The Botanic Garden Volume Ii Part 10

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 Hyaena prowls, The Leopard hisses, and the Panther growls; On quivering wing the famish'd Vulture screams, 210 Dips his dry beak, and sweeps the gus.h.i.+ng 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 gla.s.s with gay reflections smile 220 Round the green coasts of Java's palmy isle; A s.p.a.cious 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 gra.s.sy 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 pa.s.s 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 s.h.i.+ning 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 quant.i.ty 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; s.n.a.t.c.h 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 c.u.mberous 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 circ.u.mstance of the parent-root shrivelling up and dying, as the young one increases, is not only a.n.a.logous to other tuberous or k.n.o.bby 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 a.n.a.logy is not yet clearly established. The caudex, or true root, in the orchis lies above the k.n.o.b; and from this part the fibrous roots and the new k.n.o.b 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 b.l.o.o.d.y strife Her dearer self, the partner of her life; From hill to hill the rus.h.i.+ng 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 G.o.d!" 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, gus.h.i.+ng Life, oh, wait my Love's return!-- 295 "Hoa.r.s.e 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 b.l.o.o.d.y 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 grat.i.tude 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 gra.s.ses, Panic.u.m 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 LAOc.o.o.n 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 inc.u.mbent on the main, 340 Las.h.i.+ng the white waves with redundant train, Arch'd their blue necks, and (hook their towering crests, And plough'd their foamy way with speckled b.r.e.a.s.t.s; Then darting fierce amid the affrighted throngs, Roll'd their red eyes, and shot their forked tongues,-- 345 --Two daring Youths to guard the h.o.a.ry 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 cl.u.s.ters crown her head, And the tall Thyrsus stays her tottering tread.

--_Five_ hapless swains with soft a.s.suasive 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 Diabaetes 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...o...b.. 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 Ca.s.sIA trembling hears the howling woods, And trusts her tawny children to the floods.--