The Botanic Garden Volume Ii Part 14

Thus when loud thunders o'er Gomorrah burst, And heaving earthquakes shook his realms accurst, An Angel-guest led forth the trembling Fair With shadowy hand, and warn'd the guiltless pair;

[_Ice-flower_. l. 235. Mesembryanthemum crystallinum.]

245 "Haste from these lands of sin, ye Righteous! fly, Speed the quick step, nor turn the lingering eye!"-- --Such the command, as fabling Bards indite, When Orpheus charm'd the grisly King of Night; Sooth'd the pale phantoms with his plaintive lay, 250 And led the fair a.s.surgent into day.-- Wide yawn'd the earth, the fiery tempest flash'd, And towns and towers in one vast ruin crash'd;-- Onward they move,---loud horror roars behind, And shrieks of Anguish bellow in the wind.

255 With many a sob, amid a thousand fears, The beauteous wanderer pours her gus.h.i.+ng tears; Each soft connection rends her troubled breast, --She turns, unconscious of the stern behest!-- "I faint!--I fall!--ah, me!--sensations chill 260 Shoot through my bones, my shuddering bosom thrill!

I freeze! I freeze! just Heaven regards my fault, Numbs my cold limbs, and hardens into salt!-- Not yet, not yet, your dying Love resign!-- This last, last kiss receive!--no longer thine!"-- 265 She said, and ceased,--her stiffen'd form He press'd, And strain'd the briny column to his breast; Printed with quivering lips the lifeless snow, And wept, and gazed the monument of woe.-- So when Aeneas through the flames of Troy 270 Bore his pale fire, and led his lovely boy; With loitering step the fair Creusa stay'd, And Death involved her in eternal shade.-- Oft the lone Pilgrim that his road forsakes, Marks the wide ruins, and the sulphur'd lakes; 275 On mouldering piles amid asphaltic mud Hears the hoa.r.s.e bittern, where Gomorrah stood; Recalls the unhappy Pair with lifted eye, Leans on the crystal tomb, and breathes the silent sigh..

With net-wove sash and glittering gorget dress'd, 280 And scarlet robe lapell'd upon her breast, Stern ARA frowns, the measured march a.s.sumes, Trails her long lance, and nods her shadowy plumes;

[_Arum_. I. 281. Cuckow-pint, of the cla.s.s Gynandria, or masculine ladies.

The pistil, or female part of the flower, rises like a club, is covered above or clothed, as it were, by the anthers or males; and some of the species have a large scarlet blotch in the middle of every leaf.

The singular and wonderful structure of this flower has occasioned many disputes amongst botanists. See Tourniff. Malpig. Dillen. Rivin. &c. The receptacle is enlarged into a naked club, with the germs at its base; the stamens are affixed to the receptacle amidst the germs (a natural prodigy), and thus do not need the a.s.sistance of elevating filaments: hence the flower may be said to be inverted. _Families of Plants_ translated from Linneus, p. 618.

The spadix of this plant is frequently quite white, or coloured, and the leaves liable to be streaked with white, and to have black or scarlet blotches on them. As the plant has no corol or blossom, it is probable the coloured juices in these parts of the sheath or leaves may serve the same purpose as the coloured juices in the petals of other flowers; from which I suppose the honey to be prepared. See note on h.e.l.leborus. I am informed that those tulip-roots which have a red cuticle produce red flowers. See Rubia.

When the petals of the tulip become striped with many colours, the plant loses almost half of its height; and the method of making them thus break into colours is by transplanting them into a meagre or sandy soil, _after they have previously enjoyed a richer soil: hence it appears, that the plant is weakened when the flower becomes variegated. See note on Anemone. For the acquired habits of vegetables, see Tulipa, Orchis.

The roots of the Arum are scratched up and eaten by thrushes in severe snowy seasons. White's Hist. of Selbourn, p. 43.]

While Love's soft beams illume her treacherous eyes, And Beauty lightens through the thin disguise.

285 So erst, when HERCULES, untamed by toil, Own'd the soft power of DEJANIRA'S smile;-- His lion-spoils the laughing Fair demands, And gives the distaff to his awkward hands; O'er her white neck the bristly mane she throws, 290 And binds the gaping whiskers on her brows; 290 Plaits round her slender waist the s.h.a.ggy vest, And clasps the velvet paws across her breast.

Next with soft hands the knotted club she rears, Heaves up from earth, and on her shoulder bears.

295 Onward with loftier step the Beauty treads, 295 And trails the brinded ermine o'er the meads; Wolves, bears, and bards, forsake the affrighted groves, And grinning Satyrs tremble, as she moves.

CARYO'S sweet smile DIANTHUS proud admires, 300 And gazing burns with unallow'd desires; 300

[_Dianthus_. l. 299. Superbus. Proud Pink. There is a kind of pink called Fairchild's mule, which is here supposed to be produced between a Dianthus superbus, and the Garyophyllus, Clove. The Dianthus superbus emits a most fragrant odour, particularly at night. Vegetable mules supply an irrefragable argument in favour of the s.e.xual system of botany.

They are said to be numerous; and, like the mules of the animal kingdom, not always to continue their species by seed. There is an account of a curious mule from the Antirrbinum linaria, Toad-flax, in the Amoenit.

Academ. V. I. No. 3. and many hybrid plants described in No. 32. The Urtica alienata is an evergreen plant, which appears to be a nettle from the male flowers, and a Pellitory (Parietaria) from the female ones and the fruit; and is hence between both. Murray, Syft. Veg. Amongst the English indigenous plants, the veronica hybrida mule Speedwel is supposed to have originated from the officinal one; and the spiked one, and the Sibthorpia Europaea to have for its parents the golden saxifrage and marsh pennywort. Pulteney's View of Linneus, p. 250. Mr. Graberg, Mr. Schreber, and Mr. Ramstrom, seem of opinion, that the internal structure or parts of fructification in mule-plants resemble the female parent; but that the habit or external structure resembles the male parent. See treatises under the above names in V. VI. Amaenit. Academic. The mule produced from a horse and the a.s.s resembles the horse externally with his ears, main, and tail; but with the nature or manners of an a.s.s: but the Hinnus, or creature produced from a male a.s.s, and a mare, resembles the father externally in stature, ash-colour, and the black cross, but with the nature or manners of a horse. The breed from Spanish rams and Swedish ewes resembled the Spanish sheep in wool, stature, and external form; but was as hardy as the Swedish sheep; and the contrary of those which were produced from Swedish rams and Spanish ewes. The offspring from the male goat of Angora and the Swedish female goat had long soft camel's hair; but that from the male Swedish goat, and the female one of Angora, had no improvement of their wool. An English ram without horns, and a Swedish horned ewe, produced sheep without horns. Amoen. Academ. V. VI. p. 13.]

With sighs and sorrows her compa.s.sion moves, And wins the damsel to illicit loves.

The Monster-offspring heirs the father's pride, Mask'd in the damask beauties of the bride.

305 So, when the Nightingale in eastern bowers On quivering pinion woos the Queen of flowers; Inhales her fragrance, as he hangs in air, And melts with melody the blus.h.i.+ng fair; Half-rose, half-bird, a beauteous Monster springs, 310 Waves his thin leaves, and claps his glossy wings; Long horrent thorns his mossy legs surround, And tendril-talons root him to the ground; Green films of rind his wrinkled neck o'espread, And crimson petals crest his curled head; 315 Soft-warbling beaks in each bright blossom move, And vocal Rosebuds thrill the enchanted grove!-- Admiring Evening stays her beamy star, And still Night listens from his ebon ear; While on white wings descending Houries throng, 320 And drink the floods of odour and of song.

When from his golden urn the Solstice pours O'er Afric's sable sons the sultry hours; When not a gale flits o'er her tawny hills, Save where the dry Harmattan breathes and kills;

[_The dry Harmattan_. l. 324. The Harmattan is a singular wind blowing from the interior parts of Africa to the Atlantic ocean, sometimes for a few hours, sometimes for several days without regular periods. It is always attended with a fog or haze, so dense as to render those objects invisible which are at the distance of a quarter of a mile; the sun appears through it only about noon, and then of a dilute red, and very minute particles subside from the misty air so as to make the gra.s.s, and the skins of negroes appear whitish. The extreme dryness which attends this wind or fog, without dews, withers and quite dries the leaves of vegetables; and is said of Dr. Lind at some seasons to be fatal and malignant to mankind; probably after much preceding wet, when it may become loaded with the exhalations from putrid marshes; at other seasons it is said to check epidemic diseases, to cure fluxes, and to heal ulcers and cutaneous eruptions; which is probably effected by its yielding no moisture to the mouths of the external absorbent vessels, by which the action of the other branches of the absorbent system is increased to supply the deficiency. _Account of the Harmattan. Phil.

Transact. V. LXXI._

The Rev. Mr. Sterling gives an account of a darkness for six or eight hours at Detroit in America, on the 19th of October, 1762, in which the sun appeared as red as blood, and thrice its usual size: some rain falling, covered white paper with dark drops, like sulphur or dirt, which burnt like wet gunpowder, and the air had a very sulphureous smell.

He supposes this to have been emitted from some distant earthquake or volcano. Philos. Trans. V. LIII. p. 63.

In many circ.u.mstances this wind seems much to resemble the dry fog which covered most parts of Europe for many weeks in the summer of 1780, which has been supposed to have had a volcanic origin, as it succeeded the violent eruption of Mount Hecla, and its neighbourhood. From the subsidence of a white powder, it seems probable that the Harmattan has a similar origin, from the unexplored mountains of Africa. Nor is it improbable, that the epidemic coughs, which occasionally traverse immense tracts of country, may be the products of volcanic eruptions; nor impossible, that at some future time contagious miasmata may be thus emitted from subterraneous furnaces, in such abundance as to contaminate the whole atmosphere, and depopulate the earth!]

325 When stretch'd in dust her gasping panthers lie, And writh'd in foamy folds her serpents die; Indignant Atlas mourns his leafless woods, And Gambia trembles for his sinking floods; Contagion stalks along the briny sand, 330 And Ocean rolls his sickening shoals to land.

[_His sickening shoals_. 330. Mr. Marsden relates, that in the island of Sumatra, during the November of 1775, the dry monsoons, or S.E. winds, continued so much longer than usual, that the large rivers became dry; and prodigious quant.i.ties of sea-fish, dead and dying, were seen floating for leagues on the sea, and driven on the beach by the tides. This was supposed to have been caused by the great evaporation, and the deficiency of fresh water rivers having rendered the sea too fast for its inhabitants.

The season then became so sickly as to destroy great numbers of people, both foreigners and natives. Phil. Trans. V. LXXI. p. 384.]

--Fair CHUNDA smiles amid the burning waste, Her brow unturban'd, and her zone unbrac'd; _Ten_ brother-youths with light umbrella's shade, Or fan with busy hands the panting maid; 335 Loose wave her locks, disclosing, as they break, The rising bosom and averted cheek;

[_Chunda_. l. 331. _Chundali Borrum_ is the name which the natives give to this plant; it is the Hedylarum gyrans, or moving plant; its cla.s.s is two brotherhoods, ten males. Its leaves are continually in spontaneous motion; some rising and others falling; and others whirling circularly by twisting their stems; this spontaneous movement of the leaves, when the air is quite still and very warm, seems to be necessary to the plant, at perpetual respiration is to animal life. A more particular account, with a good print of the Hedyfarum gyrans is given by M. Brouffonet in a paper on vegetable motions in the Histoire de l'Academie des Sciences. Ann.

1784, p. 609.

There are many other instances of spontaneous movements of the parts of vegetables. In the Marchantia polymorpha some yellow wool proceeds from the flower-bearing anthers, which moves spontaneously in the anther, while it drops its dust like atoms. Murray, Syst. Veg. See note on Collinfonia for other instances of vegetable spontaneity. Add to this, that as the sleep of animals consists in a suspension of voluntary motion, and as vegetables are likewise subject to sleep, there is reason to conclude, that the various actions of opening and closing their petals and foliage may be justly ascribed to a voluntary power: for without the faculty of volition, sleep would not have been, necessary to them.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Hedysarum gyrans.]

Clasp'd round her ivory neck with studs of gold Flows her thin vest in many a gauzy fold; O'er her light limbs the dim transparence plays, 340 And the fair form, it seems to hide, betrays.

Where leads the northern Star his lucid train High o'er the snow-clad earth, and icy main, With milky light the white horizon streams, And to the moon each sparkling mountain gleams.-- 345 Slow o'er the printed snows with silent walk Huge s.h.a.ggy forms across the twilight stalk; And ever and anon with hideous sound Burst the thick ribs of ice, and thunder round.-- There, as old Winter slaps his h.o.a.ry wing, 350 And lingering leaves his empire to the Spring, Pierced with quick shafts of silver-shooting light Fly in dark troops the dazzled imps of night--

[_Burst the thick rib of ice_. l. 348. The violent cracks of ice heard from the Glaciers seem to be caused by some of the snow being melted in the middle of the day; and the water thus produced running down into vallies of ice, and congealing again in a few hours, forces off by its expansion large precipices from the ice-mountains.]

"Awake, my Love!" enamour'd MUSCHUS cries, "Stretch thy fair limbs, resulgent Maid! arise; 355 Ope thy sweet eye-lids to the rising ray, And hail with ruby lips returning day.

Down the white hills dissolving torrents pour, Green springs the turf, and purple blows the flower; His torpid wing the Rail exulting tries, 360 Mounts the soft gale, and wantons in the skies; Rise, let us mark how bloom the awaken'd groves, And 'mid the banks of roses _hide_ our loves."

[_Muschus_. l. 353. Corallinus, or lichen rangiferinus. Coral-moss.

Clandestine-marriage. This moss vegetates beneath the snow, where the degree of heat is always about 40; that is, in the middle between the freezing point, and the common heat of the earth; and is for many months of the winter the sole food of the rain-deer, who digs furrows in the snow to find it: and as the milk and flesh of this animal is almost the only sustenance which can be procured during the long winters of the higher lat.i.tudes, this moss may be said to support some millions of mankind.

The quick vegetation that occurs on the solution of the snows in high lat.i.tudes appears very astonis.h.i.+ng; it seems to arise from two causes, 1. the long continuance of the approaching sun above the horizon; 2. the increased irritability of plants which have been long exposed to the cold. See note on Anemone.

All the water-fowl on the lakes of Siberia are said by Professor Gmelin to retreat Southwards on the commencement of the frosts, except the Rail, which sleeps buried in the snow. Account of Siberia.]

Night's tinsel beams on smooth Lock-lomond dance, Impatient aeGA views the bright expanse;-- 365 In vain her eyes the parting floods explore, Wave after wave rolls freightless to the sh.o.r.e.

--Now dim amid the distant foam she spies A rising speck,--"'tis he! 'tis he!" She cries; As with firm arms he beats the streams aside, 370 And cleaves with rising chest the tossing tide, With bended knee she prints the humid sands, Up-turns her glistening eyes, and spreads her hands; --"'Tis he, 'tis he!--My Lord, my life, my love!-- Slumber, ye winds; ye billows, cease to move!

375 beneath his arms your buoyant plumage spread, Ye Swans! ye Halcyons! hover round his head!"--

[_aega_ l. 364. Conserva aegagropila. It is found loose in many lakes in a globular form, from the size of a walnut to that of a melon, much resembling the b.a.l.l.s of hair found in the stomachs of cows; it adheres to nothing, but rolls from one part of the lake to another. The Conserva vagabunda dwells on the European seas, travelling along in the midst of the waves; (Spec. Plant.) These may not improperly be called itinerant vegetables. In a similar manner the Fucus natans (swimming) strikes no roots into the earth, but floats on the sea in very extensive ma.s.ses, and may be said to be a plant of pa.s.sage, as it is wafted by the winds from one sh.o.r.e to another.]