Ibid.]
But bright from earth amid the troubled air
Ascends fair COLCHICA with radiant hair,
215 Warms the cold bosom of the hoary year,
And lights with Beauty's blaze the dusky sphere.
_Three_ blushing Maids the intrepid Nymph attend,
And _six_ gay Youths, enamour'd train! defend.
So shines with silver guards the Georgian star,
220 And drives on Night's blue arch his glittering car;
Hangs o'er the billowy clouds his lucid form,
Wades through the mist, and dances in the storm.
[_Colchicum autumnale_. I. 214. Autumnal Meadow-saffron. Six males,
three females. The germ is buried within the root, which thus seems
to constitute a part of the flower. Families of Plants, p. 242 These
singular flowers appear in the autumn without any leaves, whence in some
countries they are called Naked Ladies: in the March following the green
leaves spring up, and in April the seed-vessel rises from the ground; the
seeds ripen in May, contrary to the usual habits of vegetables, which
slower in the spring, and ripen their seeds in the autumn. Miller's Dict.
The juice of the root of this plant is so acrid as to produce violent
effects on the human constitution, which also prevents it from being
eaten by subterranean insects, and thus guards the seed-vessel during the
winter. The defoliation of deciduous trees is announced by the flowering
of the Colchicum; of these the ash is the last that puts forth its
leaves, and the first that loses them. Phil. Bot. p. 275.
The Hamamelis, Witch Hazle, is another plant which flowers in autumn;
when the leaves fall off, the flowers come out in clusters from the
joints of the branches, and in Virginia ripen their seed in the ensuing
spring; but in this country their seeds seldom ripen. Lin. Spec. Plant.
Miller's Dict.]
GREAT HELIANTHUS guides o'er twilight plains
In gay solemnity his Dervise-trains;
225 Marshall'd in _fives_ each gaudy band proceeds,
Each gaudy band a plumed Lady leads;
With zealous step he climbs the upland lawn,
And bows in homage to the rising dawn;
Imbibes with eagle-eye the golden ray,
230 And watches, as it moves, the orb of day.
[_Helianthus_. l. 223. Sun flower. The numerous florets, which
constitute the disk of this flower, contain in each five males
surrounding one female, the five stamens have their anthers connected
at top, whence the name of the class "confederate males;" see note on
Chondrilla. The sun-flower follows the course of the sun by nutation,
not by twisting its stem. (Hales veg. stat.) Other plants, when they are
confined in a room, turn the shining surface of their leaves, and bend
their whole branches to the light. See Mimosa.]
[_A plumed Lady leads_. l. 226. The seeds of many plants of this class
are furnished with a plume, by which admirable mechanism they are
disseminated by the winds far from their parent stem, and look like a
shuttlecock, as they fly. Other seeds are disseminated by animals; of
these some attach themselves to their hair or feathers by a gluten, as
misleto; others by hooks, as cleavers, burdock, hounds-tongue; and others
are swallowed whole for the sake of the fruit, and voided uninjured,
as the hawthorn, juniper, and some grasses. Other seeds again disperse
themselves by means of an elastic seed-vessel, as Oats, Geranium, and
Impatiens; and the seeds of aquatic plants, and of those which grow on
the banks of rivers, are carried many miles by the currents, into which
they fall. See Impatiens. Zostera. Cassia. Carlïna.]
Queen of the marsh, imperial DROSERA treads
Rush-fringed banks, and moss-embroider'd beds;
Redundant folds of glossy silk surround
Her slender waist, and trail upon the ground;
235 _Five_ sister-nymphs collect with graceful ease,
Or spread the floating purple to the breeze;
And _five_ fair youths with duteous love comply
With each soft mandate of her moving eye.
As with sweet grace her snowy neck she bows,
240 A zone of diamonds trembles round her brows;
Bright shines the silver halo, as she turns;
And, as she steps, the living lustre burns.
[_Drosera_. l. 231. Sun-dew. Five males, five females. The leaves
of this marsh-plant are purple, and have a fringe very unlike other
vegetable productions. And, which is curious, at the point of every
thread of this erect fringe stands a pellucid drop of mucilage,
resembling a ducal coronet. This mucus is a secretion from certain
glands, and like the viscous material round the flower-stalks of Silene
(catchfly) prevents small insects from infesting the leaves. As the
ear-wax in animals seems to be in part designed to prevent fleas and
other insects from getting into their ears. See Silene. Mr. Wheatly, an
eminent surgeon in Cateaton-street, London, observed these leaves to bend
upwards, when an insect settled on them, like the leaves of the muscipula
veneris, and pointing all their globules of mucus to the centre, that
they compleatly intangled and destroyed it. M. Broussonet, in the Mem. de
l'Acad. des Sciences for the year 1784. p. 615. after hiving described
the motion of the Dionæa, adds, that a similar appearance has been
observed in the leaves of two species of Drosera.]
Fair LONICERA prints the dewy lawn,
And decks with brighter blush the vermil dawn;
245 Winds round the shadowy rocks, and pansied vales,
And scents with sweeter breath the summer-gales;
[_Lonicera_. l. 243. Caprifolium. Honeysuckle. Five males, one female.
Nature has in many flowers used a wonderful apparatus to guard the
nectary, or honey-gland, from insects. In the honey-suckle the petal
terminates in a long tube like a cornucopiae, or horn of plenty; and
the honey is produced at the bottom of it. In Aconitum, monkshood, the
nectaries stand upright like two horns covered with a hood, which abounds
with such acrid matter that no insects penetrate it. In Helleborus,
hellebore, the many nectaries are placed in a circle, like little
pitchers, and add much to the beauty of the flower. In the Columbine,
Aquilegia, the nectary is imagined to be like the neck and body of a
bird, and the two petals standing upon each side to represent wings;
whence its name of columbine, as if resembling a nest of young pigeons
fluttering whilst their parent feeds them. The importance of the nectary
in the economy of vegetation is explained at large in the notes on part
the first.
Many insects are provided with a long and pliant proboscis for the
purpose of acquiring this grateful food, as a variety of bees, moths, and
butterflies: but the Sphinx Convolvuli, or unicorn moth, is furnished
with the most remarkable proboscis in this climate. It carries it rolled
up in concentric circles under its chin, and occasionally extends it to
above three inches in length. This trunk consists of joints and muscles,
and seems to have more versatile movements than the trunk of the
elephant; and near its termination is split into two capillary tubes. The
excellence of this contrivance for robbing the flowers of their honey,
keeps this beautiful insect fat and bulky; though it flies only in the
evening, when the flowers have closed their petals, and are thence more
difficult of access; at the same time the brilliant colours of the moth
contribute to its safety, by making it mistaken by the late sleeping
birds for the flower it rests on.
Besides these there is a curious contrivance attending the Ophrys,
commonly called the Bee-orchis, and the Fly-orchis, with some kinds of
the Delphinium, called Bee-larkspurs, to preserve their honey; in these
the nectary and petals resemble in form and colour the insects, which
plunder them: and thus it may be supposed, they often escape these hourly
robbers, by having the appearance of being pre-occupied. See note on
Rubia, and Conserva polymorpha.]
With artless grace and native ease she charms,
And bears the Horn of Plenty in her arms.
_Five_ rival Swains their tender cares unfold,
250 And watch with eye askance the treasured gold.
Where rears huge Tenerif his azure crest,
Aspiring DRABA builds her eagle nest;
Her pendant eyry icy caves surround,
Where erst Volcanos min'd the rocky ground.
255 Pleased round the Fair _four_ rival Lords ascend
The shaggy steeps, _two_ menial youths attend.
High in the setting ray the beauty stands,
And her tall shadow waves on distant lands.
[_Draba_. I. 252. Alpina. Alpine Whitlow-grass. One female and six
males. Four of these males stand above the other two; whence the name of
the class "four powers." I have observed in several plants of this class,
that the two lower males arise, in a few-days after the opening of the
flower, to the same height as the other four, not being mature as soon
as the higher ones. See note on Gloriosa. All the plants of this class
possess similar virtues; they are termed acrid and anti corbutic in their
raw state, as mustard, watercress; when cultivated and boiled, they
become a mild wholesome food, as cabbage, turnep.
There was formerly a Volcano on the Peake of Tenerif, which became
extinct about the year 1684. Philos. Trans. In many excavations of the
mountain, much below the summit, there is now found abundance of ice
at all seasons. Tench's Expedition to Botany Bay, p. 12. Are these
congelations in consequence of the daily solution of the hoar-frost which
is produced on the summit during the night?]
Stay, bright inhabitant of air, alight,
260 Ambitious VISCA, from thy eagle-flight!--
----Scorning the sordid soil, aloft she springs,
Shakes her white plume, and claps her golden wings;
High o'er the fields of boundless ether roves,
And seeks amid the clouds her soaring loves!
265 Stretch'd on her mossy couch, in trackless deeps,
Queen of the coral groves, ZOSTERA sleeps;
[_Viscum_. l. 260. Misletoe. Two houses. This plant never grows upon the
ground; the foliage is yellow, and the berries milk-white; the berries
are so viscous, as to serve for bird-lime; and when they fall, adhere to
the branches of the tree, on which the plant grows, and strike root into
its bark; or are carried to distant trees by birds. The Tillandsia, or
wild pine, grows on other trees, like the Misletoe, but takes little or
no nourishment from them, having large buckets in its leaves to collect
and retain the rain water. See note on Dypsacus. The mosses, which grow
on the bark of trees, take much nourishment from them; hence it is
observed that trees, which are annually cleared from moss by a brush,
grow nearly twice as fast. (Phil. Transact.) In the cyder countries the
peasants brush their apple-trees annually.]
[_Zostera_. l. 266. Grass-wrack. Class, Feminine Males. Order, Many
Males. It grows at the bottom of the sea, and rising to the surface, when
in flower, covers many leagues; and is driven at length to the shore.
During its time of floating on the sea, numberless animals live on the
under surface of it; and being specifically lighter than the sea water,
or being repelled by it, have legs placed as it were on their backs for
the purpose of walking under it. As the Scyllcea. See Barbut's Genera
Vermium. It seems necessary that the marriages of plants should be
celebrated in the open air, either because the powder of the anther, or
the mucilage on the stigma, or the reservoir of honey might receive injury
from the water. Mr. Needham observed, that in the ripe dust of every
flower, examined by the microscope, some vesicles are perceived, from
which a fluid had escaped; and that those, which still retain it, explode
if they be wetted, like an eolopile suddenly exposed to a strong heat.
These observations have been verified by Spallanzani and others. Hence
rainy seasons make a scarcity of grain, or hinder its fecundity, by
bursting the pollen before it arrives at the moist stigma of the flower.
Spallanzani's Dissertations, v. II. p. 321. Thus the flowers of the male
Vallisneria are produced under water, and when ripe detach themselves from
the plant, and rising to the surface are wafted by the air to the female
flowers. See Vallisneria.]
The silvery sea-weed matted round her bed,
And distant surges murmuring o'er her head.--
High in the flood her azure dome ascends,
270 The crystal arch on crystal columns bends;
Roof'd with translucent shell the turrets blaze,
And far in ocean dart their colour'd rays;
O'er the white floor successive shadows move,
As rise and break the ruffled waves above.--
275 Around the nymph her mermaid-trains repair,
And weave with orient pearl her radiant hair;
With rapid fins she cleaves the watery way,
Shoots like a diver meteor up to day;
Sounds a loud conch, convokes a scaly band,
280 Her sea-born lovers, and ascends the strand.
E'en round the pole the flames of Love aspire,
And icy bosoms feel the _secret_ fire!--
Cradled in snow and fann'd by arctic air
Shines, gentle BAROMETZ! thy golden hair;
285 Rooted in earth each cloven hoof descends,
And round and round her flexile neck she bends;
Crops the grey coral moss, and hoary thyme,
Or laps with rosy tongue the melting rime;
Eyes with mute tenderness her distant dam,
290 Or seems to bleat, a _Vegetable Lamb_.
[_Barometz_. l. 284. Polypodium Barometz. Tartarian Lamb. Clandestine
Marriage. This species of Fern is a native of China, with a decumbent
root, thick, and every where covered with the most soft and dense wool,
intensely yellow. Lin. Spec. Plant.
This curious stem is sometimes pushed out of the ground in its horizontal
situation by some of the inferior branches of the root, so as to give it
some resemblance to a Lamb standing on four legs; and has been said to
destroy all other plants in its vicinity. Sir Hans Sloane describes it
under the name of Tartarian Lamb, and has given a print of it. Philos.
Trans. abridged, v. II. p. 646. but thinks some art had been used to
give it an animal appearance. Dr. Hunter, in his edition of the Terra of
Evelyn, has given a more curious print of it, much resembling a sheep.
The down is used in India externally for stopping hemorrhages, and is
called golden moss.
The thick downy clothing of some vegetables seems designed to protect
them from the injuries of cold, like the wool of animals. Those bodies,
which are bad conductors of electricity, are also bad conductors of heat,
as glass, wax, air. Hence either of the two former of these may be melted
by the flame of a blow-pipe very near the fingers which hold it without
burning them; and the last, by being confined on the surface of animal
bodies, in the interstices of their fur or wool, prevents the escape of
their natural warmth; to which should be added, that the hairs themselves
are imperfect conductors. The fat or oil of whales, and other northern
animals, seems designed for the same purpose of preventing the too sudden
escape of the heat of the body in cold climates. Snow protects vegetables
which are covered by it from cold, both because it is a bad conductor of
heat itself, and contains much air in its pores. If a piece of camphor be
immersed in a snow-ball, except one extremity of it, on setting fire to
this, as the snow melts, the water becomes absorbed into the surrounding
snow by capillary attraction; on this account, when living animals are
buried in snow, they are not moistened by it; but the cavity enlarges as
the snow dissolves, affording them both a dry and warm habitation.]
--So, warm and buoyant in his oily mail,
Gambols on seas of ice the unwieldy Whale;
Wide-waving fins round floating islands urge
His bulk gigantic through the troubled surge;
295 With hideous yawn the flying shoals He seeks,
Or clasps with fringe of horn his massy cheeks;
Lifts o'er the tossing wave his nostrils bare,
And spouts pellucid columns into air;
The silvery arches catch the setting beams,
300 And transient rainbows tremble o'er the streams.
Weak with nice sense, the chaste MIMOSA stands,
From each rude touch withdraws her timid hands;
Oft as light clouds o'er-pass the Summer-glade,
Alarm'd she trembles at the moving shade;
305 And feels, alive through all her tender form,
The whisper'd murmurs of the gathering storm;
Shuts her sweet eye-lids to approaching night;
And hails with freshen'd charms the rising light.
[_Mimosa_. I. 301. The sensitive plant. Of the class Polygamy, one house.
Naturalists have not explained the immediate cause of the collapsing of
the sensitive plant; the leaves meet and close in the night during the
sleep of the plant, or when exposed to much cold in the day-time, in the
same manner as when they are affected by external violence, folding their
upper surfaces together, and in part over each other like scales or
tiles; so as to expose as little of the upper surface as may be to the
air; but do not indeed collapse quite so far, since I have found, when
touched in the night during their sleep, they fall still further;
especially when touched on the foot-stalks between the stems and the
leaflets, which seems to be their most sensitive or irritable part. Now
as their situation after being exposed to external violence resembles
their sleep, but with a greater degree of collapse, may it not be owing
to a numbness or paralysis consequent to too violent irritation, like the
faintings of animals from pain or fatigue? I kept a sensitive plant in
a dark room till some hours after day-break: its leaves and leaf-stalks
were collapsed as in its most profound sleep, and on exposing it to the
light, above twenty minutes passed before the plant was thoroughly awake
and had quite expanded itself. During the night the upper or smoother
surfaces of the leaves are appressed together; this would seem to shew
that the office of this surface of the leaf was to expose the fluids of
the plant to the light as well as to the air. See note on Helianthus.
Many flowers close up their petals during the night. See note on
vegetable respiration in Part I.]
Veil'd, with gay decency and modest pride,
310 Slow to the mosque she moves, an eastern bride;
There her soft vows unceasing love record,
Queen of the bright seraglio of her Lord.--
So sinks or rises with the changeful hour
The liquid silver in its glassy tower.
315 So turns the needle to the pole it loves,
With fine librations quivering as it moves.
All wan and shivering in the leafless glade
The sad ANEMONE reclined her head;
Grief on her cheeks had paled the roseate hue,
320 And her sweet eye-lids dropp'd with pearly dew.
--"See, from bright regions, borne on odorous gales
The Swallow, herald of the summer, sails;
[_Anemone_. l. 318. Many males, many females. Pliny says this flower
never opens its petals but when the wind blows; whence its name: it has
properly no calix, but two or three sets of petals, three in each set,
which are folded over the stamens and pistil in a singular and beautiful
manner, and differs also from ranunculus in not having a melliferous pore
on the claw of each petal. ]
[_The Swallow_. l. 322. There is a wonderful conformity between the
vegetation of some plants, and the arrival of certain birds of passage.
Linneus observes that the wood anemone blows in Sweden on the arrival
of the swallow; and the marsh mary-gold, Caltha, when the cuckoo sings.
Near the same coincidence was observed in England by Stillingfleet. The
word Coccux in Greek signifies both a young fig and a cuckoo, which is
supposed to have arisen from the coincidence of their appearance in Greece.
Perhaps a similar coincidence of appearance in some parts of Asia gave
occasion to the story of the loves of the rose and nightingale, so much
celebrated by the eastern poets. See Dianthus. The times however of the
appearance of vegetables in the spring seem occasionally to be influenced
by their acquired habits, as well as by their sensibility to heat: for the
roots of potatoes, onions, &c. will germinate with much less heat in the
spring than in the autumn; as is easily observable where these roots are
stored for use; and hence malt is best made in the spring. 2d. The grains
and roots brought from more southern latitudes germinate here sooner than
those which are brought from more northern ones, owing to their acquired
habits. Fordyce on Agriculture. 3d. It was observed by one of the scholars
of Linneus, that the apple-trees sent from hence to New England blossomed
for a few years too early for that climate, and bore no fruit; but
afterwards learnt to accommodate themselves to their new situation.
(Kalm's Travels.) 4th. The parts of animals become more sensible to heat
after having been previously exposed to cold, as our hands glow on coming
into the house after having held snow in them; this seems to happen to
vegetables; for vines in grape-houses, which have been exposed to the
winter's cold, will become forwarder and more vigorous than those which
have been kept during the winter in the house. (Kenedy on Gardening.) This
accounts for the very rapid vegetation in the northern latitudes after the
solution of the snows.
The increase of the irritability of plants in respect to heat, after
having been previously exposed to cold, is further illustrated by an
experiment of Dr. Walker's. He cut apertures into a birch-tree at
different heights; and on the 26th of March some of these apertures bled,
or oozed with the sap-juice, when the thermometer was at 39; which same
apertures did not bleed on the 13th of March, when the thermometer was at
44. The reason of this I apprehend was, because on the night of the 25th
the thermometer was as low as 34; whereas on the night of the 12th it was
at 41; though the ingenious author ascribes it to another cause. Trans.
of Royal Soc. of Edinburgh, v. 1. p. 19.]
"Breathe, gentle AIR! from cherub-lips impart
Thy balmy influence to my anguish'd heart;
325 Thou, whose soft voice calls forth the tender blooms,
Whose pencil paints them, and whose breath perfumes;
O chase the Fiend of Frost, with leaden mace
Who seals in death-like sleep my hapless race;
Melt his hard heart, release his iron hand,
330 And give my ivory petals to expand.
So may each bud, that decks the brow of spring,
Shed all its incense on thy wafting wing!"--
To her fond prayer propitious Zephyr yields,
Sweeps on his sliding shell through azure fields,
335 O'er her fair mansion waves his whispering wand,
And gives her ivory petals to expand;
Gives with new life her filial train to rise,
And hail with kindling smiles the genial skies.
So shines the Nymph in beauty's blushing pride,
340 When Zephyr wafts her deep calash aside;
Tears with rude kiss her bosom's gauzy veil,
And flings the fluttering kerchief to the gale.
So bright, the folding canopy undrawn,
Glides the gilt Landau o'er the velvet lawn,
345 Of beaux and belles displays the glittering throng;
And soft airs fan them, as they roll along.
Where frowning Snowden bends his dizzy brow
O'er Conway, listening to the surge below;
Retiring LICHEN climbs the topmost stone,
350 And 'mid the airy ocean dwells alone.--
Bright shine the stars unnumber'd _o'er her head_,
And the cold moon-beam gilds her flinty bed;
While round the rifted rocks hoarse whirlwinds breathe,
And dark with thunder sail the clouds _beneath_.--
355 The steepy path her plighted swain pursues,
And tracks her light step o'er th' imprinted dews,
Delighted Hymen gives his torch to blaze,
Winds round the craggs, and lights the mazy ways;
[_Lichen_. l. 349. Calcareum. Liver-wort. Clandestine Marriage. This
plant is the first that vegetates on naked rocks, covering them with a
kind of tapestry, and draws its nourishment perhaps chiefly from the
air; after it perishes, earth enough is left for other mosses to root
themselves; and after some ages a soil is produced sufficient for the
growth of more succulent and large vegetables. In this manner perhaps
the whole earth has been gradually covered with vegetation, after it was
raised out of the primeval ocean by subterraneous fires.]
Sheds o'er their _secret_ vows his influence chaste,
360 And decks with roses the admiring waste.
High in the front of heaven when Sirius glares,
And o'er Britannia shakes his fiery hairs;
When no soft shower descends, no dew distills,
Her wave-worn channels dry, and mute her rills;
365 When droops the sickening herb, the blossom fades,
And parch'd earth gapes beneath the withering glades.
--With languid step fair DYPSACA retreats;
"Fall gentle dews!" the fainting nymph repeats;
Seeks the low dell, and in the sultry shade
370 Invokes in vain the Naiads to her aid.--
[_Dypsacus._ l. 367. Teasel. One female, and four males. There is a
cup around every joint of the stem of this plant, which contains from a
spoonful to half a pint of water; and serves both for the nutriment of
the plant in dry seasons, and to prevent insects from creeping up to
devour its seed. See Silene. The Tillandsia, or wild pine, of the West
Indies has every leaf terminated near the stalk with a hollow bucket,
which contains from half a pint to a quart of water. Dampier's Voyage to
Campeachy. Dr. Sloane mentions one kind of aloe furnished with leaves,
which, like the wild pine and Banana, hold water; and thence afford
necessary refreshment to travellers in hot countries. Nepenthes had a
bucket for the same purpose at the end of every leaf, Burm. Zeyl. 41.
17.]
_Four_ silvan youths in crystal goblets bear
The untasted treasure to the grateful fair;
Pleased from their hands with modest grace she sips,
And the cool wave reflects her coral lips.
375 With nice selection modest RUBIA blends,
Her vermil dyes, and o'er the cauldron bends;
Warm 'mid the rising steam the Beauty glows,
As blushes in a mist the dewy rose.
[_Rubia._ l. 375. Madder. Four males and one female. This plant is
cultivated in very large quantities for dying red. If mixed with the food
of young pigs or chickens, it colours their bones red. If they are fed
alternate fortnights with a mixture of madder, and with their usual food
alone, their bones will consist of concentric circles of white and red.
Belchier. Phil. Trans. 1736. Animals fed with madder for the purpose
of these experiments were found upon dissection to have thinner gall.
Comment. de rebus. Lipsiæ. This circumstance is worth further attention.
The colouring materials of vegetables, like those which serve the purpose
of tanning, varnishing, and the various medical purposes, do not seem
essential to the life of the plant; but seem given it as a defence
against the depredations of insects or other animals, to whom these
materials are nauseous or deleterious. To insects and many smaller
animals their colours contribute to conceal them from the larger ones
which prey upon them. Caterpillars which feed on leaves are generally
green; and earth-worms the colour of the earth which they inhabit;
Butterflies which frequent flowers, are coloured like them; small birds
which frequent hedges have greenish backs like the leaves, and light
coloured bellies like the sky, and are hence less visible to the hawk,
who passes under them or over them. Those birds which are much
amongst flowers, as the gold-finch (Fringilla carduelis), are furnished
with vivid colours. The lark, partridge, hare, are the colour of the dry
vegetables or earth on which they rest. And frogs vary their colour with
the mud of the streams which they frequent; and those which live on
trees are green. Fish, which are generally suspended in water, and
swallows, which are generally suspended in air, have their backs the
colour of the distant ground, and their bellies of the sky. In the colder
climates many of these become white during the existence of the snows.
Hence there is apparent design in the colours of animals, whilst those
of vegetables seem consequent to the other properties of the materials
which possess them.]
With chemic art _four_ favour'd youths aloof
380 Stain the white fleece, or stretch the tinted woof;
O'er Age's cheek the warmth of youth diffuse,
Or deck the pale-eyed nymph in roseate hues.
So when MEDEA to exulting Greece
From plunder'd COLCHIS bore the golden fleece;
385 On the loud shore a magic pile she rais'd,
The cauldron bubbled, and the faggots blaz'd;---
Pleased on the boiling wave old ÆSON swims,
And feels new vigour stretch his swelling limbs;
[_Pleased on the boiling wave._ l. 387. The story of Æson becoming
young, from the medicated bath of Medea, seems to have been intended to
teach the efficacy of warm bathing in retarding the progress of old
age. The words _relaxation and bracing_, which are generally thought
expressive of the effects of warm and cold bathing, are mechanical terms,
properly applied to drums or strings; but are only metaphors when applied
to the effects of cold or warm bathing on animal bodies. The immediate
cause of old age seems to reside in the inirritability of the finer
vessels or parts of our system; hence these cease to act, and collapse
or become horny or bony. The warm bath is peculiarly adapted to
prevent these circumstances by its increasing our irritability, and by
moistening and softening the skin, and the extremities of the finer
vessels, which terminate in it. To those who are past the meridian of
life, and have dry skins, and begin to be emaciated, the warm bath, for
half an hour twice a week, I believe to be eminently serviceable in
retarding the advances of age.]
Through his thrill'd nerves forgotten ardors dart,
390 And warmer eddies circle round his heart;
With softer fires his kindling eye-balls glow,
And darker tresses wanton round his brow.
As dash the waves on India's breezy strand,
Her flush'd cheek press'd upon her lily hand,
395 VALLISNER sits, up-turns her tearful eyes,
Calls her lost lover, and upbraids the skies;
[_Vallisniria_. l. 395. This extraordinary plant is of the class Two
Houses. It is found in the East Indies, in Norway, and various parts
of Italy. Lin. Spec. Plant. They have their roots at the bottom of the
Rhone, the flowers of the female plant float on the surface of the
water, and are furnished with an elastic spiral stalk, which extends or
contracts as the water rises and falls; this rise or fall, from the rapid
descent of the river, and the mountain torrents which flow into it, often
amounts to many feet in a few hours. The flowers of the male plant are
produced under water, and as soon as their farina, or dust, is mature;
they detach themselves from the plant, and rise to the surface, continue
to flourish, and are wafted by the air, or borne by the currents to the
female flowers. In this resembling those tribes of insects, where the
males at certain seasons acquire wings, but not the females, as ants,
Cocchus, Lampyris, Phalæna, Brumata, Lichanella. These male flowers are
in such numbers, though very minute, as frequently to cover the surface
of the river to considerable extent. See Families of Plants translated
from Linneus, p. 677.]
[Illustration: Vallisneria Spiralis]
For him she breathes the silent sigh, forlorn,
Each setting-day; for him each rising morn.--
"Bright orbs, that light yon high etherial plain,
400 Or bathe your radiant tresses in the main;
Pale moon, that silver'st o'er night's sable brow;--
For ye were witness to his parting vow!--
Ye shelving rocks, dark waves, and sounding shore,--
Ye echoed sweet the tender words he swore!--
405 Can stars or seas the sails of love retain?
O guide my wanderer to my arms again!"--
Her buoyant skiff intrepid ULVA guides,
And seeks her Lord amid the trackless tides;
[_Ulva_, l. 407. Clandestine marriage. This kind of sea-weed is buoyed
up by bladders of air, which are formed in the duplicatures of its
leaves; and forms immense floating fields of vegetation; the young
ones, branching out from the larger ones, and borne on similar little
air-vessels. It is also found in the warm baths of Patavia; where the
leaves are formed into curious cells or labyrinths for the purpose of
floating on the water. See ulva labyrinthi-formis Lin. Spec. Plant. The
air contained in these cells was found by Dr. Priestley to be sometimes
purer than common air, and sometimes less pure; the air-bladders of fish
seem to be similar organs, and serve to render them buoyant in the water.
In some of these, as in the Cod and Haddock, a red membrane, consisting
of a great number of leaves or duplicatures, is found within the air-bag,
which probably secretes this air from the blood of the animal. (Monro.
Physiol. of Fish. p. 28.) To determine whether this air, when first
separated from the blood of the animal or plant, be dephlogisticated air,
is worthy inquiry. The bladder-sena (Colutea), and bladder-nut
(Staphylæa), have their seed-vessels distended with air; the Ketmia has
the upper joint of the stem immediately under the receptacle of the flower
much distended with air; these seem to be analogous to the air-vessel at
the broad end of the egg, and may probably become less pure as the seed
ripens: some, which I tried, had the purity of the surrounding atmosphere.
The air at the broad end of the egg is probably an organ serving the
purpose of respiration to the young chick, some of whose vessels are
spread upon it like a placenta, or permeate it. Many are of opinion that
even the placenta of the human fetus, and cotyledons of quadrupeds, are
respiratory organs rather than nutritious ones.
The air in the hollow stems of grasses, and of some umbelliferous plants,
bears analogy to the air in the quills, and in some of the bones of
birds; supplying the place of the pith, which shrivels up after it has
performed its office of protruding the young stem or feather. Some of
these cavities of the bones are said to communicate with the lungs in
birds. Phil. Trans.
The air-bladders of fish are nicely adapted to their intended purpose;
for though they render them buoyant near the surface without the labour
of using their fins, yet, when they rest at greater depths, they are no
inconvenience, as the increased pressure of the water condenses the air
which they contain into less space. Thus, if a cork or bladder of air was
immersed a very great depth in the ocean, it would be so much compressed,
as to become specifically as heavy as the water, and would remain there.
It is probable the unfortunate Mr. Day, who was drowned in a diving-ship
of his own construction, miscarried from not attending to this
circumstance: it is probable the quantity of air he took down with him,
if he descended much lower than he expected, was condensed into so small
a space as not to render the ship buoyant when he endeavoured to ascend.]
Her _secret_ vows the Cyprian Queen approves,
410 And hovering halcyons guard her infant-loves;
Each in his floating cradle round they throng,
And dimpling Ocean bears the fleet along.--
Thus o'er the waves, which gently bend and swell,
Fair GALATEA steers her silver shell;
415 Her playful Dolphins stretch the silken rein,
Hear her sweet voice, and glide along the main.
As round the wild meandering coast she moves
By gushing rills, rude cliffs, and nodding groves;
Each by her pine the Wood-nymphs wave their locks,
420 And wondering Naiads peep amid the rocks;
Pleased trains of Mermaids rise from coral cells,
Admiring Tritons sound their twisted shells;
Charm'd o'er the car pursuing Cupids sweep,
Their snow-white pinions twinkling in the deep;
425 And, as the lustre of her eye she turns,
Soft sighs the Gale, and amorous Ocean burns.
On DOVE'S green brink the fair TREMELLA stood,
And view'd her playful image in the flood;
[_Tremella_, l. 427. Clandestine marriage. I have frequently observed
fungusses of this Genus on old rails and on the ground to become a
transparent jelly, after they had been frozen in autumnal mornings; which
is a curious property, and distinguishes them from some other vegetable
mucilage; for I have observed that the paste, made by boiling wheat-flour
in water, ceases to be adhesive after having been frozen. I suspected
that the Tremella Nostoc, or star-jelly, also had been thus produced; but
have since been well informed, that the Tremella Nostoc is a mucilage
voided by Herons after they have eaten frogs; hence it has the appearance
of having been pressed through a hole; and limbs of frogs are said
sometimes to be found amongst it; it is always seen upon plains or by the
sides of water, places which Herons generally frequent.
Some of the Fungusses are so acrid, that a drop of their juice blisters
the tongue; others intoxicate those who eat them. The Ostiacks in Siberia
use them for the latter purpose; one Fungus of the species, Agaricus
muscarum, eaten raw; or the decoction of three of them, produces
intoxication for 12 or 16 hours. History of Russia. V. 1. Nichols. 1780.
As all acrid plants become less so, if exposed to a boiling heat, it
is probable the common mushroom may sometimes disagree from being not
sufficiently stewed. The Oftiacks blister their skin by a fungus found on
Birch-trees; and use the Agiricus officin. for Soap. ib.
There was a dispute whether the fungusses should be classed in the animal
or vegetable department. Their animal taste in cookery, and their animal
smell when burnt, together with their tendency to putrefaction, insomuch
that the Phallus impudicus has gained the name of stink-horn; and lastly,
their growing and continuing healthy without light, as the Licoperdon
tuber or truffle, and the fungus vinosus or mucor in dark cellars, and
the esculent mushrooms on beds covered thick with straw, would seem to
shew that they approach towards the animals, or make a kind of isthmus
connecting the two mighty kingdoms of animal and of vegetable nature.]
To each rude rock, lone dell, and echoing grove
430 Sung the sweet sorrows of her _secret_ love.
"Oh, stay!--return!"--along the sounding shore
Cry'd the sad Naiads,--she return'd no more!--
Now girt with clouds the sullen Evening frown'd,
And withering Eurus swept along the ground;
435 The misty moon withdrew her horned light,
And sunk with Hesper in the skirt of night;
No dim electric streams, (the northern dawn,)
With meek effulgence quiver'd o'er the lawn;
No star benignant shot one transient ray
440 To guide or light the wanderer on her way.
Round the dark craggs the murmuring whirlwinds blow,
Woods groan above, and waters roar below;
As o'er the steeps with pausing foot she moves,
The pitying Dryads shriek amid their groves;
445 She flies,--she stops,--she pants--she looks behind,
And hears a demon howl in every wind.
--As the bleak blast unfurls her fluttering vest,
Cold beats the snow upon her shuddering breast;
Through her numb'd limbs the chill sensations dart,
450 And the keen ice bolt trembles at her heart.
"I sink, I fall! oh, help me, help!" she cries,
Her stiffening tongue the unfinish'd sound denies;
Tear after tear adown her cheek succeeds,
And pearls of ice bestrew the glittering meads;
455 Congealing snows her lingering feet surround,
Arrest her flight, and root her to the ground;
With suppliant arms she pours the silent prayer;
Her suppliant arms hang crystal in the air;
Pellucid films her shivering neck o'erspread,
460 Seal her mute lips, and silver o'er her head,
Veil her pale bosom, glaze her lifted hands,
And shrined in ice the beauteous statue stands.
--DOVE'S azure nymphs on each revolving year
For fair TREMELLA shed the tender tear;
465 With rush-wove crowns in sad procession move,
And sound the sorrowing shell to hapless love."
Here paused the MUSE,--across the darken'd pole
Sail the dim clouds, the echoing thunders roll;
The trembling Wood-nymphs, as the tempest lowers,
470 Lead the gay Goddess to their inmost bowers;
Hang the mute lyre the laurel shade beneath,
And round her temples bind the myrtle wreath.
--Now the light swallow with her airy brood
Skims the green meadow, and the dimpled flood;
475 Loud shrieks the lone thrush from his leafless thorn,
Th' alarmed beetle sounds his bugle horn;
Each pendant spider winds with fingers fine
His ravel'd clue, and climbs along the line;
Gay Gnomes in glittering circles stand aloof
480 Beneath a spreading mushroom's fretted roof;
Swift bees returning seek their waxen cells,
And Sylphs cling quivering in the lily's bells.
Through the still air descend the genials showers,
And pearly rain-drops deck the laughing flowers.
INTERLUDE.
_Bookseller_. Your verses, Mr. Botanist, consist of _pure description_, I
hope there is _sense_ in the notes.
_Poet_. I am only a flower-painter, or occasionally attempt a landskip;
and leave the human figure with the subjects of history to abler artists.
_B._ It is well to know what subjects are within the limits of your
pencil; many have failed of success from the want of this self-knowledge.
But pray tell me, what is the essential difference between Poetry and
Prose? is it solely the melody or measure of the language?
_P._ I think not solely; for some prose has its melody, and even measure.
And good verses, well spoken in a language unknown to the hearer, are not
easily to be distinguished from good prose. _B_. Is it the sublimity,
beauty, or novelty of the sentiments?
_P_. Not so; for sublime sentiments are often better expressed in prose.
Thus when Warwick in one of the plays of Shakespear, is left wounded on
the field after the loss of the battle, and his friend says to him, "Oh,
could you but fly!" what can be more sublime than his answer, "Why then,
I would not fly." No measure of verse, I imagine, could add dignity to
this sentiment. And it would be easy to select examples of the beautiful
or new from prose writers, which I suppose no measure of verse could
improve.
_B_. In what then consists the essential difference between Poetry and
Prose?
_P_. Next to the measure of the language, the principal distinction
appears to me to consist in this: that Poetry admits of but few words
expressive of very abstracted ideas, whereas Prose abounds with them. And
as our ideas derived from visible objects are more distinct than those
derived from the objects of our other senses, the words expressive of
these ideas belonging to vision make up the principal part of poetic
language. That is, the Poet writes principally to the eye, the
Prose-writer uses more abstracted terms. Mr. Pope has written a bad verse
in the Windsor Forest:
"And Kennet swift for silver Eels _renown'd_."
The word renown'd does not present the idea of a visible object to the
mind, and is thence prosaic. But change this line thus,
"And Kennet swift, where silver Graylings _play_."
and it becomes poetry, because the scenery is then brought before the
eye.
_B_. This may be done in prose.
_P_. And when it is done in a single word, it animates the prose; so it
is more agreeable to read in Mr. Gibbon's History, "Germany was at this
time _over-shadowed_ with extensive forests;" than Germany was at this
time _full_ of extensive forests. But where this mode of expression
occurs too frequently, the prose approaches to poetry: and in graver
works, where we expect to be instructed rather than amused, it becomes
tedious and impertinent. Some parts of Mr. Burke's eloquent orations
become intricate and enervated by superfluity of poetic ornament; which
quantity of ornament would have been agreeable in a poem, where much
ornament is expected.
_B_. Is then the office of poetry only to amuse?
_P_. The Muses are young ladies, we expect to see them dressed; though
not like some modern beauties with so much gauze and feather, that "the
Lady herself is the least part of her." There are however didactic pieces
of poetry, which are much admired, as the Georgics of Virgil, Mason's
English Garden, Hayley's Epistles; nevertheless Science is best delivered
in Prose, as its mode of reasoning is from stricter analogies than
metaphors or similies.
_B_. Do not Personifications and Allegories distinguish poetry?
_P_. These are other arts of bringing objects before the eye; or of
expressing sentiments in the language of vision; and are indeed better
suited to the pen than the pencil.
_B_. That is strange, when you have just said they are used to bring
their objects before the eye.
_P_. In poetry the personification or allegoric figure is generally
indistinct, and therefore does not strike us as forcibly as to make us
attend to its improbability; but in painting, the figures being all much
more distinct, their improbability becomes apparent, and seizes our
attention to it. Thus the person of Concealment is very indistinct and
therefore does not compel us to attend to its improbability, in the
following beautiful lines of Shakespear:
"--She never told her love;
But let Concealment, like a worm i' th' bud,
Feed on her damask cheek."--
But in these lines below the person of Reason obtrudes itself into our
company, and becomes disagreeable by its distinctness, and consequent
improbability.
"To Reason I flew, and intreated her aid,
Who paused on my case, and each circumstance weigh'd;
Then gravely reply'd in return to my prayer,
That Hebe was fairest of all that were fair.
That's a truth, reply'd I, I've no need to be taught,
I came to you, Reason, to find out a fault.
If that's all, says Reason, return as you came,
To find fault with Hebe would forfeit my name."
Allegoric figures are on this account in general less manageable in
painting and in statuary than in poetry: and can seldom be introduced in
the two former arts in company with natural figures, as is evident
from the ridiculous effect of many of the paintings of Rubens in the
Luxemburgh gallery; and for this reason, because their improbability
becomes more striking, when there are the figures of real persons by
their side to compare them with. Mrs. Angelica Kauffman, well apprised of
this circumstance, has introduced no mortal figures amongst her Cupids
and her Graces. And the great Roubiliac, in his unrivalled monument of
Time and Fame struggling for the trophy of General Fleming, has only hung
up a medallion of the head of the hero of the piece. There are however
some allegoric figures, which we have so often heard described or seen
delineated, that we almost forget that they do not exist in common life;
and hence view them without astonishment; as the figures of the heathen
mythology, of angels, devils, death and time; and almost believe them
to be realities, even when they are mixed with representations of the
natural forms of man. Whence I conclude, that a certain degree of
probability is necessary to prevent us from revolting with distaste from
unnatural images; unless we are otherwise so much interested in the
contemplation of them as not to perceive their improbability.
_B_. Is this reasoning about degrees of probability just?--When Sir Joshua
Reynolds, who is unequalled both in the theory and practice of his art,
and who is a great master of the pen as well as the pencil, has asserted
in a discourse delivered to the Royal Academy, December 11, 1786, that
"the higher styles of painting, like the higher kinds of the Drama, do
not aim at any thing like deception; or have any expectation, that the
spectators should think the events there represented are really passing
before them." And he then accuses Mr. Fielding of bad judgment, when he
attempts to compliment Mr. Garrick in one of his novels, by introducing
an ignorant man, mistaking the representation of a scene in Hamlet for a
reality; and thinks, because he was an ignorant man, he was less liable
to make such a mistake.
_P_. It is a metaphysical question, and requires more attention than Sir
Joshua has bestowed upon it.--You will allow, that we are perfectly
deceived in our dreams; and that even in our waking reveries, we are
often so much absorbed in the contemplation of what passes in our
imaginations, that for a while we do not attend to the lapse of time or
to our own locality; and thus suffer a similar kind of deception as in
our dreams. That is, we believe things present before our eyes, which are
not so.
There are two circumstances, which contribute to this compleat deception
in our dreams. First, because in sleep the organs of sense are closed or
inert, and hence the trains of ideas associated in our imaginations are
never interrupted or dissevered by the irritations of external objects,
and can not therefore be contrasted with our sensations. On this account,
though we are affected with a variety of passions in our dreams, as
anger, love, joy; yet we never experience surprize.--For surprize is only
produced when any external irritations suddenly obtrude themselves, and
dissever our passing trains of ideas.
Secondly, because in sleep there is a total suspension of our voluntary
power, both over the muscles of our bodies, and the ideas of our minds;
for we neither walk about, nor reason in compleat sleep. Hence, as the
trains of ideas are passing in our imaginations in dreams, we cannot
compare them with our previous knowledge of things, as we do in our
waking hours; for this is a voluntary exertion; and thus we cannot
perceive their incongruity. Thus we are deprived in sleep of the only
two means by which we can distinguish the trains of ideas passing in our
imaginations, from those excited by our sensations; and are led by their
vivacity to believe them to belong to the latter. For the vivacity of
these trains of ideas, passing in the imagination, is greatly increased
by the causes above-mentioned; that is, by their not being disturbed or
dissevered either by the appulses of external bodies, as in surprize; or
by our voluntary exertions in comparing them with our previous knowledge,
of things, as in reasoning upon them.
_B_. Now to apply.
_P_. When by the art of the Painter or Poet a train of ideas is suggested
to our imaginations, which interests us so much by the pain or pleasure
it affords, that we cease to attend to the irritations of common external
objects, and cease also to use any voluntary efforts to compare these
interesting trains of ideas with our previous knowledge of things, a
compleat reverie is produced: during which time, however short, if it be
but for a moment, the objects themselves appear to exist before us. This,
I think, has been called by an ingenious critic "the ideal presence" of
such objects. (Elements of Criticism by Lord Kaimes). And in respect to
the compliment intended by Mr. Fielding to Mr. Garrick, it would seem
that an ignorant Rustic at the play of Hamlet, who has some previous
belief in the appearance of Ghosts, would sooner be liable to fall into
reverie, and continue in it longer, than one who possessed more knowledge
of the real nature of things, and had a greater facility of
exercising his reason.
_B_. It must require great art in the Painter or Poet to produce this
kind of deception?
_P_. The matter must be interesting from its sublimity, beauty, or
novelty; this is the scientific part; and the art consists in bringing
these distinctly before the eye, so as to produce (as above-mentioned)
the ideal presence of the object, in which the great Shakespear
particularly excells.
_B_. Then it is not of any consequence whether the representations
correspond with nature?
_P_. Not if they so much interest the reader or spectator as to induce
the reverie above described. Nature may be seen in the market-place,
or at the card-table; but we expect something more than this in the
play-house or picture-room. The further the artists recedes from nature,
the greater novelty he is likely to produce; if he rises above nature,
he produces the sublime; and beauty is probably a selection and new
combination of her most agreeable parts. Yourself will be sensible of the
truth of this doctrine by recollecting over in your mind the works of
three of our celebrated artists. Sir Joshua Reynolds has introduced
sublimity even into its portraits; we admire the representation of
persons, whose reality we should have passed by unnoticed. Mrs. Angelica
Kauffman attracts our eyes with beauty, which I suppose no where exists;
certainly few Grecian faces are seen in this country. And the daring
pencil of Fuseli transports us beyond the boundaries of nature, and
ravishes us with the charm of the most interesting novelty. And
Shakespear, who excells in all these together, so far captivates the
spectator, as to make him unmindful of every kind of violation of Time,
Place, or Existence. As at the first appearance of the Ghost of Hamlet,
"his ear must be dull as the fat weed, which roots itself on Lethe's
brink," who can attend to the improbablity of the exhibition. So in many
scenes of the Tempest we perpetually believe the action passing before
our eyes, and relapse with somewhat of distaste into common life at the
intervals of the representation.
_B_. I suppose a poet of less ability would find such great machinery
difficult and cumbersome to manage?
_P_. Just so, we should be mocked at the apparent improbabilities. As in
the gardens of a Scicilian nobleman, described in Mr. Brydone's and in
Mr. Swinburn's travels, there are said to be six hundred statues of
imaginary monsters, which so disgust the spectators, that the state had
once a serious design of destroying them; and yet the very improbable
monsters in Ovid's Metamorphoses have entertained the world for many
centuries.
_B._ The monsters in your Botanic Garden, I hope, are of the latter kind?
_P._ The candid reader must determine.
THE
LOVES
OF THE
PLANTS.
CANTO II.
Again the Goddess strikes the golden lyre,
And tunes to wilder notes the warbling wire;
With soft suspended step Attention moves,
And Silence hovers o'er the listening groves;
5 Orb within orb the charmed audience throng,
And the green vault reverberates the song.
"Breathe soft, ye Gales!" the fair CARLINA cries,
Bear on broad wings your Votress to the skies.
How sweetly mutable yon orient hues,
10 As Morn's fair hand her opening roses strews;
How bright, when Iris blending many a ray
Binds in embroider'd wreath the brow of Day;
Soft, when the pendant Moon with lustres pale
O'er heaven's blue arch unfurls her milky veil;
15 While from the north long threads of silver light
Dart on swift shuttles o'er the tissued night!
[_Carlina._ l. 7. Carline Thistle. Of the class Confederate Males. The
seeds of this and of many other plants of the same class are furnished
with a plume, by which admirable mechanism they perform long aerial
journeys, crossing lakes and deserts, and are thus disseminated far from
the original plant, and have much the appearance of a Shuttlecock as they
fly. The wings are of different construction, some being like a divergent
tuft of hairs, others are branched like feathers, some are elevated from
the crown of the seed by a slender foot-stalk, which gives, than a very
elegant appearance, others sit immediately on the crown of the seed.
Nature has many other curious vegetable contrivances for the dispersion
of seeds: see note on Helianthus. But perhaps none of them has more the
appearance of design than the admirable apparatus of Tillandsia for this
purpose. This plant grows on the branches of trees, like the misleto, and
never on the ground; the seeds are furnished with many long threads on
their crowns; which, as they are driven forwards by the winds, wrap round
the arms of trees, and thus hold them fast till they vegetate. This it
very analogous to the migration of Spiders on the gossamer, who are said
to attach themselves to the end of a long thread, and rise thus to the
tops of trees or buildings, as the accidental breezes carry them.]
"Breathe soft, ye Zephyrs! hear my fervent sighs,
Bear on broad wings your Votress to the skies!"--
--Plume over plume in long divergent lines
20 On whale-bone ribs the fair Mechanic joins;
Inlays with eider down the silken strings,
And weaves in wide expanse Dædalian wings;
Round her bold sons the waving pennons binds,
And walks with angel-step upon the winds.
25 So on the shoreless air the intrepid Gaul
Launch'd the vast concave of his buoyant ball.--
Journeying on high, the silken castle glides
Bright as a meteor through the azure tides;
O'er towns and towers and temples wins its way,
30 Or mounts sublime, and gilds the vault of day.
Silent with upturn'd eyes unbreathing crowds
Pursue the floating wonder to the clouds;
And, flush'd with transport or benumb'd with fear,
Watch, as it rises, the diminish'd sphere.
35 --Now less and less!--and now a speck is seen!--
And now the fleeting rack obtrudes between!--
With bended knees, raised arms, and suppliant brow
To every shrine with mingled cries they vow.--
"Save Him, ye Saints! who o'er the good preside;
40 "Bear Him, ye Winds! ye Stars benignant! guide."
--The calm Philosopher in ether fails,
Views broader stars, and breathes in purer gales;
Sees, like a map, in many a waving line
Round Earth's blue plains her lucid waters mine;
45 Sees at his feet the forky lightnings glow,
And hears innocuous thunders roar below.
----Rife, great MONGOLFIER! urge thy venturous flight
High o'er the Moon's pale ice-reflected light;
High o'er the pearly Star, whose beamy horn.
50 Hangs in the east, gay harbinger of morn;
Leave the red eye of Mars on rapid wing;
Jove's silver guards, and Saturn's dusky ring;
Leave the fair beams, which, issuing from afar;
Play with new lustres round the Georgian star;
55 Shun with strong oars the Sun's attractive throne,
The sparkling zodiack, and the milky zone;
Where headlong Comets with increasing force
Through other systems bend their blazing course.--
For thee Cassiope her chair withdraws,
60 For thee the Bear retracts his shaggy paws;
High o'er the North thy golden orb shall roll,
And blaze eternal round the wondering pole.
So Argo, rising from the southern main,
Lights with new stars the blue etherial plain;
65 With favoring beams the mariner protects,
And the bold course, which first it steer'd, directs.
Inventress of the Woof, fair LINA flings
The flying shuttle through the dancing strings;
[_For thee the Bear._ l. 60. Tibi jam brachia contrahit ardens Scorpius.
Virg. Georg. l. 1. 34. A new star appeared in Cassiope's chair in 1572.
Herschel's Construction of the Heavens. Phil. Trans. V. 75. p. 266.]
[_Linum._ l. 67. Flax Five males and five females. It was first found on
the banks of the Nile. The Linum Lusitanicum, or portigal flax, has ten
males: see the note on Curcuma. Isis was said to invent spinning and
weaving: mankind before that time were clothed with the skins of animals.
The fable of Arachne was to compliment this new art of spinning and
weaving, supposed to surpass in fineness the web of the Spider.]
Inlays the broider'd weft with flowery dyes,
70 Quick beat the reeds, the pedals fall and rise;
Slow from the beam the lengths of warp unwind,
And dance and nod the massy weights behind.--
Taught by her labours, from the fertile soil
Immortal Isis clothed the banks of Nile;
75 And fair ARACHNE with her rival loom
Found undeserved a melancholy doom.--
_Five_ Sister-nymphs with dewy fingers twine
The beamy flax, and stretch the fibre-line;
Quick eddying threads from rapid spindles reel,
80 Or whirl with beaten foot the dizzy wheel.
--Charm'd round the busy Fair _five_ shepherds press,
Praise the nice texture of their snowy dress,
Admire the Artists, and the art approve,
And tell with honey'd words the tale of love.
85 So now, where Derwent rolls his dusky floods
Through vaulted mountains, and a night of woods,
The Nymph, GOSSYPIA, treads the velvet sod,
And warms with rosy smiles the watery God;
His ponderous oars to slender spindles turns,
90 And pours o'er massy wheels his foamy urns;
With playful charms her hoary lover wins,
And wields his trident,--while the Monarch spins.
--First with nice eye emerging Naiads cull
From leathery pods the vegetable wool;
[_Gossypia_. l. 87. Gossypium. The cotton plant. On the river Derwent near
Matlock in Derbyshire, Sir RICHARD ARKWRIGHT has created his curious
and magnificent machinery for spinning cotton; which had been in vain
attempted by many ingenious artists before him. The cotton-wool is first
picked from the pods and seeds by women. It is then carded by _cylindrical
cards_, which move against each other, with different velocities. It is
taken from these by an _iron-hand_ or comb, which has a motion similar to
that of scratching, and takes the wool off the cards longitudinally in
respect to the fibres or staple, producing a continued line loosely
cohering, called the _Rove_ or _Roving_. This Rove, yet very loosely
twisted, is then received or drawn into a _whirling canister_, and is
rolled by the centrifugal force in spiral lines within it; being yet too
tender for the spindle. It is then passed between _two pairs of rollers_;
the second pair moving faster than the first elongate the thread with
greater equality than can be done by the hand; and is then twisted on
spoles or bobbins.
The great fertility of the Cotton-plant in these fine flexile threads,
whilst those from Flax, Hemp, and Nettles, or from the bark of the
Mulberry-tree, require a previous putrefection of the parenchymatous
substance, and much mechanical labour, and afterwards bleaching, renders
this plant of great importance to the world. And since Sir Richard
Arkwright's ingenious machine has not only greatly abbreviated and
simplefied the labour and art of carding and spinning the Cotton-wool,
but performs both these circumstances _better_ than can be done by hand,
it is probable, that the clothing of this small seed will become the
principal clothing of mankind; though animal wool and silk may be
preferable in colder climates, as they are more imperfect conductors of
heat, and are thence a warmer clothing.]
95 With wiry teeth _revolving cards_ release
The tanged knots, and smooth the ravell'd fleece;
Next moves the _iron-band_ with fingers fine,
Combs the wide card, and forms the eternal line;
Slow, with soft lips, the _whirling Can_ acquires
100 The tender skeins, and wraps in rising spires;
With quicken'd pace _successive rollers_ move,
And these retain, and those extend the _rove_;
Then fly the spoles, the rapid axles glow;--
And slowly circumvolves the labouring wheel below.
105 PAPYRA, throned upon the banks of Nile,
Spread her smooth leaf, and waved her silver style.
[_Cyperus. Papyrus._ l. 105. Three males, one female. The leaf of this
plant was first used for paper, whence the word _paper_; and leaf,
or folium, for a fold of a book. Afterwards the bark of a species of
mulberry was used; whence _liber_ signifies a book, and the bark of a
tree. Before the invention of letters mankind may be said to have been
perpetually in their infancy, as the arts of one age or country generally
died with their inventors. Whence arose the policy, which still continues
in Indostan, of obliging the son to practice the profession of his
father. After the discovery of letters, the facts of Astronomy and
Chemistry became recorded in written language, though the antient
hieroglyphic characters for the planets and metals continue in use at
this day. The antiquity of the invention of music, of astronomical
observations, and the manufacture of Gold and Iron, are recorded in
Scripture.]
--The storied pyramid, the laurel'd bust,
The trophy'd arch had crumbled into dust;
The sacred symbol, and the epic song,
110 (Unknown the character, forgot the tongue,)
With each unconquer'd chief, or fainted maid,
Sunk undistinguish'd in Oblivion's shade.
Sad o'er the scatter'd ruins Genius sigh'd,
And infant Arts but learn'd to lisp and died.
115 Till to astonish'd realms PAPYRA taught
To paint in mystic colours Sound and Thought.
With Wisdom's voice to print the page sublime,
And mark in adamant the steps of Time.
--Three favour'd youths her soft attention share,
120 The fond disciples of the studious Fair,
[About twenty letters, ten cyphers, and seven crotches, represent by
their numerous combinations all our ideas and sensations! the musical
characters are probably arrived at their perfection, unless emphasis, and
tone, and swell could be expressed, as well as note and time. Charles
the Twelfth of Sweden had a design to have introduced a numeration by
squares, instead of by decimation, which might have served the purposes
of philosophy better than the present mode, which is said to be of
Arabic invention. The alphabet is yet in a very imperfect state; perhaps
seventeen letters could express all the simple sounds in the European
languages. In China they have not yet learned to divide their words
into syllables, and are thence necessitated to employ many thousand
characters; it is said above eighty thousand. It is to be wished, in
this ingenious age, that the European nations would accord to reform our
alphabet.]
Hear her sweet voice, the golden process prove;
Gaze, as they learn; and, as they listen, love.
_The first_ from Alpha to Omega joins
The letter'd tribes along the level lines;
125 Weighs with nice ear the vowel, liquid, surd,
And breaks in syllables the volant word.
Then forms _the next_ upon the marshal'd plain
In deepening ranks his dexterous cypher-train;
And counts, as wheel the decimating bands,
130 The dews of Ægypt, or Arabia's sands,
And then _the third_ on four concordant lines
Prints the lone crotchet, and the quaver joins;
Marks the gay trill, the solemn pause inscribes,
And parts with bars the undulating tribes.
135 Pleased round her cane-wove throne, the applauding crowd
Clap'd their rude hands, their swarthy foreheads bow'd;
With loud acclaim "a present God!" they cry'd,
"A present God!" rebellowing shores reply'd--
Then peal'd at intervals with mingled swell
140 The echoing harp, shrill clarion, horn, and shell;
While Bards ecstatic, bending o'er the lyre,
Struck deeper chords, and wing'd the song with fire.
Then mark'd Astronomers with keener eyes
The Moon's refulgent journey through the skies;
145 Watch'd the swift Comets urge their blazing cars,
And weigh'd the Sun with his revolving Stars.
High raised the Chemists their Hermetic wands,
(And changing forms obey'd their waving hands,)
Her treasur'd gold from Earth's deep chambers tore,
150 Or fused and harden'd her chalybeate ore.
All with bent knee from fair PAPYRA claim
Wove by her hands the wreath of deathless fame.
--Exulting Genius crown'd his darling child,
The young Arts clasp'd her knees, and Virtue smiled.
155 So now DELANY forms her mimic bowers,
Her paper foliage, and her silken flowers;
[_So now Delany_. l. 155. Mrs. Delany has finished nine hundred and
seventy accurate and elegant representations of different vegetables
with the parts of their flowers, fructification, &c. according with the
classification of Linneus, in what she terms paper-mosaic. She began this
work at the age of 74, when her sight would no longer serve her to paint,
in which she much excelled; between her age of 74 and 82, at which time
her eyes quite failed her, she executed the curious Hortus ficcus
above-mentioned, which I suppose contains a greater number of plants
than were ever before drawn from the life by any one person. Her method
consisted in placing the leaves of each plant with the petals, and all
the other parts of the flowers, on coloured paper, and cutting them with
scissars accurately to the natural size and form, and then parting them
on a dark ground; the effect of which is wonderful, and their accuracy
less liable to fallacy than drawings. She is at this time (1788) in her
89th year, with all the powers of a fine understanding still unimpaired.
I am informed another very ingenious lady, Mrs. North, is constructing a
similar Hortus ficcus, or Paper-garden; which she executes on a ground of
vellum with such elegant taste and scientific accuracy, that it cannot
fail to become a work of inestimable value.]
Her virgin train the tender scissars ply,
Vein the green leaf, the purple petal dye:
Round wiry stems the flaxen tendril bends,
160 Moss creeps below, and waxen fruit impends.
Cold Winter views amid his realms of snow
DELANY'S vegetable statues blow;
Smooths his stern brow, delays his hoary wing,
And eyes with wonder all the blooms of spring.
165 The gentle LAPSANA, NYMPHÆA fair,
And bright CALENDULA with golden hair,
[_Lapsana, Nymphæa alba, Calendula_. l. 165. And many other flowers close
and open their petals at certain hours of the day; and thus constitute
what Linneus calls the Horologe, or Watch of Flora. He enumerates 46
flowers, which possess this kind of sensibility. I shall mention a few of
them with their respective hours of rising and setting, as Linneus terms
them. He divides them first into _meteoric_ flowers, which less accurately
observe the hour of unfolding, but are expanded sooner or later, according
to the cloudiness, moisture, or pressure of the atmosphere. 2d. _Tropical_
flowers open in the morning and close before evening every day; but the
hour of the expanding becomes earlier or later, at the length of the day
increases or decreases. 3dly. _Æquinoctial_ flowers, which open at a
certain and exact hour of the day, and for the most part close at another
determinate hour.
Hence the Horologe or Watch of Flora is formed from numerous plants, of
which the following are those most common in this country. Leontodon
taraxacum, Dandelion, opens at 5--6, closes at 8--9. Hieracium pilosella,
mouse-ear hawkweed, opens at 8, closes at 2. Sonchus lævis, smooth
Sow-thistle, at 5 and at 11--12. Lactuca sativa, cultivated Lettice, at
7 and jo. Tragopogon luteum, yellow Goatsbeard, at 3--5 and at 9--10.
Lapsana, nipplewort, at 5--6 and at 10--1. Nymphæa alba, white water
lily, at 7 and 5. Papaver nudicaule, naked poppy, at 5 and at 7.
Hemerecallis fulva, tawny Day-lily, at 5 and at 7--8. Convolvulus, at
5--6. Malva, Mallow, at 9--10, and at 1. Arenarea purpurea, purple
Sandwort, at 9--10, and at 2--3. Anagallis, pimpernel, at 7--8. Portulaca
hortensis, garden Purilain, at 9--10, and at 11--12. Dianthus prolifer,
proliferous Pink, at 8 and at 1. Cichoreum, Succory, at 4--5.
Hypochiaeris, at 6--7, and at 4--5. Crepis at 4--5, and at 10--II.
Picris, at 4--5, and at 12. Calendula field, at 9, and at 3. Calendula
African, at 7, and at 3--4.
As these observations were probably made in the botanic gardens at Upsal,
they must require further attention to suit them to our climate. See
Stillingfleet Calendar of Flora.]
Watch with nice eye the Earth's diurnal way,
Marking her solar and sidereal day,
Her slow nutation, and her varying clime,
170 And trace with mimic art the march of Time;
Round his light foot a magic chain they fling,
And count the quick vibrations of his wing.--
First in its brazen cell reluctant roll'd
Bends the dark spring in many a steely fold;
175 On spiral brass is stretch'd the wiry thong,
Tooth urges tooth, and wheel drives wheel along;
In diamond-eyes the polish'd axles flow,
Smooth slides the hand, the ballance pants below.
Round the white circlet in relievo bold
180 A Serpent twines his scaly length in gold;
And brightly pencil'd on the enamel'd sphere
Live the fair trophies of the passing year.
--Here _Time's_ huge fingers grasp his giant-mace,
And dash proud Superstition from her base,
185 Rend her strong towers and gorgeous fanes, and shed
The crumbling fragments round her guilty head.
There the gay _Hours_, whom wreaths of roses deck,
Lead their young trains amid the cumberous wreck;
And, slowly purpling o'er the mighty waste,
190 Plant the fair growths of Science and of Taste.
While each light _Moment_, as it dances by
With feathery foot and pleasure-twinkling eye,
Feeds from its baby-hand, with many a kiss,
The callow nestlings of domestic Bliss.
195 As yon gay clouds, which canopy the skies,
Change their thin forms, and lose their lucid dyes;
So the soft bloom of Beauty's vernal charms
Fades in our eyes, and withers in our arms.
--Bright as the silvery plume, or pearly shell,
200 The snow-white rose, or lily's virgin bell,
The fair HELLEBORAS attractive shone,
Warm'd every Sage, and every Shepherd won.--
Round the gay sisters press the _enamour'd bands_,
And seek with soft solicitude their hands.
205 --Ere while how chang'd!--in dim suffusion lies
The glance divine, that lighten'd in their eyes;
[_Helleborus_. I. 201. Many males, many females. The Helleborus niger,
or Christmas rose, has a large beautiful white flower, adorned with a
circle of tubular two-lipp'd nectarics. After impregnation the flower
undergoes a remarkable change, the nectaries drop off, but the white
corol remains, and gradually becomes quite green. This curious
metamorphose of the corol, when the nectaries fall off, seems to shew
that the white juices of the corol were before carried to the nectaries,
for the purpose of producing honey: because when these nectaries fall
off, no more of the white juice is secreted in the corol, but it becomes
green, and degenerates into a calyx. See note on Lonicera. The nectary of
the Tropaeolum, garden nasturtion, is a coloured horn growing from the
calyx.]
Cold are those lips, where smiles seductive hung,
And the weak accents linger on their tongue;
Each roseat feature fades to livid green,--
210 --Disgust with face averted shuts the scene.
So from his gorgeous throne, which awed the world,
The mighty Monarch of the east was hurl'd,
To dwell with brutes beneath the midnight storm,
By Heaven's just vengeance changed in mind and form.
215 --Prone to the earth He bends his brow superb,
Crops the young floret and the bladed herb;
Lolls his red tongue, and from the reedy side
Of slow Euphrates laps the muddy tide.
Long eagle-plumes his arching neck invest,
220 Steal round his arms, and clasp his sharpen'd breast;
Dark brinded hairs in bristling ranks, behind,
Rise o'er his back, and rustle in the wind,
Clothe his lank sides, his shrivel'd limbs surround,
And human hands with talons print the ground.
225 Silent in shining troops the Courtier-throng
Pursue their monarch as he crawls along;
E'en Beauty pleads in vain with smiles and tears,
Nor Flattery's self can pierce his pendant ears.
_Two_ Sister-Nymphs to Ganges' flowery brink
230 Bend their light steps, the lucid water drink,
Wind through the dewy rice, and nodding canes,
(As _eight_ black Eunuchs guard the sacred plains),
With playful malice watch the scaly brood,
And shower the inebriate berries on the flood.--
235 Stay in your crystal chambers, silver tribes!
Turn your bright eyes, and shun the dangerous bribes;
The tramel'd net with less destruction sweeps
Your curling shallows, and your azure deeps;
With less deceit, the gilded fly beneath,
240 Lurks the fell hook unseen,--to taste is death!--
--Dim your slow eyes, and dull your pearly coat,
Drunk on the waves your languid forms shall float,
[_Two Sister-Nymphs._ l. 229. Menispernum. Cocculus. Indian berry. Two
houses, twelve males. In the female flower there are two styles and eight
filaments without anthers on their summits; which are called by Linneus
eunuchs. See the note on Curcuma. The berry intoxicates fish. Saint
Anthony of Padua, when the people refused to hear him, preached to the
fish, and converted them. Addison's travels in Italy.]
On useless fins in giddy circles play,
And Herons and Otters seize you for their prey.--
245 So, when the Saint from Padua's graceless land
In silent anguish sought the barren strand,
High on the shatter'd beech sublime He stood,
Still'd with his waving arm the babbling flood;
"To Man's dull ear," He cry'd, "I call in vain,
"Hear me, ye scaly tenants of the main!"--
250 Misshapen Seals approach in circling flocks,
In dusky mail the Tortoise climbs the rocks,
Torpedoes, Sharks, Rays, Porpus, Dolphins, pour
Their twinkling squadrons round the glittering shore;
255 With tangled fins, behind, huge Phocæ glide,
And Whales and Grampi swell the distant tide.
Then kneel'd the hoary Seer, to heaven address'd
His fiery eyes, and smote his sounding breast;
"Bless ye the Lord!" with thundering voice he cry'd,
260 "Bless ye the Lord!" the bending shores reply'd;
The winds and waters caught the sacred word,
And mingling echoes shouted "Bless the Lord!"
The listening shoals the quick contagion feel,
Pant on the floods, inebriate with their zeal,
265 Ope their wide jaws, and bow their slimy heads,
And dash with frantic fins their foamy beds.
Sopha'd on silk, amid her charm-built towers,
Her meads of asphodel, and amaranth bowers,
Where Sleep and Silence guard the soft abodes,
270 In sullen apathy PAPAVER nods.
Faint o'er her couch in scintillating streams
Pass the thin forms of Fancy and of Dreams;
Froze by inchantment on the velvet ground
Fair youths and beauteous ladies glitter round;
[_Papaver_. l. 270. Poppy. Many males, many females. The plants of this
class are almost all of them poisonous; the finest opium is procured by
wounding the heads of large poppies with a three-edged knife, and
tying muscle-shells to them to catch the drops. In small quantities it
exhilarates the mind, raises the passions, and invigorates the body: in
large ones it is succeeded by intoxication, languor, stupor and death.
It is customary in India for a messenger to travel above a hundred miles
without rest or food, except an appropriated bit of opium for himself,
and a larger one for his horse at certain stages. The emaciated and
decrepid appearance, with the ridiculous and idiotic gestures, of the
opium-eaters in Constantinople is well described in the Memoirs of Baron
de Tott.]
275 On crystal pedestals they seem to sigh,
Bend the meek knee, and lift the imploring eye.
--And now the Sorceress bares her shrivel'd hand,
And circles thrice in air her ebon wand;
Flush'd with new life descending statues talk,
280 The pliant marble softening as they walk;
With deeper sobs reviving lovers breathe,
Fair bosoms rise, and soft hearts pant beneath;
With warmer lips relenting damsels speak,
And kindling blushes tinge the Parian cheek;
285 To viewless lutes aërial voices sing,
And hovering Loves are heard on rustling wing.
--She waves her wand again!--fresh horrors seize
Their stiffening limbs, their vital currents freeze;
By each cold nymph her marble lover lies,
290 And iron slumbers seal their glassy eyes.
So with his dread Caduceus HERMES led
From the dark regions of the imprison'd dead,
Or drove in silent shoals the lingering train
To Night's dull shore, and PLUTO'S dreary reign
295 So with her waving pencil CREWE commands
The realms of Taste, and Fancy's fairy lands;
Calls up with magic voice the shapes, that sleep
In earth's dark bosom, or unfathom'd deep;
That shrined in air on viewless wings aspire,
300 Or blazing bathe in elemental fire.
As with nice touch her plaistic hand she moves,
Rise the fine forms of Beauties, Graces, Loves;
Kneel to the fair Inchantress, smile or sigh,
And fade or flourish, as she turns her eye.
305 Fair CISTA, rival of the rosy dawn,
Call'd her light choir, and trod the dewy lawn;
Hail'd with rude melody the new-born May,
As cradled yet in April's lap she lay.
[_So with her waving pencil._ l. 295. Alluding to the many beautiful
paintings by Miss EMMA CREWE; to whom the author is indebted for the very
elegant Frontispiece, where Flora, at play with Cupid, is loading him
with garden-tools.]
[_Cistus labdaniferus._ l. 304. Many males, one female. The petals of this
beautiful and fragrant shrub, as well as of the Oenothera, tree primrose,
and others, continue expanded but a few hours, falling off about noon, or
soon after, in hot weather. The most beautiful flowers of the Cactus
grandiflorus (see Cerea) are of equally short duration, but have their
existence in the night. And the flowers of the Hibiscus trionum are said
to continue but a single hour. The courtship between the males and females
in these flowers might be easily watched; the males are said to approach
and recede from the females alternately. The flowers of the Hibiscus
sinensis, mutable rose, live in the West Indies, their native climate,
but one day; but have this remarkable property, they are white at the
first expansion, then change to deep red, and become purple as they
decay.
The gum or resin of this fragrant vegetable is collected from extensive
underwoods of it in the East by a singular contrivance. Long leathern
thongs are tied to poles and cords, and drawn over the tops of these
shrubs about noon; which thus collect the dust of the anthers, which
adheres to the leather, and is occasionally scraped off. Thus in some
degree is the manner imitated, in which the bee collects on his thighs
and legs the same material for the construction of his combs.]
I.
"Born in yon blaze of orient sky,
310 "Sweet MAY! thy radiant form unfold;
"Unclose thy blue voluptuous eye,
"And wave thy shadowy locks of gold.
II.
"For Thee the fragrant zephyrs blow,
"For Thee descends the sunny shower;
315 "The rills in softer murmurs slow,
"And brighter blossoms gem the bower.
III.
"Light Graces dress'd in flowery wreaths
"And tiptoe Joys their hands combine;
"And Love his sweet contagion breathes,
320 "And laughing dances round thy shrine.
IV.
"Warm with new life the glittering throngs
"On quivering fin and rustling wing
"Delighted join their votive songs,
"And hail thee, GODDESS OF THE SPRING."
325 O'er the green brinks of Severn's oozy bed,
In changeful rings, her sprightly troop She led;
PAN tripp'd before, where Eudness shades the mead,
And blew with glowing lip his sevenfold reed;
Emerging Naiads swell'd the jocund strain,
330 And aped with mimic step the dancing train.--
[_Sevenfold reed._ I. 328. The sevenfold reed, with which Pan is
frequently described, seems to indicate, that he was the inventor of the
musical gamut.]
"I faint, I fall!"--_at noon_ the Beauty cried,
"Weep o'er my tomb, ye Nymphs!"--and sunk and died.
--Thus, when white Winter o'er the shivering clime
Drives the still snow, or showers the silver rime;
335 As the lone shepherd o'er the dazzling rocks
Prints his steep step, and guides his vagrant flocks;
Views the green holly veil'd in network nice,
Her vermil clusters twinkling in the ice;
Admires the lucid vales, and slumbering floods,
340 Fantastic cataracts, and crystal woods,
Transparent towns, with seas of milk between,
And eyes with transport the refulgent scene:--
If breaks the sunshine o'er the spangled trees,
Or flits on tepid wing the western breeze,
345 In liquid dews descends the transient glare,
And all the glittering pageant melts in air.
Where Andes hides his cloud-wreath'd crest in snow,
And roots his base on burning sands below;
Cinchona, fairest of Peruvian maids
350 To Health's bright Goddess in the breezy glades
On Quito's temperate plain an altar rear'd,
Trill'd the loud hymn, the solemn prayer preferr'd:
Each balmy bud she cull'd, and honey'd flower,
And hung with fragrant wreaths the sacred bower;
355 Each pearly sea she search'd, and sparkling mine,
And piled their treasures on the gorgeous shrine;
Her suppliant voice for sickening Loxa raised,
Sweet breath'd the gale, and bright the censor blazed.
--"Divine HYGEIA! on thy votaries bend
360 Thy angel-looks, oh, hear us, and defend!
While streaming o'er the night with baleful glare
The star of Autumn rays his misty hair;
Fierce from his fens the Giant AGUE springs,
And wrapp'd in fogs descends on vampire wings;
[_Cinchona_. l. 349. Peruvian bark-tree. Five males, and one
female. Several of these trees were felled for other purposes into a
lake, when an epidemic fever of a very mortal kind prevailed at Loxa in
Peru, and the woodmen, accidentally drinking the water, were cured; and
thus were discovered the virtues of this famous drug.]
365 "Before, with shuddering limbs cold Tremor reels,
And Fever's burning nostril dogs his heels;
Loud claps the grinning Fiend his iron hands,
Stamps with his marble feet, and shouts along the lands;
Withers the damask cheek, unnerves the strong,
370 And drives with scorpion-lash the shrieking throng.
Oh, Goddess! on thy kneeling votaries bend
Thy angel-looks, oh, hear us, and defend!"
--HYGEIA, leaning from the blest abodes,
The crystal mansions of the immortal gods,
375 Saw the sad Nymph uplift her dewy eyes,
Spread her white arms, and breathe her fervid sighs;
Call'd to her fair associates, Youth, and Joy,
And shot all-radiant through the glittering sky;
Loose waved behind her golden train of hair,
380 Her sapphire mantle swam diffus'd in air.--
O'er the grey matted moss, and pansied sod,
With step sublime the glowing Goddess trod,
Gilt with her beamy eye the conscious shade,
And with her smile celestial bless'd the maid.
385 "Come to my arms," with seraph voice she cries,
"Thy vows are heard, benignant Nymph! arise;
Where yon aspiring trunks fantastic wreath
Their mingled roots, and drink the rill beneath,
Yield to the biting axe thy sacred wood,
390 And strew the bitter foliage on the flood."
In silent homage bow'd the blushing maid,--
_Five_ youths athletic hasten to her aid,
O'er the scar'd hills re-echoing strokes resound,
And headlong forests thunder on the ground.
395 Round the dark roots, rent bark, and shatter'd boughs,
From ocherous beds the swelling fountain flows;
With streams austere its winding margin laves,
And pours from vale to vale its dusky waves.
--As the pale squadrons, bending o'er the brink,
400 View with a sigh their alter'd forms, and drink;
Slow-ebbing life with refluent crimson breaks
O'er their wan lips, and paints their haggard cheeks;
Through each fine nerve rekindling transports dart,
Light the quick eye, and swell the exulting heart.
405 --Thus ISRAEL's heaven-taught chief o'er trackless lands
Led to the sultry rock his murmuring bands.
Bright o'er his brows the forky radiance blazed,
And high in air the rod divine He raised.--
Wide yawns the cliff!--amid the thirsty throng
410 Rush the redundant waves, and shine along;
With gourds and shells and helmets press the bands,
Ope their parch'd lips, and spread their eager hands,
Snatch their pale infants to the exuberant shower,
Kneel on the shatter'd rock, and bless the Almighty Power.
415 Bolster'd with down, amid a thousand wants,
Pale Dropsy rears his bloated form, and pants;
"Quench me, ye cool pellucid rills!" he cries,
Wets his parch'd tongue, and rolls his hollow eyes.
So bends tormented TANTALUS to drink,
420 While from his lips the refluent waters shrink;
Again the rising stream his bosom laves,
And Thirst consumes him 'mid circumfluent waves.
--Divine HYGEIA, from the bending sky
Descending, listens to his piercing cry;
425 Assumes bright DIGITALIS' dress and air,
Her ruby cheek, white neck, and raven hair;
_Four_ youths protect her from the circling throng,
And like the Nymph the Goddess steps along.--
--O'er Him She waves her serpent-wreathed wand,
430 Cheers with her voice, and raises with her hand,
Warms with rekindling bloom his visage wan,
And charms the shapeless monster into man.
[_Digitalis_. l. 425. Of the class Two Powers. Four males, one female,
Foxglove. The effect of this plant in that kind of Dropsy, which is
termed anasarca, where the legs and thighs are much swelled, attended
with great difficulty of breathing, is truly astonishing. In the ascites
accompanied with anasarca of people past the meridian of life it will
also sometimes succeed. The method of administering it requires some
caution, as it is liable, in greater doses, to induce very violent and
debilitating sickness, which continues one or two days, during which time
the dropsical collection however disappears. One large spoonful, or half
an ounce, of the following decoction, given twice a day, will generally
succeed in a few days. But in more robust people, one large spoonful
every two hours, till four spoonfuls are taken, or till sickness occurs,
will evacuate the dropsical swellings with greater certainty, but is
liable to operate more violently. Boil four ounces of the fresh leaves of
purple Foxglove (which leaves may be had at all seasons of the year) from
two pints of water to twelve ounces; add to the strained liquor, while
yet warm, three ounces of rectified spirit of wine. A theory of the
effects of this medicine, with many successful cases, may be seen in a
pamphlet, called, "Experiments on Mucilaginous and Purulent Matter,"
published by Dr. Darwin in 1780. Sold by Cadell, London.]
So when Contagion with mephitic breath
And withered Famine urged the work of death;
435 Marseilles' good Bishop, London's generous Mayor,
With food and faith, with medicine and with prayer,
Raised the weak head and stayed the parting sigh,
Or with new life relumed the swimming eye.--
440 --And now, PHILANTHROPY! thy rays divine
Dart round the globe from Zembla to the Line;
O'er each dark prison plays the cheering light,
Like northern lustres o'er the vault of night.--
[_Marseillle's good Bishop_. l. 435. In the year 1720 and 1722 the
Plague made dreadful havock at Marseilles; at which time the Bishop
was indefatigable in the execution of his pastoral office, visiting,
relieving, encouraging, and absolving the sick with extream tenderness;
and though perpetually exposed to the infection, like Sir John Lawrence
mentioned below, they both are said to have escaped the disease.]
[_London's generous Mayor_, l. 435. During the great Plague at London in
the year 1665, Sir John Lawrence, the then Lord Mayor, continued the
whole time in the city; heard complaints, and redressed them; enforced
the wisest regulations then known, and saw them executed. The day after
the disease was known with certainty to be the Plague, above 40,000
servants were dismissed, and turned into the streets to perish, for no
one would receive them into their houses; and the villages near London
drove them away with pitch-forks and fire-arms. Sir John Lawrence
supported them all, as well as the needy who were sick, at first by
expending his own fortune, till subscriptions could be solicited and
received from all parts of the nation. _Journal of the Plague-year,
Printed for E. Nutt, &c. at the R. Exchange_. 1722.]
From realm to realm, with cross or crescent crown'd,
Where'er Mankind and Misery are found,
445 O'er burning sands, deep waves, or wilds of snow,
Thy HOWARD journeying seeks the house of woe.
Down many a winding step to dungeons dank,
Where anguish wails aloud, and fetters clank;
To caves bestrew'd with many a mouldering bone,
450 And cells, whose echoes only learn to groan;
Where no kind bars a whispering friend disclose,
No sunbeam enters, and no zephyr blows,
HE treads, inemulous of fame or wealth,
Profuse of toil, and prodigal of health;
455 With soft assuasive eloquence expands
Power's rigid heart, and opes his clenching hands;
Leads stern-ey'd Justice to the dark domains,
If not to fever, to relax the chains;
Or guides awaken'd Mercy through the gloom,
460 And shews the prison, sister to the tomb!--
Gives to her babes the self-devoted wife,
To her fond husband liberty and life!--
--The Spirits of the Good, who bend from high
Wide o'er these earthly scenes their partial eye,
465 When first, array'd in VIRTUE'S purest robe,
They saw her HOWARD traversing the globe;
Saw round his brows her sun-like Glory blaze
In arrowy circles of unwearied rays;
Mistook a Mortal for an Angel-Guest,
470 And ask'd what Seraph-foot the earth imprest.
--Onward he moves!--Disease and Death retire,
And murmuring Demons hate him, and admire."
Here paused the Goddess,--on HYGEIA'S shrine
Obsequious Gnomes repose the lyre divine;
475 Descending Sylphs relax the trembling strings,
And catch the rain-drops on their shadowy wings.
--And now her vase a modest Naiad fills
With liquid crystal from her pebbly rills;
Piles the dry cedar round her silver urn,
480 (Bright climbs the blaze, the crackling faggots burn),
Culls the green herb of China's envy'd bowers,
In gaudy cups the steamy treasure pours;
And, sweetly-smiling, on her bended knee
Presents the fragrant quintessence of Tea.
INTERLUDE II.
_Bookseller._ The monsters of your Botanic Garden are as surprising as
the bulls with brazen feet, and the fire-breathing dragons, which guarded
the Hesperian fruit; yet are they not disgusting, nor mischievous: and
in the manner you have chained them together in your exhibition, they
succeed each other amusingly enough, like prints of the London Cries,
wrapped upon rollers, with a glass before them. In this at least they
resemble the monsters in Ovid's Metamorphoses; but your similies, I
suppose, are Homeric?
_Poet._ The great Bard well understood how to make use of this kind of
ornament in Epic Poetry. He brings his valiant heroes into the field with
much parade, and sets them a fighting with great fury; and then, after a
few thrusts and parries, he introduces a long string of similies. During
this the battle is supposed to continue; and thus the time necessary for
the action is gained in our imaginations; and a degree of probability
produced, which contributes to the temporary deception or reverie of the
reader.
But the similies of Homer have another agreeable characteristic; they
do not quadrate, or go upon all fours (as it is called), like the more
formal similies of some modern writers; any one resembling feature seems
to be with him a sufficient excuse for the introduction of this kind of
digression; he then proceeds to deliver some agreeable poetry on this new
subject, and thus converts every simile into a kind of short episode.
_B._ Then a simile should not very accurately resemble the subject?
_P._ No; it would then become a philosophical analogy, it would be
ratiocination instead of poetry: it need only so far resemble the
subject, as poetry itself ought to resemble nature. It should have so
much sublimity, beauty, or novelty, as to interest the reader; and should
be expressed in picturesque language, so as to bring the scenery before
his eye; and should lastly bear so much veri-similitude as not to awaken
him by the violence of improbability or incongruity.
_B._ May not the reverie of the reader be dissipated or disturbed by
disagreeable images being presented to his imagination, as well as by
improbable or incongruous ones? _P_. Certainly; he will endeavour to
rouse himself from a disagreeable reverie, as from the night-mare. And
from this may be discovered the line of boundary between the Tragic and
the Horrid: which line, however, will veer a little this way or that,
according to the prevailing manners of the age or country, and the
peculiar associations of ideas, or idiosyncracy of mind, of individuals.
For instance, if an artist should represent the death of an officer in
battle, by shewing a little blood on the bosom of his shirt, as if a
bullet had there penetrated, the dying figure would affect the beholder
with pity; and if fortitude was at the same time expressed in his
countenance, admiration would be added to our pity. On the contrary, if
the artist should chuse to represent his thigh as shot away by a cannon
ball, and should exhibit the bleeding flesh and shattered bone of the
stump, the picture would introduce into our minds ideas from a butcher's
shop, or a surgeon's operation-room, and we should turn from it with
disgust. So if characters were brought upon the stage with their limbs
disjointed by torturing instruments, and the floor covered with clotted
blood and scattered brains, our theatric reverie would be destroyed by
disgust, and we should leave the play-house with detestation.
The Painters have been more guilty in this respect than the Poets; the
cruelty of Apollo in flaying Marcias alive is a favourite subject with
the antient artists: and the tortures of expiring martyrs have disgraced
the modern ones. It requires little genius to exhibit the muscles in
convulsive action either by the pencil or the chissel, because the
interstices are deep, and the lines strongly defined: but those tender
gradations of muscular action, which constitute the graceful attitudes of
the body, are difficult to conceive or to execute, except by a master of
nice discernment and cultivated taste. _B._ By what definition would you
distinguish the Horrid from the Tragic?
_P._ I suppose the latter consists of Distress attended with Pity, which
is said to be allied to Love, the most agreeable of all our passions;
and the former in Distress, accompanied with Disgust, which is allied to
Hate, and is one of our most disagreeable sensations. Hence, when horrid
scenes of cruelty are represented in pictures, we wish to disbelieve
their existence, and voluntarily exert ourselves to escape from the
deception: whereas the bitter cup of true Tragedy is mingled with some
sweet consolatory drops, which endear our tears, and we continue to
contemplate the interesting delusion with a delight which it is not easy
to explain.
_B._ Has not this been explained by Lucretius, where he describes a
shipwreck; and says, the Spectators receive pleasure from feeling
themselves safe on land? and by Akenside, in his beautiful poem on the
Pleasures of Imagination, who ascribes it to our finding objects for the
due exertion of our passions?
_P_. We must not confound our sensations at the contemplation of real
misery with those which we experience at the scenical representations of
tragedy. The spectators of a shipwreck may be attracted by the dignity
and novelty of the object; and from these may be said to receive
pleasure; but not from the distress of the sufferers. An ingenious
writer, who has criticised this dialogue in the English Review for
August, 1789, adds, that one great source of our pleasure from scenical
distress arises from our, at the same time, generally contemplating one
of the noblest objects of nature, that of Virtue triumphant over
every difficulty and oppression, or supporting its votary under every
suffering: or, where this does not occur, that our minds are relieved
by the justice of some signal punishment awaiting the delinquent. But,
besides this, at the exhibition of a good tragedy, we are not only amused
by the dignity, and novelty, and beauty, of the objects before us; but,
if any distressful circumstances occur too forcible for our sensibility,
we can voluntarily exert ourselves, and recollect, that the scenery is
not real: and thus not only the pain, which we had received from the
apparent distress, is lessened, but a new source of pleasure is opened
to us, similar to that which we frequently have felt on awaking from a
distressful dream; we are glad that it is not true. We are at the same
time unwilling to relinquish the pleasure which we receive from the other
interesting circumstances of the drama; and on that account quickly
permit ourselves to relapse into the delusion; and thus alternately
believe and disbelieve, almost every moment, the existence of the objects
represented before us.
_B_. Have those two sovereigns of poetic land, HOMER and SHAKESPEAR, kept
their works entirely free from the Horrid?--or even yourself in your
third Canto?
_P_. The descriptions of the mangled carcasses of the companions of
Ulysses, in the cave of Polypheme, is in this respect certainly
objectionable, as is well observed by Scaliger. And in the play of Titus
Andronicus, if that was written by Shakespear (which from its internal
evidence I think very improbable), there are many horrid and disgustful
circumstances. The following Canto is submitted to the candour of the
critical reader, to whose opinion I shall submit in silence.
THE
LOVES
OF THE
PLANTS.
CANTO III.
And now the Goddess founds her silver shell,
And shakes with deeper tones the inchanted dell;
Pale, round her grassy throne, bedew'd with tears,
Flit the thin forms of Sorrows, and of Fears;
5 Soft Sighs responsive whisper to the chords,
And Indignations half-unsheath their swords.
"Thrice round the grave CIRCÆA prints her tread,
And chaunts the numbers, which disturb the dead;
Shakes o'er the holy earth her sable plume,
10 Waves her dread wand, and strikes the echoing tomb!
--Pale shoot the stars across the troubled night,
The timorous moon withholds her conscious light;
Shrill scream the famish'd bats, and shivering owls,
And loud and long the dog of midnight howls!--
[_Circæa_. l. 7. Enchanter's Nightshade. Two males, one female. It was
much celebrated in the mysteries of witchcraft, and for the purpose of
raising the devil, as its name imports. It grows amid the mouldering
bones and decayed coffins in the ruinous vaults of Sleaford-church in
Lincolnshire. The superstitious ceremonies or histories belonging to some
vegetables have been truly ridiculous; thus the Druids are said to have
cropped the Misletoe with a golden axe or sickle; and the Bryony, or
Mandrake, was said to utter a scream when its root was drawn from the
ground; and that the animal which drew it up became diseased and soon
died: on which account, when it was wanted for the purposes of medicine,
it was usual to loosen and remove the earth about the root, and then to
tie it by means of a cord to a dog's tail, who was whipped to pull it up,
and was then supposed to suffer for the impiety of the action. And even
at this day bits of dried root of Peony are rubbed smooth, and strung,
and sold under the name of Anodyne necklaces, and tied round the necks of
children, to facilitate the growth of their teeth! add to this, that in
Price's History of Cornwall, a book published about ten years ago, the
Virga Divinatoria, or Divining Rod, has a degree of credit given to it.
This rod is of hazle, or other light wood, and held horizontally in the
hand, and is said to bow towards the ore whenever the Conjurer walks over
a mine. A very few years ago, in France, and even in England, another
kind of divining rod has been used to discover springs of water in a
similar manner, and gained some credit. And in the very last year, there
were many in France, and some in England, who underwent an enchantment
without any divining rod at all, and believed themselves to be affected
by an invisible agent, which the Enchanter called Animal Magnetism!]
--Then yawns the bursting ground!--_two_ imps obscene
Rise on broad wings, and hail the baleful queen;
Each with dire grin salutes the potent wand,
And leads the sorceress with his sooty hand;
Onward they glide, where sheds the sickly yew
20 O'er many a mouldering bone its nightly dew;
The ponderous portals of the church unbar,--
Hoarse on their hinge the ponderous portals jar;
As through the colour'd glass the moon-beam falls,
Huge shapeless spectres quiver on the walls;
25 Low murmurs creep along the hollow ground,
And to each step the pealing ailes resound;
By glimmering lamps, protecting saints among,
The shrines all tremble as they pass along,
O'er the still choir with hideous laugh they move,
30 (Fiends yell below, and angels weep above!)
Their impious march to God's high altar bend,
With feet impure the sacred steps ascend;
With wine unbless'd the holy chalice stain,
Assume the mitre, and the cope profane;
35 To heaven their eyes in mock devotion throw,
And to the cross with horrid mummery bow;
Adjure by mimic rites the powers above,
And plite alternate their Satanic love.
Avaunt, ye Vulgar! from her sacred groves
40 With maniac step the Pythian LAURA moves;
Full of the God her labouring bosom sighs,
Foam on her lips, and fury in her eyes,
Strong writhe her limbs, her wild dishevell'd hair
Starts from her laurel-wreath, and swims in air.--
45 While _twenty_ Priests the gorgeous shrine surround
Cinctur'd with ephods, and with garlands crown'd,
[_Laura_. l. 40. Prunus. Lauro-cerasus. Twenty males, one female. The
Pythian priestess is supposed to have been made drunk with infusion
of laurel-leaves when she delivered her oracles. The intoxication or
inspiration is finely described by Virgil. Æn. L. vi. The distilled
water from laurel-leaves is, perhaps, the most sudden poison we are
acquainted with in this country. I have seen about two spoonfuls of it
destroy a large pointer dog in less than ten minutes. In a smaller dose
it is said to produce intoxication: on this account there is reason to
believe it acts in the same manner as opium and vinous spirit; but that
the dose is not so well ascertained. See note on Tremella. It is used
in the Ratafie of the distillers, by which some dram-drinkers have been
suddenly killed. One pint of water, distilled from fourteen pounds of
black cherry stones bruised, has the same deleterious effect,
destroying as suddenly as laurel-water. It is probable Apricot-kernels,
Peach-leaves, Walnut-leaves, and whatever possesses the kernel-flavour,
may have similar qualities.]
Contending hosts and trembling nations wait
The firm immutable behests of Fate;
--She speaks in thunder from her golden throne
50 With words _unwill'd_, and wisdom not her own.
So on his NIGHTMARE through the evening fog
Flits the squab Fiend o'er fen, and lake, and bog;
Seeks some love-wilder'd Maid with sleep oppress'd,
Alights, and grinning fits upon her breast.
55 --Such as of late amid the murky sky
Was mark'd by FUSELI'S poetic eye;
Whose daring tints, with SHAKESPEAR'S happiest grace,
Gave to the airy phantom form and place.--
Back o'er her pillow sinks her blushing head,
60 Her snow-white limbs hang helpless from the bed;
While with quick sighs, and suffocative breath,
Her interrupted heart-pulse swims in death.
--Then shrieks of captured towns, and widows' tears,
Pale lovers stretch'd upon their blood-stain'd biers,
65 The headlong precipice that thwarts her flight,
The trackless desert, the cold starless night,
And stern-eye'd Murder with his knife behind,
In dread succession agonize her mind.
O'er her fair limbs convulsive tremors fleet,
70 Start in her hands, and struggle in her feet;
In vain to scream with quivering lips she tries,
And strains in palsy'd lids her tremulous eyes;
In vain she _wills_ to run, fly, swim, walk, creep;
The WILL presides not in the bower of SLEEP.
75 --On her fair bosom sits the Demon-Ape
Erect, and balances his bloated shape;
[_The Will presides not._ 1. 74. Sleep consists in the abolition of all
voluntary power, both over our muscular motions and our ideas; for we
neither walk nor reason in sleep. But, at the same time, many of our
muscular motions, and many of our ideas, continue to be excited into
action in consequence of internal irritations and of internal sensations;
for the heart and arteries continue to beat, and we experience variety
of passions, and even hunger and thirst in our dreams. Hence I conclude,
that our nerves of sense are not torpid or inert during sleep; but that
they are only precluded from the perception of external objects, by their
external organs being rendered unfit to transmit to them the appulses of
external bodies, during the suspension of the power of volition; thus the
eye-lids are closed in sleep, and I suppose the tympanum of the car is
not stretched, because they are deprived of the voluntary exertions of
the muscles appropriated to these purposes; and it is probable something
similar happens to the external apparatus of our other organs of sense,
which may render them unfit for their office of perception during sleep:
for milk put into the mouths of sleeping babes occasions them to swallow
and suck; and, if the eye-lid is a little opened in the day-light by the
exertions of disturbed sleep, the person dreams of being much dazzled.
See first Interlude.]
Rolls in their marble orbs his Gorgon-eyes,
And drinks with leathern ears her tender cries.
Arm'd with her ivory beak, and talon-hands,
80 Descending FICA dives into the sands;
Chamber'd in earth with cold oblivion lies;
Nor heeds, _ye Suitor-train_, your amorous sighs;
Erewhile with renovated beauty blooms,
Mounts into air, and moves her leafy plumes.
85 --Where HAMPS and MANIFOLD, their cliffs among,
Each in his flinty channel winds along;
With lucid lines the dusky Moor divides,
Hurrying to intermix their sister tides.
[When there arises in sleep a painful desire to exert the voluntary
motions, it is called the Nightmare or Incubus. When the sleep becomes so
imperfect that some muscular motions obey this exertion of desire, people
have walked about, and even performed some domestic offices in sleep;
one of these sleep-walkers I have frequently seen: once she smelt of a
tube-rose, and sung, and drank a dish of tea in this state; her awaking
was always attended with prodigious surprize, and even fear; this disease
had daily periods, and seemed to be of the epileptic kind.]
[_Ficus indica_. l. 80. Indian Fig-tree. Of the glass Polygamy. This large
tree rises with opposite branches on all sides, with long egged leaves;
each branch emits a slender flexile depending appendage from its summit
like a cord, which roots into the earth and rises again. Sloan. Hist. of
Jamaica. Lin. Spec. Plant. See Capri-ficus.]
Where still their silver-bosom'd Nymphs abhor,
90 The blood-smear'd mansion of gigantic THOR,--
--Erst, fires volcanic in the marble womb
Of cloud-wrapp'd WETTON raised the massy dome;
Rocks rear'd on rocks in huge disjointed piles
Form the tall turrets, and the lengthen'd ailes;
[_Gigantic Thor._ l. 90. Near the village of Wetton, a mile or two above
Dove-Dale, near Ashburn in Dirbyshire, there is a spacious cavern about
the middle of the ascent of the mountain, which still retains the Name of
Thor's house; below is an extensive and romantic common, where the rivers
Hamps and Manifold sink into the earth, and rise again in Ham gardens,
the seat of John Port, Esq. about three miles below. Where these rivers
rise again there are impressions resembling Fish, which appear to be of
Jasper bedded in Limestone. Calcareous Spars, Shells converted into a
kind of Agate, corallines in Marble, ores of Lead, Copper, and Zinc, and
many strata of Flint, or Chert, and of Toadstone, or Lava, abound in this
part of the country. The Druids are said to have offered human sacrifices
inclosed in wicker idols to Thor. Thursday had its name from this Deity.
The broken appearance of the surface of many parts of this country; with
the Swallows, as they are called, or basons on some of the mountains,
like volcanic Craters, where the rain-water sinks into the earth; and the
numerous large stones, which seem to have been thrown over the land by
volcanic explosions; as well as the great masses of Toadstone or Lava;
evince the existence of violent earthquakes at some early period of the
world. At this time the channels of these subterraneous rivers seem to
have been formed, when a long tract of rocks were raised by the sea
flowing in upon the central fires, and thus producing an irresistable
explosion of steam; and when these rocks again subsided, their parts
did not exactly correspond, but left a long cavity arched over in this
operation of nature. The cavities at Castleton and Buxton in Derbyshire
seem to have had a similar origin, as well as this cavern termed Thor's
house. See Mr. Whitehurst's and Dr. Hutton's Theories of the Earth.]
95 Broad ponderous piers sustain the roof, and wide
Branch the vast rain-bow ribs from side to side.
While from above descends in milky streams
One scanty pencil of illusive beams,
Suspended crags and gaping gulphs illumes,
100 And gilds the horrors of the deepen'd glooms.
--Here oft the Naiads, as they chanced to play
Near the dread Fane on THOR'S returning day,
Saw from red altars streams of guiltless blood
Stain their green reed-beds, and pollute their flood;
105 Heard dying babes in wicker prisons wail,
And shrieks of matrons thrill the affrighted Gale;
While from dark caves infernal Echoes mock,
And Fiends triumphant shout from every rock!
---So still the Nymphs emerging lift in air
110 Their snow-white shoulders and their azure hair;
Sail with sweet grace the dimpling streams along,
Listening the Shepherd's or the Miner's song;
But, when afar they view the giant-cave,
On timorous fins they circle on the wave,
115 With streaming eyes and throbbing hearts recoil,
Plunge their fair forms, and dive beneath the soil.--
Closed round their heads reluctant eddies sink,
And wider rings successive dash the brink.--
Three thousand steps in sparry clefts they stray,
120 Or seek through sullen mines their gloomy way;
On beds of Lava sleep in coral cells,
Or sigh o'er jasper fish, and agate shells.
Till, where famed ILAM leads his boiling floods
Through flowery meadows and impending woods,
125 Pleased with light spring they leave the dreary night,
And 'mid circumfluent surges rise to light;
Shake their bright locks, the widening vale pursue,
Their sea-green mantles fringed with pearly dew;
In playful groups by towering THORP they move,
130 Bound o'er the foaming wears, and rush into the Dove.
With fierce distracted eye IMPATIENS stands,
Swells her pale cheeks, and brandishes her hands,
[_Impatiens._ l. 131. Touch me not. The seed vessel consists of one
cell with five divisions; each of these, when the seed is ripe, on being
touched, suddenly folds itself into a spiral form, leaps from the stalk
and disperses the seeds to a great distance by it's elasticity. The
capsule of the geranium and the beard of wild oats are twisted for a
similar purpose, and dislodge their seeds on wet days, when the
ground is best fitted to receive them. Hence one of these, with its
adhering capsule or beard fixed on a stand, serves the purpose of
an hygrometer, twisting itself more or less according to the moisture
of the air.
The awn of barley is furnished with stiff points, which, like the teeth
of a saw, are all turned towards the point of it; as this long awn lies
upon the ground, it extends itself in the moist air of night, and pushes
forwards the barley corn, which it adheres to; in the day it shortens as
it dries; and as these points prevent it from receding, it draws up its
pointed end; and thus, creeping like a worm, will travel many feet from
the parent stem. That very ingenious Mechanic Philosopher, Mr. Edgeworth,
once made on this principle a wooden automaton; its back consisted of
soft Fir-wood, about an inch square, and four feet long, made of pieces
cut the cross-way in respect to the fibres of the wood, and glued
together: it had two feet before, and two behind, which supported the
back horizontally; but were placed with their extremities, which were
armed with sharp points of iron, bending backwards. Hence, in moist
weather, the back lengthened, and the two foremost feet were pushed
forwards; in dry weather the hinder feet were drawn after, as the
obliquity of the points of the feet prevented it from receding. And thus,
in a month or two, it walked across the room which it inhabited. Might
not this machine be applied as an Hygrometer to some meteorological
purpose?]
With rage and hate the astonish'd groves alarms,
And hurls her infants from her frantic arms.
135 --So when MEDÆA left her native soil
Unaw'd by danger, unsubdued by toil;
Her weeping sire and beckoning friends withstood,
And launch'd enamour'd on the boiling flood;
One ruddy boy her gentle lips caress'd,
140 And one fair girl was pillow'd on her breast;
While high in air the golden treasure burns,
And Love and Glory guide the prow by turns.
But, when Thessalia's inauspicious plain
Received the matron-heroine from the main;
145 While horns of triumph sound, and altars burn,
And shouting nations hail their Chief's return:
Aghaft, She saw new-deck'd the nuptial bed,
And proud CREUSA to the temple led;
Saw her in JASON'S mercenary arms
150 Deride her virtues, and insult her charms;
Saw her dear babes from fame and empire torn,
In foreign realms deserted and forlorn;
Her love rejected, and her vengeance braved,
By Him her beauties won, her virtues saved.--
155 With stern regard she eyed the traitor-king,
And felt, Ingratitude! thy keenest sting;
"Nor Heaven," She cried, "nor Earth, nor Hell can hold
"A Heart abandon'd to the thirst of Gold!"
Stamp'd with wild foot, and shook her horrent brow,
160 And call'd the furies from their dens below.
--Slow out of earth, before the festive crowds,
On wheels of fire, amid a night of clouds,
Drawn by fierce fiends arose a magic car,
Received the Queen, and hovering flamed in air.--
165 As with raised hands the suppliant traitors kneel
And fear the vengeance they deserve to feel,
Thrice with parch'd lips her guiltless babes she press'd,
And thrice she clasp'd them to her tortur'd breast;
Awhile with white uplifted eyes she stood,
170 Then plung'd her trembling poniards in their blood.
"Go, kiss your sire! go, share the bridal mirth!"
She cry'd, and hurl'd their quivering limbs on earth.
Rebellowing thunders rock the marble towers,
And red-tongued lightnings shoot their arrowy showers;
175 Earth yawns!--the crashing ruin sinks!--o'er all
Death with black hands extends his mighty Pall;
Their mingling gore the Fiends of Vengeance quaff,
And Hell receives them with convulsive laugh.
Round the vex'd isles where fierce tornados roar,
180 Or tropic breezes sooth the sultry shore;
What time the eve her gauze pellucid spreads
O'er the dim flowers, and veils the misty meads;
Slow, o'er the twilight sands or leafy walks,
With gloomy dignity DICTAMNA stalks;
[_Dictamnus._ l. 184. Fraxinella. In the still evenings of dry seasons
this plant emits an inflammable air or gas, and flashes on the approach
of a candle. There are instances of human creatures who have taken fire
spontaneously, and been totally consumed. Phil. Trans.
The odours of many flowers, so delightful to our sense of smell, as well
as the disgreeable scents of others, are owing to the exhalation of their
essential oils. These essential oils have greater or less volatility, and
are all inflammable; many of them are poisons to us, as these of Laurel
and Tobacco; others possess a narcotic quality, as is evinced by the oil
of cloves instantly relieving slight tooth-achs; from oil of cinnamon
relieving the hiccup; and balsam of peru relieving the pain of some
ulcers. They are all deleterious to certain insects, and hence their use
in the vegetable economy being produced in flowers or leaves to protect
them from the depredations of their voracious enemies. One of the
essential oils, that of turpentine, is recommended, by M. de Thosse,
for the purpose of destroying insects which infect both vegetables and
animals. Having observed that the trees were attacked by multitudes of
small insects of different colours (pucins ou pucerons), which injured
their young branches, he destroyed them all intirely in the following
manner: he put into a bowl a few handfuls of earth, on which he poured a
small quantity of oil of turpentine; he then beat the whole together with
a spatula, pouring on it water till it became of the consistence of soup;
with this mixture he moistened the ends of the branches, and both the
insects and their eggs were destroyed, and other insects kept aloof by
the scent of the turpentine. He adds, that he destroyed the fleas of
his puppies by once bathing them in warm water impregnated with oil of
turpentine. Mem. d'Agriculture, An. 1787, Trimest. Printemp. p. 109. I
sprinkled some oil of turpentine, by means of a brush, on some branches
of a nectarine-tree, which was covered with the aphis; but it killed both
the insect and the branches: a solution of arsenic much diluted did
the same. The shops of medicine are supplied with resins, balsams, and
essential oils; and the tar and pitch, for mechanical purposes, arc
produced from these vegetable secretions.]
185 In sulphurous eddies round the weird dame
Plays the light gas, or kindles into flame.
If rests the traveller his weary head,
Grim MANCINELLA haunts the mossy bed,
Brews her black hebenon, and, stealing near,
190 Pours the curst venom in his tortured ear.--
Wide o'er the mad'ning throng URTICA flings
Her barbed shafts, and darts her poison'd stings.
[_Mancinella_, I. 188. Hyppomane. With the milky juice of this tree the
Indians poison their arrows; the dew-drops, which fall from it, are so
caustic as to blister the skin, and produce dangerous ulcers; whence many
have found their death by sleeping under its shade. Variety of noxious
plants abound in all countries; in our own the deadly nightshade,
henbane, hounds-tongue, and many others, are seen in almost every high
road untouched by animals. Some have asked, what is the use of such
abundance of poisons? The nauseous or pungent juices of some vegetables,
like the thorns of others, are given them for their defence from the
depredations of animals; hence the thorny plants are in general wholesome
and agreeable food to graminivorous animals. See note on Ilex. The
flowers or petals of plants are perhaps in general more acrid than their
leaves; hence they are much seldomer eaten by insects. This seems to have
been the use of the essential oil in the vegetable economy, as observed
above in the notes on Dictamnus and on Ilex. The fragrance of plants
is thus a part of their defence. These pungent or nauseous juices of
vegetables have supplied the science of medicine with its principal
materials, such as purge, vomit, intoxicate, &c.]
[_Urtica_. I. 191. Nettle. The sting has a bag at its base, and a
perforation near its point, exactly like the stings of wasps and the
teeth of adders; Hook, Microgr. p. 142. Is the fluid contained in this
bag, and pressed through the perforation into the wound, made by the
point, a caustic essential oil, or a concentrated vegetable acid?
The vegetable poisons, like the animal ones, produce more sudden and
dangerous effects, when instilled into a wound, than when taken into
the stomach; whence the families of Marfi and Psilli, in antient Rome,
sucked the poison without injury out of wounds made by vipers,
and were supposed to be indued with supernatural powers for this
purpose. By the experiments related by Beccaria, it appears that four
or five times the quantity, taken by the mouth, had about equal effects
with that infused into a wound. The male flowers of the nettle are
separate from the female, and the anthers are seen in fair weather to
burst with force, and to discharge a dust, which hovers about the
plant like a cloud.]
And fell LOBELIA'S suffocating breath
Loads the dank pinion of the gale with death.--
195 With fear and hate they blast the affrighted groves,
Yet own with tender care their _kindred Loves!_--
So, where PALMIRA 'mid her wasted plains,
Her shatter'd aqueducts, and prostrate sanes,
[_Lobelia. I._ 193. Longiflora. Grows in the West Indies, and spreads such
deleterious exhalations around it, that an oppression of the breast is
felt on approaching it at many feet distance when placed in the corner of
a room or hot-house. Ingenhouz, Exper. on Air, p. 14.6. Jacquini hort.
botanic. Vindeb. The exhalations from ripe fruit, or withering leaves,
are proved much to injure the air in which they are confined; and, it is
probable, all those vegetables which emit a strong scent may do this in
a greater or less degree, from the Rose to the Lobelia; whence the
unwholesomeness in living perpetually in such an atmosphere of perfume
as some people wear about their hair, or carry in their handkerchiefs.
Either Boerhaave or Dr. Mead have affirmed they were acquainted with a
poisonous fluid whose vapour would presently destroy the person who sat
near it. And it is well known, that the gas from fermenting liquors, or
obtained from lime-stone, will destroy animals immersed in it, as well as
the vapour of the Grotto del Cani near Naples.]
[_So, where Palmira._ I. 197. Among the ruins of Palmira, which are
dispersed not only over the plains but even in the deserts, there is one
single colonade above 2600 yards long, the bases of the Corinthian
columns of which exceed the height of a man: and yet this row is only a
small part of the remains of that one edifice! Volney's Travels.]
(As the bright orb of breezy midnight pours
200 Long threads of silver through her gaping towers,
O'er mouldering tombs, and tottering columns gleams,
And frosts her deserts with diffusive beams),
Sad o'er the mighty wreck in silence bends,
Lifts her wet eyes, her tremulous hands extends.--
205 If from lone cliffs a bursting rill expands
Its transient course, and sinks into the sands;
O'er the moist rock the fell Hyæna prowls,
The Leopard hisses, and the Panther growls;
On quivering wing the famish'd Vulture screams,
210 Dips his dry beak, and sweeps the gushing streams;
With foamy jaws, beneath, and sanguine tongue,
Laps the lean Wolf, and pants, and runs along;
Stern stalks the Lion, on the rustling brinks
Hears the dread Snake, and trembles as he drinks;
215 Quick darts the scaly Monster o'er the plain,
Fold after fold, his undulating train;
And, bending o'er the lake his crested brow,
Starts at the Crocodile, that gapes below.
Where seas of glass with gay reflections smile
220 Round the green coasts of Java's palmy isle;
A spacious plain extends its upland scene,
Rocks rise on rocks, and fountains gush between;
Soft zephyrs blow, eternal summers reign,
And showers prolific bless the soil,--in vain!
225 --No spicy nutmeg scents the vernal gales,
Nor towering plaintain shades the mid-day vales;
No grassy mantle hides the sable hills,
No flowery chaplet crowns the trickling rills;
Nor tufted moss, nor leathery lichen creeps
230 In russet tapestry o'er the crumbling steeps.
--No step retreating, on the sand impress'd,
Invites the visit of a second guest;
No refluent fin the unpeopled stream divides,
No revolant pinion cleaves the airy tides;
235 Nor handed moles, nor beaked worms return,
That mining pass the irremeable bourn.--
Fierce in dread silence on the blasted heath
Fell UPAS sits, the HYDRA-TREE of death.
Lo! from one root, the envenom'd soil below,
240 A thousand vegetative serpents grow;
In shining rays the scaly monster spreads
O'er ten square leagues his far-diverging heads;
Or in one trunk entwists his tangled form,
Looks o'er the clouds, and hisses in the storm.
[_Upas_. l. 238. There is a poison-tree in the island of Java, which is
said by its effluvia to have depopulated the country for 12 or 14 miles
round the place of its growth. It is called, in the Malayan language,
Bohon-Upas; with the juice of it the most poisonous arrows are prepared;
and, to gain this, the condemned criminals are sent to the tree with
proper direction both to get the juice and to secure themselves from the
malignant exhalations of the tree; and are pardoned if they bring back a
certain quantity of the poison. But by the registers there kept, not
one in four are said to return. Not only animals of all kinds, both
quadrupeds, fish, and birds, but all kinds of vegetables also are
destroyed by the effluvia of the noxious tree; so that, in a district of
12 or 14 miles round it, the face of the earth is quite barren and rocky,
intermixed only with the skeletons of men and animals; affording a scene
of melancholy beyond what poets have described or painters delineated.
Two younger trees of its own species are said to grow near it. See
London Magazine for 1784, or 1783. Translated from a description of the
poison-tree of the island of Java, written in Dutch by N.P. Foereh. For
a further account of it, see a note at the end of the work.]
245 Steep'd in fell poison, as his sharp teeth part,
A thousand tongues in quick vibration dart;
Snatch the proud Eagle towering o'er the heath,
Or pounce the Lion, as he stalks beneath;
Or strew, as marshall'd hosts contend in vain,
250 With human skeletons the whiten'd plain.
--Chain'd at his root two scion-demons dwell,
Breathe the faint hiss, or try the shriller yell;
Rise, fluttering in the air on callow wings,
And aim at insect-prey their little stings.
255 So Time's strong arms with sweeping scythe erase
Art's cumberous works, and empires, from their base;
While each young Hour its sickle fine employs,
And crops the sweet buds of domestic joys!
With blushes bright as morn fair ORCHIS charms,
260 And lulls her infant in her fondling arms;
[_Orchis_. l. 259. The Orchis morio in the circumstance of the
parent-root shrivelling up and dying, as the young one increases, is
not only analogous to other tuberous or knobby roots, but also to some
bulbous roots, as the tulip. The manner of the production of herbaceous
plants from their various perennial roots, seems to want further
investigation, as their analogy is not yet clearly established. The
caudex, or true root, in the orchis lies above the knob; and from this
part the fibrous roots and the new knob are produced. In the tulip the
caudex lies below the bulb; from whence proceed the fibrous roots and the
new bulbs; and I suspect the tulip-root, after it has flowered, dies
like the orchis-root; for the stem of the last year's tulip lies on the
outside, and not in the center of the new bulb; which I am informed does
not happen in the three or four first years when raised from seed, when
it only produces a stem, and slender leaves without flowering. In the
tulip-root, dissected in the early spring, just before it begins to
shoot, a perfect flower is seen in its center; and between the first and
second coat the large next year's bulb is, I believe, produced; between
the second and third coat, and between this and the fourth coat, and
perhaps further, other less and less bulbs are visible, all adjoining
to the caudex at the bottom of the mother-bulb; and which, I am told,
require as many years before they will slower, as the number of the coats
with which they are covered. This annual reproduction of the tulip-root
induces some florists to believe that tulip-roots never die naturally, as
they lose so few of them; whereas the hyacinth-roots, I am informed, will
not last above five or seven years after they have flowered.
The hyacinth-root differs from the tulip-root, as the stem of the last
year's flower is always found in the center of the root, and the new
off-sets arise from the caudex below the bulb, but not beneath any of the
concentric coats of the root, except the external one: hence Mr. Eaton,
an ingenious florist of Derby, to whom I am indebted for most of the
observations in this note, concludes, that the hyacinth-root does not
perish annually after it has flowered like the tulip. Mr. Eaton gave me a
tulip root which had been set too deep in the earth, and the caudex had
elongated itself near an inch, and the new bulb was formed above the old
one, and detached from it, instead of adhering to its side.
The caudex of the ranunculus, cultivated by the florists, lies above the
claw-like root; in this the old root or claws die annually, like the
tulip and orchis, and the new claws, which are seen above the old ones,
draw down the caudex lower into the earth. The same is said to happen to
Scabiosa, or Devil's bit, and some other plants, as valerian and greater
plantain; the new fibrous roots rising round the caudex above the old
ones, the inferior end of the root becomes stumped, as if cut off, after
the old fibres are decayed, and the caudex is drawn down into the earth
by these new roots. See Arum and Tulipa.]
Soft play _Affection_ round her bosom's throne,
And guards his life, forgetful of her own.
So wings the wounded Deer her headlong flight,
Pierced by some ambush'd archer of the night,
265 Shoots to the woodlands with her bounding fawn,
And drops of blood bedew the conscious lawn;
There hid in shades she shuns the cheerful day,
Hangs o'er her young, and weeps her life away.
So stood Eliza on the wood-crown'd height,
270 O'er Minden's plain, spectatress of the sight,
Sought with bold eye amid the bloody strife
Her dearer self, the partner of her life;
From hill to hill the rushing host pursued,
And view'd his banner, or believed she view'd.
275 Pleased with the distant roar, with quicker tread
Fast by his hand one lisping boy she led;
And one fair girl amid the loud alarm
Slept on her kerchief, cradled by her arm;
While round her brows bright beams of Honour dart,
280 And Love's warm eddies circle round her heart
--Near and more near the intrepid Beauty press'd,
Saw through the driving smoke his dancing crest,
Heard the exulting shout, "they run! they run!"
"Great GOD!" she cried, "He's safe! the battle's won!"
285 --A ball now hisses through the airy tides,
(Some Fury wing'd it, and some Demon guides!)
Parts the fine locks, her graceful head that deck,
Wounds her fair ear, and sinks into her neck;
The red stream, issuing from her azure veins,
290 Dyes her white veil, her ivory bosom stains.--
--"Ah me!" she cried, and, sinking on the ground,
Kiss'd her dear babes, regardless of the wound;
"Oh, cease not yet to beat, thou Vital Urn!
"Wait, gushing Life, oh, wait my Love's return!--
295 "Hoarse barks the wolf, the vulture screams from far!
"The angel, Pity, shuns the walks of war!----
"Oh, spare ye War-hounds, spare their tender age!--
"On me, on me," she cried, "exhaust your rage!"--
Then with weak arms her weeping babes caress'd,
300 And sighing bid them in her blood-stain'd vest.
From tent to tent the impatient warrior flies,
Fear in his heart, and frenzy in his eyes;
Eliza's name along the camp he calls,
Eliza echoes through the canvas walls;
305 Quick through the murmuring gloom his footsteps tread,
O'er groaning heaps, the dying and the dead,
Vault o'er the plain, and in the tangled wood,
Lo! dead Eliza weltering in her blood!--
--Soon hears his listening son the welcome sounds,
310 With open arms and sparkling eyes he bounds:--
"Speak low," he cries, and gives his little hand,
"Eliza sleeps upon the dew-cold sand;
"Poor weeping Babe with bloody fingers press'd,
"And tried with pouting lips her milkless breast;
315 "Alas! we both with cold and hunger quake--
"Why do you weep?--Mama will soon awake."
--"She'll wake no more!" the hopeless mourner cried
Upturn'd his eyes, and clasp'd his hands, and sigh'd;
Stretch'd on the ground awhile entranc'd he lay,
320 And press'd warm kisses on the lifeless clay;
And then unsprung with wild convulsive start,
And all the Father kindled in his heart;
"Oh, Heavens!" he cried, "my first rash vow forgive!
"These bind to earth, for these I pray to live!"--
325 Round his chill babes he wrapp'd his crimson vest,
And clasp'd them sobbing to his aching breast.
_Two_ Harlot-Nymphs, the fair CUSCUTAS, please
With labour'd negligence, and studied ease;
[_Cuscuta._ l. 327. Dodder. Four males, two females. This parasite plant
(the seed splitting without cotyledons), protrudes a spiral body, and not
endeavouring to root itself in the earth ascends the vegetables in its
vicinity, spirally W.S.E. or contrary to the movement of the sun;
and absorbs its nourishment by vessels apparently inserted into its
supporters. It bears no leaves, except here and there a scale, very
small, membranous, and close under the branch. Lin. Spec. Plant. edit. a
Reichard. Vol. I. p. 352. The Rev. T. Martyn, in his elegant letters on
botany, adds, that, not content with support, where it lays hold, there
it draws its nourishment; and at length, in gratitude for all this,
strangles its entertainer. Let. xv. A contest for air and light obtains
throughout the whole vegetable world; shrubs rise above herbs; and, by
precluding the air and light from them, injure or destroy them; trees
suffocate or incommode shrubs; the parasite climbing plants, as Ivy,
Clematis, incommode the taller trees; and other parasites, which exist
without having roots on the ground, as Misletoe, Tillandsia, Epidendrum,
and the mosses and funguses, incommode them all.
Some of the plants with voluble stems ascend other plants spirally
east-south-west, as Humulus, Hop, Lonicera, Honey-suckle, Tamus,
black Bryony, Helxine. Others turn their spiral stems west-south-east, as
Convolvulus, Corn-bind, Phaseolus, Kidney-bean, Basella, Cynanche,
Euphorbia, Eupatorium. The proximate or final causes of this difference
have not been investigated. Other plants are furnished with tendrils for
the purpose of climbing: if the tendril meets with nothing to lay hold of
in its first revolution, it makes another revolution; and so on till it
wraps itself quite up like a cork-screw; hence, to a careless observer,
it appears to move gradually backwards and forwards, being seen sometimes
pointing eastward and sometimes westward. One of the Indian grasses,
Panicum arborescens, whose stem is no thicker than a goose-quill, rises
as high as the tallest trees in this contest for light and air. Spec.
Plant a Reichard, Vol. I. p. 161. The tops of many climbing plants are
tender from their quick growth; and, when deprived of their acrimony by
boiling, are an agreeable article of food. The Hop-tops are in common
use. I have eaten the tops of white Bryony, Bryonia alba, and found them
nearly as grateful as Asparagus, and think this plant might be profitably
cultivated as an early garden-vegetable. The Tamus (called black Bryony),
was less agreeable to the taste when boiled. See Galanthus.]
In the meek garb of modest worth disguised,
330 The eye averted, and the smile chastised,
With sly approach they spread their dangerous charms,
And round their victim wind their wiry arms.
So by Scamander when LAOCOON stood,
Where Troy's proud turrets glitter'd in the flood,
335 Raised high his arm, and with prophetic call
To shrinking realms announced her fatal fall;
Whirl'd his fierce spear with more than mortal force,
And pierced the thick ribs of the echoing horse;
Two Serpent-forms incumbent on the main,
340 Lashing the white waves with redundant train,
Arch'd their blue necks, and (hook their towering crests,
And plough'd their foamy way with speckled breasts;
Then darting fierce amid the affrighted throngs,
Roll'd their red eyes, and shot their forked tongues,--
345 --Two daring Youths to guard the hoary fire
Thwart their dread progress, and provoke their ire.
Round sire and sons the scaly monsters roll'd,
Ring above ring, in many a tangled fold,
Close and more close their writhing limbs surround,
350 And fix with foamy teeth the envenom'd wound.
--With brow upturn'd to heaven the holy Sage
In silent agony sustains their rage;
While each fond Youth, in vain, with piercing cries
Bends on the tortured Sire his dying eyes.
355 "Drink deep, sweet youths" seductive VITIS cries,
The maudlin tear-drop glittering in her eyes;
Green leaves and purple clusters crown her head,
And the tall Thyrsus stays her tottering tread.
--_Five_ hapless swains with soft assuasive smiles
360 The harlot meshes in her deathful toils;
"Drink deep," she carols, as she waves in air
The mantling goblet, "and forget your care."--
O'er the dread feast malignant Chemia scowls,
And mingles poison in the nectar'd bowls;
365 Fell Gout peeps grinning through the flimsy scene,
And bloated Dropsy pants behind unseen;
Wrapp'd in his robe white Lepra hides his stains,
And silent Frenzy writhing bites his chains.
[_Vitis_. 1. 355. Vine. Five males, one female. The juice of the ripe
grape is a nutritive and agreeable food, consisting chiefly of sugar and
mucilage. The chemical process of fermentation converts this sugar into
spirit, converts food into poison! And it has thus become the curse of
the Christian world, producing more than half of our chronical diseases;
which Mahomet observed, and forbade the use of it to his disciples. The
Arabians invented distillation; and thus, by obtaining the spirit of
fermented liquors in a less diluted slate, added to its destructive
quality. A Theory of the Diabætes and Dropsy, produced by drinking
fermented or spirituous liquors, is explained in a Treatise on the
inverted motions of the lymphatic system, published by Dr. Darwin.
Cadell.]
So when PROMETHEUS braved the Thunderer's ire,
370 Stole from his blazing throne etherial fire,
And, lantern'd in his breast, from realms of day
Bore the bright treasure to his Man of clay;--
High on cold Caucasus by VULCAN bound,
The lean impatient Vulture fluttering round,
375 His writhing limbs in vain he twists and strains
To break or loose the adamantine chains.
The gluttonous bird, exulting in his pangs,
Tears his swoln liver with remorseless fangs.
[_Prometheus_, l. 369. The antient story of Prometheus, who concealed
in his bosom the fire he had stolen, and afterwards had a vulture
perpetually gnawing his liver, affords so apt an allegory for the effects
of drinking spirituous liquors, that one should be induced to think the
art of distillation, as well as some other chemical processes (such as
calcining gold), had been known in times of great antiquity, and lost
again. The swallowing drams cannot be better represented in hieroglyphic
language than by taking fire into one's bosom; and certain it is, that
the general effect of drinking fermented or spirituous liquors is an
inflamed, schirrous, or paralytic liver, with its various critical or
consequential diseases, as leprous eruptions on the face, gout, dropsy,
epilepsy, insanity. It is remarkable, that all the diseases from drinking
spirituous or fermented liquors are liable to become hereditary, even to
the third generation; gradually increasing, if the cause be continued,
till the family becomes extinct.]
The gentle CYCLAMEN with dewy eye
380 Breathes o'er her lifeless babe the parting sigh;
And, bending low to earth, with pious hands
Inhumes her dear Departed in the sands.
"Sweet Nursling! withering in thy tender hour,
"Oh, sleep," She cries, "and rise a fairer flower!"
385 --So when the Plague o'er London's gasping crowds
Shook her dank wing, and steer'd her murky clouds;
When o'er the friendless bier no rites were read,
No dirge slow-chanted, and no pall out-spread;
While Death and Night piled up the naked throng,
390 And Silence drove their ebon cars along;
Six lovely daughters, and their father, swept
To the throng'd grave CLEONE saw, and wept;
[_Cyclamen_. 1. 379. Shew-bread, or Sow-bread. When the seeds are ripe,
the stalk of the flower gradually twists itself spirally downwards, till
it touches the ground, and forcibly penetrating the earth lodges its
seeds; which are thought to receive nourishment from the parent root, as
they are said not to be made to grow in any other situation.
The Trifolium subterraneum, subterraneous trefoil, is another plant,
which buries its seed, the globular head of the seed penetrating the
earth; which, however, in this plant may be only an attempt to conceal
its seeds from the ravages of birds; for there is another trefoil, the
trifolium globosum, or globular woolly-headed trefoil, which has a
curious manner of concealing its seeds; the lower florets only have
corols and are fertile; the upper ones wither into a kind of wool, and,
forming a bead, completely conceal the fertile calyxes. Lin. Spec. Plant,
a Reichard.]
Her tender mind, with meek Religion fraught,
Drank all-resigned Affliction's bitter draught;
395 Alive and listening to the whisper'd groan
Of others' woes, unconscious of her own!--
One smiling boy, her last sweet hope, she warms
Hushed on her bosom, circled in her arms,--
Daughter of woe! ere morn, in vain caress'd,
400 Clung the cold Babe upon thy milkless breast,
With feeble cries thy last sad aid required,
Stretch'd its stiff limbs, and on thy lap expired!--
--Long with wide eye-lids on her Child she gazed,
And long to heaven their tearless orbs she raised;
405 Then with quick foot and throbbing heart she found
Where Chartreuse open'd deep his holy ground;
[_Where Chartreuse_. l. 406. During the plague in London, 1665, one pit
to receive the dead was dug in the Charter-house, 40 feet long, 16 feet
wide, and about 20 feet deep; and in two weeks received 1114 bodies.
During this dreadful calamity there were instances of mothers carrying
their own children to those public graves, and of people delirious, or in
despair from the loss of their friends, who threw themselves alive into
these pits. Journal of the Plague-year in 1665, printed for E. Nutt,
Royal-Exchange.]
Bore her last treasure through the midnight gloom,
And kneeling dropp'd it in the mighty tomb;
"I follow next!" the frantic mourner said,
410 And living plunged amid the festering dead.
Where vast Ontario rolls his brineless tides,
And feeds the trackless forests on his sides,
Fair CASSIA trembling hears the howling woods,
And trusts her tawny children to the floods.--
[_Rolls his brineless tide._ l. 411. Some philosophers have believed
that the continent of America was not raised out of the great ocean at
so early a period of time as the other continents. One reason for this
opinion was, because the great lakes, perhaps nearly as large as the
Mediterranean Sea, consist of fresh water. And as the sea-salt seems to
have its orig
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