The Botanic Garden Volume Ii Part 4

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 sh.e.l.l 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 s.h.i.+nes, 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 h.o.a.ry 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 dec.u.mbent 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 gla.s.s, 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 ma.s.sy 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-pa.s.s 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 cla.s.s 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 pa.s.sed 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 gla.s.sy tower.

315 So turns the needle to the pole it loves, With fine librations quivering as it moves.

All wan and s.h.i.+vering 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 pa.s.sage.

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 lat.i.tudes 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 lat.i.tudes 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 ill.u.s.trated 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 sh.e.l.l 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 s.h.i.+nes the Nymph in beauty's blus.h.i.+ng 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 s.h.i.+ne the stars unnumber'd _o'er her head_, And the cold moon-beam gilds her flinty bed; While round the rifted rocks hoa.r.s.e 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 quant.i.ties 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. Lipsiae. This circ.u.mstance is worth further attention.

The colouring materials of vegetables, like those which serve the purpose of tanning, varnis.h.i.+ng, 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; b.u.t.terflies 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 pa.s.ses 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 sh.o.r.e a magic pile she rais'd, The cauldron bubbled, and the f.a.ggots blaz'd;--- Pleased on the boiling wave old aeSON swims, And feels new vigour stretch his swelling limbs;

[_Pleased on the boiling wave._ l. 387. The story of aeson becoming young, from the medicated bath of Medea, seems to have been intended to teach the efficacy of warm bathing in r.e.t.a.r.ding 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 h.o.r.n.y or bony. The warm bath is peculiarly adapted to prevent these circ.u.mstances 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 r.e.t.a.r.ding 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-b.a.l.l.s 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 cla.s.s 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, Phalaena, 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.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Vallisneria Spiralis]