The Botanic Garden. Part II. | Page 7

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