University of California Berkeley THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESENTED BY PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID A7 1798 M355355 \, r A^A^ **^"> <^4^La,l2ri+. ,. ^v. ^ rfZ. a pu cq uas ou JO 11 ' ST ; P Ttublinm 170U As an imprint alone a very rare book in this collection is a copy of " Notes on the State of Virginia ; Written in the Year 1781, Somewhat corrected and enlarged in the Winter of 1782, for the use of a Foreigner of distinction, in Answer to Certain Queries pro- " T~\ A " posed by him." This book was privately -*--' -^ printed in Paris by Thomas Jefferson and is rthe first edition. It bears James Bartram's signature. In a volume entitled "Select Pamphlets" ' was found several rare publications, among them one entitled "A New Method of Propa- gating Fruit Trees and Flowering Shrubs, ED BY whereby the common kinds may be raised more expeditiously and several curious ex- otics increased, which will not take root from ; cuttings or layers. Confirmed by repeated and successful experience. By Thomas jn ARY Barnes, gardener to William Thomson, Esq., j at Elsham, in Lincolnshire. Second Edition. ; London : Printed for R. Baldwin in Pater- noster row, and J. Jackson in St. James street. 1759. Price, one shilling and six- pence." Written in a crabbed and scrawling ch the A Gift ill the hand across the top of the title page is the 'orical following inscription : "John Bartram his [ book." 3 Another rare pamphlet, in this same L [istor- yolume, which belonged to John Bartram, r. quite was printed by Benjamin Franklin in 1749, [ivh and relates to education in Pennsylvania. i-readj A book of much interest is "The Language ^ of Botany," printed in London in 1794. On KBart the title page of this volume can be read : ;-;tinc- nthe . g * r> a from Hamilton's Book, purchased December 20, 1803, of B. McMahon. Price, 3 dolls." On the pur- inside cover of the book William Hamilton's ' R: . new book plate is also to be seen. The inscription is 51 citi- in Hamilton's hand writing. He wasthe owner p ^ no of the beautiful spot called "The Wood- m sm ._ lands." Mr. Hamilton was a man possessed >l of a high degree of taste. He was fond of i*. botany and had a magnificent collection of exotics and a remarkable number of plants from New Holland upon his place. He lived %\ in costly style and entertained extensively. X For many years Mr. Hamilton was on inti- f* mate terms with the Bartram family, and bi their famous garden was but a short walk r from his house. ^ Doubtless he presented the j ' book in question to William Bartrara. Ber- u nard McMahon, from whom Mr. Hamilton purchased the volume, was an Irish refugee, who became quite famous in Philadelphia as a botanist, and the proprietor of & bot^ir garden near Gerniantown. A book to which considerable value is at tached is William Bai'tram's own copy his book. "Travels Through North__i THE BOTANIC GARDEN, A PQEM, m-. ' v THE BOTANIC GARDEN A POEM, IN TWO PARTS, PART I. CONTAINING THE ECONOMY OF VEGETATION. PART II. THE LOVES OF THE PLANTS. WITH PHILOSOPHICAL NOTES. *Tbt Jirjt American Edition. NEW- YORK: Printed by T. tf J. SWORDS, Printers to the Faculty of Phyfic of Columbia College, No. 99 Pearl-ftreet. 1798. ADVERTISEMENT TO THE AMERICAN EDITION, HE fuccefs of " THE BOTANIC GARDEN" ha3 been fo great in Europe, and its reputation is fo well eftablifhed in America, that it would betray a culpa- ble vanity in the Publiihers, were they to attempt, by any thing that they could offer in this place, to recommend the Poem to the further patronage of their fellow-citizens. They may be indulged, howr ever, in a few remarks on the advantages of the pre- fent edition. The London copy, in quarto, fells for twelve dol- lars and upwards in America; a price which readers of Poetry, and even fludents of Nature, in this coun- try, can feldom conveniently pay. It is, befide, more adapted for a library than for daily ufe t Trie Dublin edition, in oftavo, which has princi* pally circulated in the United States, is deficient both in correctnefs and in many plates, efTential to the thorough comprehenfion of feveral parts of the work, It is in two feparate volumes ; and bears a price dif- proportionate to its value as a book. In the prefent edition, the Publifhers have endea- voured to reconcile the two extremes ; and to attain ADVERTISEMENT. convenience and cheapnefs, without any cenfurable facrifice of corre&nefs and elegance. In their edition, the Poem is comprized in a fingle volume of commo- dious form ; the type and paper are fuperior to thofe of the Irifh, and, perhaps, not inferior to thofe of the Englifh copies ; no plates, but fuch as are merely or- namental, and of thefe only four out of twenty-one plates in all, have been omitted ; thofe which are in- ferted are executed in the befl manner the ftate of the arts in this city will admit : and there is reafon to believe that few errors are difcoverable in the letter- prefs. On the whole, the Publifhers venture to believe that they (hall be found to have fulfilled every expec- tation which they raifed by their propofals ; and that they fhall have acquitted themfelves, in this under- taking, to general fatisfadlion. Ncw~Yorl 9 March 2O, 1798. EPISTLE 70 THE AUTHOR OF THE BOTANIC GARDEN. JL OR unknown ages, 'mid his wild abode, Speechless and rude, the human savage trode; By slow degrees expressive sounds acquired, And simple thoughts in words uncouth attired. As growing wants and varying climes arise, Excite desire and animate surprize, Gradual his mind a wider circuit ranged, His manners soften'd, and his language changed; And grey experience, wiser than of yore, Bequeath'd its strange traditionary lore. Again long ages mark the flight of time, And lingering toil evolves the Art divine. Coarse -drawings, first, the imperfeft thought re veal'd; Next, barbarous forms the mystic sense concealed;. Capricious signs the meaning, then, disclose; And, last, the infant alphabet arose: From N*ilus' banks adventurous CADMUS errs, And on his Thebes the peerless boon confers. ' Slow spread the sacred art, its use was slow : Whate'er the improvements later times bestow, Still how restrain'd, how circumscrib'd, its power ! Years raise the fruit an instant may devour. Fond SCIENCE wept; the uncertain toil she view'd, And, in the evil, half forgot the good. What tho' the sage, and tho' the bard inspired, By truth illumined, and by genius fired, In high discourse the theme divine prolong, And pour the glowing tide of lofty song; To princes limited, to Plutus' sons, Tyrants of mines and heritors of thrones, fePISTLE The theme, the song, scarce toucht the general mind; Lost, or secluded from opprest mankind. Fond SCIENCE wept; how vain her cares she saw, Subject to Fortune's ever-varying law. Month after month a single transcript claim'd, The style perchance, perchance the story, maim'd j . * The guides to truth corrupted, or destroy'd, A passage foisted, or a painful void, The work of ignorance, or of fraud more bold, To blast a rival, or a scheme uphold ;-^- Or, in the progress of the long review, The original perisht as the copy grew ; Or, perfect both, while pilgrim bands admire, The instant prey of accidental fire. Fond SCIENCE wept; whate'er of costliest use, The gift and glory of each favouring Muse; From every land what genius might select; What wealth might purchase, and what power protect; The guides of youth, the comforters of age; Swept by the besom of barbaric rage, Scarce a few fragments scatter'd o'er the field,- Frantic, in one sad moment, she beheld. " Nor shall such toil my generous sons subdue ; *' Nor waste like this again distress the view !" She cries: where Harlem's classic groves Embowering rise, with silent flight she moves; She marks LAURENTIUS carve the beechen rind, And darts a new creation on his mind: A sudden rapture thrills the conscious shades; The gift remains, the bounteous vision fades. Homeward, entranced, the Belgic Sire returns; New hope inspires him, and new ardor burns; Secret, he meditates his art by day ; By night fair phantoms o'er his fancy stray ; With opening morn they rush upon his soul, Nor cares, nor duties, banish nor control ; Haunt his sequestered path, his social scene, And, in his prayers, seductive, intervene; * The four following lines were fupplied by a friend, TO DR. DARWIN. Till, shaped to method, simple, and complete, The filial ear the joyful tidings greet.* First, their nice hands the temper'd letter frame, Alike in height, in width, in depth, the same; Peep in the matrices secure infold, And fix within, and justify, the mould; The red amalgam from the cauldron take, And flaming pour, and, as they pour it, shake; On the hard table spread the type congeal'd, And smooth and polish on its marble field ; While, as his busy fingers either plies, The embrion parts of future volumes rise. Next, with wise care, the slender plate they choose, Of shining steel, and fit, with harden'd screws, The shifting sliders^ which the varying line Break into parts, or yet as one confine; Whence, firmly bound, and fitted for the chase^ Imposed^ it rests upon the stony base; Till, hardly driven, the many-figured quoins Convert to forms the accumulated lines. Then, with new toil, the upright frame they shape, And strict connect it by the solid cajt; The moving head still more the frame combines; The guiding shelf its humbler tribute joins; While the stout ivinter erring change restrains, And bears the carriage, and the press sustains: The flatten these, and spindle well connect, Four slender bars support it, and direct, As the high handle, urging from above, Downwards and forceful bids its pressure move: Beneath, \\\\\i plank the patient carriage spread, Lifts the smooth marble on its novel bed, Rides on its wheeled spit in rapid state, Nor fears to meet the quick-descending weight. Last, the wise Sire the ready form supplies, With cautious hands and scrutinizing eyes; * Laurentius first confided the secret of his discovery to his son-in-law.-? The reasons for the subsequent deviations from historical accuracy, will be, obvious to the poetic reader. EPISTLE Fits the moist tympan^ (while the Youth, intent, With Jiatting balls, applies the sable paint,) Then lowers ti\z frisket, turns the flying rounce^ And pulls amain the forceful bar at once; A second turn, a second pressure, gives, And on the sheet the fair impression lives. Raptured, the Youth and reverend Sire behold, Press to their lips and to their bosoms fold ; Mingle their sighs, ecstatic tears descend, And, face to face, in silent union blend : Fond SCIENCE triumphs, and rejoicing Fame, From pole to pole, resounds LAURENTIUS' name. Hence, doom'd no more to barbarous zeal a prey, Genius and Taste their treasured stores display; Nor lords, nor monks, alone, the sweets procure, But old and young, the humble and the poor. Hence, wide diffused, increasing knowlege flies, And error's shades forsake the jaundiced eyes ; Man knows himself for man, and sees, elate, The kinder promise of his future fate; Nations, ashamed, their ancient hate forego, And find a brother, where they found a foe. Hence, o'er the world, (what else perchance conceal'd, Supprest for ages, or fore'er withheld, To one small town, or shire, or state, confined, In merit's spite to long neglect consign'd, The sport or victim of some envious flame, Whence care nor art might rescue nor reclaim,) Flies the BOTANIC SONG; around Successive nations catch the enchanting sound, Glow as they listen, wonder as they gaze, And pay the instructive page with boundless praise: For not to Britain's parent isle alone, Or what the East encircles with her zone, The bounty flows; but spreads to neighbouring realms, And a new hemisphere with joy o'erwhelms. TO DR. DARWIN. Here, read with rapture, studied with delight, Long shall it charm the taste, the thought excite; And youths and maids, the parent and the child, Their minds illumined, and their griefs beguiled, By all of fancy, all of reason, moved, Rise from the WORK invigor'd and improved. Nor only here, nor only wow, enjoy 'd : Where opes the interior desolate and void ; Where Mississippi's turbid waters glide, And white Missouri pours its rapid tide; Where vast Superior spreads its inland sea, And the pale tribes near icy confines stray; " Where now Alaska lifts its forests rude, " And Nootka rolls her solitary flood;"* Where the fierce sun with ray severer rains His floods of light o'er Amazonian plains; Where, land of horrors ! roam the giant brood, On the bleak margin of the antarctic flood; In future years, in ages long to come, When redient Justice finds again her home; Known, honour 'd, studied, graced with nobler fame, Its charms unfaded, and its worth the same, To vaster schemes shall light the kindling view, And lift to heights no earlier era knew. Some ardent youth, some Fair whose beauties shine, In mind, as person, only not divine, In halls where Montezuma erst sat throned^ Whom thirty princes as their sovereign own'd; In bowers where Manco labour'd for Peru, While the white thread his blest Oella drew, \Vhere Ataliba met a tyrant's rage, Entranced, shall ponder o'er the various page; Or, where Oregon foams along the West, And seeks the fond Pacific's tranquil breast, * This couplet is from an unpublished Poem of my friend Mr. Richard Alsop; a poet who, were his ambition equal to his talents, would appear among the poets of his time " velut Inter ignes luna minores" fePISTLE TO Dfe. DARWIN. With kindred spirit strike the sacred lyre, And bid the nations listen and admire. Hence keen incitement prompt the prying mindj By treacherous fears nor palsied nor confined, Its curious search embrace the sea, and shore* And mine and oceanj earth and air, explore. Thus shall the years proceed, till growing time Unfold the treasures of each differing clime; Till one vast brotherhood mankind unite In equal bands of knowlege and of right : Then, the proud column, to the smiling skiesj In simple majesty sublime shall rise, O'er Ignorance foii'd, their triumph loud proclaim, And bear inscribed, immortal, DARWIN'S name. E, H. SMITH. March) 1798. ADVERTISEMENT TO THE LONDON EDITION. HE general deflgn of the following fheets is to inlift Imagination under the banner of Science ; and to lead her votaries from the loofer analogies, which drefs out the imagery of poetry, to the ftricter ones, which form the ratiocination of philofophy. While their particular defign is to induce the ingenious to cultivate the knowledge of Botany, by introducing them to the veflibule of that delightful fcience, and recommending to their attention the immortal works of the celebrated Swedifh Naturalift, LINNAEUS. In the firft Poem, or Economy of Vegetation, the phyfiology of Plants is delivered; and the operation of the Elements, as far as they may be fuppofed to affect the growth of Vegetables. In the fecond Poem, or Loves of the Plants, the Sexual Syftem of Linnseus is explained, with the remarkable properties of many particular plants* TO THE AUTHOR OF THE POEM ON THE LOVES OF THE PLANTS. T THE REV. W. B. STEP ENS. VxFT tho' thy genius, DARWIN! amply fraught With native wealth, explore new worlds of mind; Whence the bright ores of drossless wisdom brought, Stampt by the Muse's hand, enrich mankind; Tho' willing Nature to thy curious eye, Involved in night, her mazy depths betray; Till at their source thy piercing search descry The streams, that bathe with Life our mortal clay; Tho', boldly soaring in sublimer mood Through trackless skies, on metaphysic^igs, Thou darest to scan the approachless Cause of Good,. And weigh, with stedfast hand, the sum of Things; Yet wilt thou, charm'd amid his whispering bowers, Oft with lone step by glittering Derwent stray, Mark his green foliage, count his musky flowers, That blush or tremble to the rising ray; While FANCY, seated in her rock-roof 'd dell, Listening the secrets of the vernal grove, Breathes sweetest strains to thy symphonious shell, And " gives new echoes to the throne of Love." Rejiton, Nov. 28, 1788. ( viii ) TO DR. DARWIN. w HILE Sargent winds, with fond and curious eyes, Thro' every mazy region of " the mine " While, as entrancing forms around him rise, With magic light the mineral kingdoms shine; Behold ! amid the vegetable bloom, DARWIN, thy ambrosial rivers flow, And suns more pure the fragrant earth illume, As all the vivid plants with passion glow. Yes! and, where'er with life creation teems, 1 trace thy spirit thro' the kindling whole; As with new radiance to the genial beams Of Science, isles emerge, or oceans roll, And Nature, in primordial beauty, seems To breathe, inspir'd by Thee, the PHILOSOPHIC SOUL! R. POLWHELE. Kenton, near Exeter , April 18, 1792. TO DR. DARWIN. JL WO Poets, (poets, by report, Not oft so well agree) Sweet harmonist of Flora's court ! Conspire to honour Thee. They best can judge a poet's worth, Who oft themselves have known The pangs of a poetic birth, By labours of their own. We, therefore, pleas'd, extol thy song, Though various yet complete, Rich in embellishment, as strong And learn'd as it is sweet. No envy mingles with our praise, Though could our hearts repine At any Poet's happier lays, They would, they must, at thine. But we in mutual bondage knit Of Friendship's closest tie, Can gaze on even DARWIN'S wit With an unjaundic'd eye; And deem the bard, whoe'er he be, And howsoever known, Who would not twine a wreath for Thee, Unworthy of his own. WM. COWPER. West on Underwood, Olney^ Bucks , June 23, 1793. TO DR. DARWIN, .S Nature lovely Science led Thro' all her flow'ry maze, The volume she before her spread Qf DARWIN'S radiant lays. Coy Science starts so started Eve At beauties yet unknown : " The figure that you there perceive (Said l^ature) is your own." b ( * ) " My own ? It is : but half so fair " I never seem'd till now : " And here, too, with a soften'd air, " Sweet Nature! here art Thou." " Yes in this mirrour of the Bard " We both embellish'd shine ** And grateful will unite to guard " An artist so divine." Thus Nature and thus Science spake In Flora's friendly bower; While DARWIN'S glory seem'd to wake New life in every flower. This with delight two Poets heard; Time verifies it daily; Trust it, dear DARWIN, on the word Of COWPER and of HAYLEY!- W. HAYLEY. Mar Chichester, June 27, 1792. Addrefs to the River Derwent, on whofe Banks the Author of the Botanic Garden rejides. By F. N. C. MVNDT, Efq. 1792. D ERWENT, like thee thy Poet's splendid song With sweet vicissitudes of ease and force Now with enchanting smothness glides along, Now pours impetuous its resounding course; While Science marches down thy wond'ring dells, And all the Muses round her banners crowd, Pleas'd to assemble in thy sparry cells, And chant her lessons to thy echoes proud ; While here Philosophy and Truth display The shining robes those heaven-born sisters wove, While Fays and Graces beck'ning smooth their way, And hand in hand with Flora follows Love. Well may such radiant state increase thy pride, Delighted stream J tho' rich in native charms, Tho' inborn worth and honour still reside, Where thy chill banks the glow of Qhatsworth warms. Tho' here her new-found art,, as that of yore, The spinster Goddess to thy rule assigns ; Tho', where her temples crowd thy peopled shore, Wealth gilds thy urn, and Fame thy chaplet twines. Ah, while thy nymphs in Derby's towered vale Lead their sad Quires around MILCENA'S b\er % What soothing sweetness breathes along the gale, Comes o'er the consort's heart, and balms a brother's tear! Her new-found art, bV. Alluding to the numerous cotton mills on and near the river Derwent. MUcenas bier. Mrs. French, fifter. to Mrs. Mundy. Part I. Canto HI. I. 308. BOTANIC GARDEN, PART I. CONTAINING THE ECONOMY OF VEGETATION. A POEM, WITH PHILOSOPHICAL NOTES. It Vcr, et Venus; et Veneris praenuncius ante Pennatus graditur Zephyrus veftigia propter; Flora quibus mater, przefpergens ante viai Cunvfta, coloribus egregiis et odoribus opplet. Luc RET. The first American^ from the third London Edition* NEW-YORK; Printed by T. & J. SWORDS, Printers to the Faculty of Phyfic of Columbia College, No. 99 Pearl-ftreet. 1798. APOLOGY. XT may be proper here to apologize for many of the subsequent conjectures on some articles of natural philosophy, as not being supported by accurate investigation or conclusive experiments. Extravagant theories, however, in those parts of philosophy where our knowledge is yet imperfect, are not without their use; as they encourage the execution of laborious experiments, or the investi- gation of ingenious deductions, to confirm or refute them. And, since natural objects are allied to each other by many affinities, every kind of theoretic distribution of them adds to our knowledge by developing some of their analogies. The Rosicrucian doctrine of Gnomes, Sylphs, Nymphs, and Salamanders, was thought to afford a proper machinery for a Botanic poem; as it is probable, that they were originally the names of hieroglyphic figures representing the elements. Many of the important operations of Nature were shadowed or allegorized in the heathen mythology, as the first Cupid spring- ing from the Egg of Night, the marriage of Cupid and Psyche, the Rape of Proserpine, the Congress of Jupiter and Juno, the Death and Resuscitation of Adonis, &c. many of which are in- geniously explained in the works of Bacon, vol. v. p. 47. 4th edit. London, 1778. The Egyptians were possessed of many discoveries in philosophy and chemistry, before the invention of letters; these were then expressed in hieroglyphic paintings of men and animals ; which, after the discovery of the alphabet, were de- scribed and animated by the poets, and became first the deities of Egypt, and afterwards of Greece and Rome. Allusions to those fables were therefore thought proper ornaments to a philosophical poem, and are occasionally introduced either as represented by the poets, or preserved on the numerous gems and medallions of an- tiquity. ARGUMENT or THE FIRS T CANTO. THE Genius of the place invites the Goddefs of Botany, I. She defcenda; is received by Spring, and the Elements, 59. Addrefles the Nymphs of Fire. Star-light Night feen in the Camera Obfcura, 8l. I. Love created the Univerfe. Chaos explodes. All the Stars revolve. God, 97. II. Shoot- ing Stars. Lightning. Rainbow. Colours of the Morning and Evening Skies. Exterior Atmofphere of inflammable Air. Twilight. Fire-balls. Aurora Borealis. Planets. Comets. Fixed Stars. Sun's Orb, 115. III. I. Fires at the Earth's Centre. Animal Incubation, 137. a. Volcanic Mountains. Venus vifits the Cyclops, 149. IV. Heat confined on the Earth by the Air. Phofphoric lights in the Evening. Bolognian Stone. Calcined Shells. Memnon's Harp, 173. Ignis Fatuus. Luminous Flow- ers. Glow-worm. Fire-fly. Luminous Sea-infects. Electric Eel. Eagle armed with Lightning, 189. V. I. Difcovery of Fire. Medufa, 209. 1. The chemical Properties of Fire. Phofphorus. Lady in Love, 223. 3. Gun-powder, 237. VIv Steam-engine applied to Pumps, Bellows, "Water- engines, Corn-mills, Coining, Barges, Waggons, Flying-chariots, 253. La- bours of Hercules. Abyla and Calpe, 297. VII. I. Electric Machine. Hefperian Dragon. Electric Kifs. Halo round the Heads of Saints. Elec- tric Shock. Fairy-rings, 335. a. Death of Profefior Richman, 371. 3. Franklin draws Lightning from the Clouds. Cupid fnatches the Thunder- bolt from Jupiter, 383. VIII. Phofphoric Acid and Vital Heat produced in the Blood. The great Egg of Night, 399. IX. Weftem Wind unfet- tered. Naiad releafed, Froft aflailed. Whale attacked, 421. X. Buds and Flowers expanded by Warmth, Ele$ricity, and Light. Drawings with colourlefs fympathetic Inks; which appear when warmed by the Fire, 457. XI. Sirius. Jupiter and Semele, Northern Conftellations. Ice-Iflands navigated into the Tropic Seas. Rainy Monfoons, 497. XII. Points erected to procure Rain. Elijah on Mount Carmel, 549. Departure of the Nymphs of Fire like fparks from artificial Fireworks, 587. THE BOTANIC GARDEN. ECONOMY OF VEGETATION. CANTO I. ur rudefieps ! whofe throbbing breafts infold The legion-fiends of Glory, or of Gold ! Stay / whofe falfe lips fedu&ive fimpers part, While Cunning neftles in the harlot-heart ! For you no Dryads drefs the rofeate bower, 5 For you no Nymphs their fparkling vafes pour; Unmark'd by you, light Graces fwim the green, And hovering Cupids aim their (hafts, unfeen. " But THOU ! whofe mind the well-attemper'd ray Of Tafte and Virtue lights with purer day; JO Whofe finer fenfe each foft vibration owns With fweet refponfive fympathy of tones ; ' So the fair flower expands its lucid form To meet the fun, and {huts it to the ftorm ; For thee my borders nurfe the fragrant wreath, 15 My fountains murmur, and my zephyrs breathe; Slow flides the painted mail, the gilded fly Smoothes his fine down, to charm thy curious eye; On twinkling fins my pearly nations play, Or win with finuous train their tracklefs way ; 20 So tie fair flower. 1. 17. It feems to have been the original defign of the philofophy of Epicurus to render the mind exquifitely fenfible to agreeable fenfations, and equally infenfible to difagreeable ones. PART I. B * BOTANIC GARDEN. PART I. My plumy pairs, in gay embroidery drefs'd, Form, with ingenious bill, the penfile neft ; To Love's fweet notes attune the liftening dell, And Echo founds her foft fymphonious fhell. " And, if with Thee fome haplefs Maid fhould flray, 25 Difafterous Love companion of her way, Oh, lead her timid Heps to yonder glade, Whofe arching cliffs depending alders fhade; There, as meek Evening wakes her temperate breeze, And moon -beams glimmer through the trembling trees, 30 The rills, that gurgle round, fliall foothe her ear, The weeping rocks ihall number tear for tear; There, as fad Philomel, alike forlorn, Sings to the Night from her accuftomed thorn ; While at fweet intervals each falling note 35 Sighs in the gale, and whifpers round the grot; The fifter- woe (hall calm her aching bread, And fofter ilumbers fteal her cares to reft. " Winds of the North! reftrain your icy gales, Nor chill the bofom of thefe happy vales ! 4 Hence in dark heaps, ye gathering Clouds, revolve ! Difperfe, ye Lightnings! and, ye Mifts, diflblve! Hither, emerging from yon orient (kies, BOTANIC GODDESS ! bend thy radiant eyes; O'er thefe foft fcenes aflume thy gentle reign, 45 Pomona, Ceres, Flora in thy train ; O'er the flill dawn thy placid fmile effufe, And with thy filver fandals print the dews ; In noon's bright blaze thy vermil veft unfold, And wave thy emerald banner ftair'd with gold." 50 i'.s Love. I. %d. The fcenery is taken from a botanic garden about a mile from Lichfield, where a cold bath was creeled by Sir John Floyer. There is a grotto furrounded by projecting rocks, from the edges of which trickles a perpetual fhower of water; and it is here reprefented as adapted to love-fcenes, as being thence a proper refidence for the modern goddefs of Botany, and the eaficr to introduce the next poem on the Loves of the Flunts, according to the fyftem of Linnaeus. CANTO I. ECONOMY OF VEGETATION. 3 Thus fpoke the GENIUS, as he ftept along, And bade thefe lawns to Peace and Truth belong ; Down the fteep flopes He led, with modeft fkill, The willing palhway, and the truant rill, Stretch'd o'er the marfhy vale yon willowy mound, 55 Where ihines the lake amid the tufted ground, Rais'd the young woodland, fmooth'd the wavy green, And gave to Beauty all the quiet fcene. She comes ! the GODDESS ! through the whifpering air, Bright as the morn, defcends her blufhing car; 60 Each circling wheel a wreath of flowers entwines, And gem'd with flowers the filken harnefs fhines ; The golden bits with flowery ftuds are deck'd, And knots of flowers the crimfon reins connect. And now on earth the filver axle rings, 6.5 And the fhell finks upon its flerider fprings ; .Light from her airy feat the Goddefs bounds, And fteps celeftial prefs the panned grounds. Fair Spring advancing calls her featherM quire, And tunes to fofter notes her laughing lyre ; 70 Bids her gay hours on purple pinions move, And arms her Zephyrs with the {hafts of Love. Pleas'd GNOMES, afcending from their earthy beds, Play round her graceful footfteps, as fhe treads ; Gay SYLPHS attendant beat the fragrant air 75 On winnowing wings, and waft her golden hair; Blue Nymphs emerging leave their fparkling flreams, And Fury Forms alight from orient beams ; Phased Gnomes. 1. 7^. The Rofic'ruciafl doclrin-e of Gnomes, Sylphs, Nymphs, and Salamanders, affords proper machinery for a philofophic poem; as it is probable that they were originally the names of hieroglyphic figures of the Elements, or of Genii ptefiding over their operations. The Fairies of more modern days feem to have been derived from them, and to have in- herited their powers. The Gnomes and Sylphs, as being more nearly allied to modern Fairies, are reprefented as either male or female, which diftin- guifhcs the latter from the Auras of the Latin poets, which were only fe- male; except the winds, as Zephyrus and Auiler, may be fuppofed to have been their hufbands. 4 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART I. Mufk'd in the rofe's lap frefli dews they fhed, Or breathe celeftial luftres round her head. 80 * Firft the fine Forms her dulcet voice requires, Which bathe or ba(k in elemental fires ; From each bright gem of Day's refulgent car, From the pale fphere of every twinkling ftar, From each nice pore of ocean, earth, and air, 85 With eye of flame the fparkling hofts repair, Mix their gay hues, in changeful circles play, Like motes, that tenant the meridian ray. So the clear Lens collects, with magic power, The countlefs glories of the midnight hour; 90 Stars after ftars, with quivering luftre fall, And twinkling glide along the whiten'd wall. Pleafed, as they pafs, fhe counts the glittering bands, And ftills their murmur with her waving hands ; Each liftening tribe with fond expectance burns, 95 And now to thefe, and now to thofe, {he turns. I. " Nymphs of primeval Fire I your veftal train Hung with gold treffes o'er the vaft inane, Nymphs of primeval fre. 1. 97. The fluid matter of heat is perhaps th'e moft extenfive element in nature ; all other bodies are immerfed in it, and are preferved in their prefent ftate of folidity or fluidity by the attraction of their particles to the matter of heat. Since all known bodies are con- tractible into lefs fpace by depriving them of fome portion of their heat, and as there is no part of nature totally deprived of heat, there is reafon to be- lieve that the particles of bodies do not touch, but are held towards each other by their felf-attradlion, and recede from each other by their attraction to the mafs of heat which furrounds them; and thus exift in an equilibrium between thefe two powers. If more of the matter of heat be applied to them, they recede further from each other, and become fluid ; if flill more be applied, they take an aerial form, and are termed Gaffes by the modern che- mifts. Thus, when water Is heated to a certain degree, it would inftantly afiume the form of fteam, but for the preffure of the atmofphere, which prevents this change from taking place fo eafily; the fame is true of quick- iilver, diamonds, and of, perhaps, all other bodies in Nature ; they would firft become fluid, and then aeriform, by appropriated degrees of heat. On the contrary, this elaftic matter of heat, termed Calorique in the new no- menclature of the French Academicians, is liable to become confolidated it- felf in its combinations with fome bodies, as perhaps in nitre, and probably in combuftible bodies, as fulphur and charcoal. See note on 1. 2.32 of this Canto. Modern philosophers have not yet been able to decide whether C ANTO I. ECONOMY OF VEGETATION. 5 Pierc'd with your filver {hafts the throne of Night, And charm'd young Nature's opening eyes with light; 100 When Love Divine, with brooding wings unfurl'd, Call'd from the rude ahyfs the living world. " Let there be Light! proclaim'd the Almighty LORD, Aftonilh'd Chaos heard the potent word ; Through all his realms the kindling Ether runs, 105 And the rnafs ftarts into a million funs; light and heat be different fluids, or modifications of the fame fluid, as they have many properties in common. See note on 1. 468 of this Canto. When Love Divine. 1. ioi. From having obferved the gradual evolution of the young animal or plant from its egg or feed ; and afterwards its fuc- ceflive advances to its more perfect ftate, or maturity ; philofophers of all ages feem to have imagined, that the great world itfelf had likewife its in- fancy, and its gradual progrefs to maturity : this feems to have given origin to the very ancient and fublime allegory of Eros, or Divine Love, produc- ing the world from the egg of Night, as it floated in Chaos. See 1. 419 of this Canto. The external cruft of the earth, as far as it lias been expofed'to our view, in mines or mountains, countenances this opinion; fince thefe have evidently, for the moft part, had their origin from the fhells of fifties, the decompofi- tion of vegetables, and the recrements of other animal materials, and muft, therefore, have been formed progreffively from fmall beginnings. There are likewife fome apparently uielefs or incomplete appendages 'to plants and animals, which feem to fhew they have gradually undergone changes from their original ftate ; fuch as the ftamens without anthers, and ftyles without ftigmas of "feveral plants, as mentioned in the note on Curcuma, vol. ii. of this work. Such as the halteres, or rudiments of wings of fome two-wing- ed infects; and the paps of male animals; thus fwine have four toes, but two of them are imperfectly formed, and not long enough for ufe. The allan- toide in fome animals feems to have become extinct ; in others, is above ten- fold the fize which would feem neceffary for its purpofe. BufFon du Co- chon, T. 6. p. 25". Perhaps all the fuppofed monftrous births of Nature are remains of their habits of production in their former lefs perfect ftate, or attempts towards greater perfection. Through all his realms. 1. IOJ. Mr. Herfchel has given a very fublime and curious account of the conftruction of the heavens, with his difcovery of fome thoufand nebulae, or clouds of ftars ; many of which are much larger collections of ftars than all thofe put together, which are vifible to our naked eyes, added to thofe which form the galaxy, or milky zone which furrounds us. He obferves, that in the vicinity of thefe clufters of ftars there are proportionally fewer ftars than in other parts of the heavens; and hence he concludes, that they have attracted each other, on the fuppofition that infinite fpace was at firft equally fprinkled with them ; as if it had, at the beginning, been filled with a fluid mafs, which had coagulated. Mr. Herfchel has further fhewn, that the whole fidereal fyftem is gradually mov- ing round fome centre, which may be an opake mafs of matter. Philof. Tranf. V. LXXIV. If all thefe funs are moving round fome great central body, they muft have had a projectile force, as well as a centripetal one; and may thence be fuppofed to have emerged or been projected from the 6 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART I, Earths round each fun with quick explofions burft, And fecond planets ifTue from the firft; Bend, as they journey with projectile force, Jn bright ellipfes their reludiant courfe; 1 10 Orbs wheel in orbs, round centres centres roll, And form, felf-balanced, one revolving Whole. Onward they move amid their bright abode, Space without bound, the bofom of their GOD ! t jp II. " Ethereal powers ! you chafe the fhooting flars, 115 Or yoke the vollied lightnings to your cars, Cling round the aerial bow with prifms bright, And, pleafed, untwift the fevenfold threads of light; Eve's filken couch with gorgeous tints adorn, And fire the arrowy throne of rifing Morn. 120 Or, plum'd with flame, in gay battalions fpring, To brighter regions borne on broader wing; material where they were produced. We can have no idea of a natural power which could project a fun out of Chaos, except by comparing it to the explofions or earthquakes owing to the fudden evolution of aqueous or of other more elaftic vapours; of the power of which, under immeafurable de- grees of heat and compreflion, we are yet ignorant. It may be objected, that if the ftars had'been projected from a Chaos by explofions, they muft have returned again into it from the known laws of gravitation; this, however, would not happen if the whole of Chaos, like .grains of gunpowder, was exploded at the fame time, and difperfed through infinite fpace at once, or in quick fucceflion, in every poffible direction. The fame objection may be ftated againft the pofiibility of the planets hav- ing been thrown from the fun by explofions; and the fecondary planets from the primary ones, which will be fpoken of more at large in the fecond Canto. But if the planets are fuppofed to have been projected from their funs, and the fecondary from the primary ones, at the beginning of their courfe, they might be fo influenced or diverted by the attractions of the funs, or fun, in their vicinity, as to prevent their tendency to return into the body from which they were projected. If thefe innumerable and immenfe funs, thus rifing out of Chaos, are fup- pofed to have thrown out their attendant planets by new explofions, as they afccnded ; and thofe, their refpective fatellites, filling, in a moment, the im- menfity of fpace with light and motion, a grander idea cannot be conceived by the mind of man. Chafe the Jhooting Jlars. 1. 115. The meteors called fhooting ftars, the lightning, the rainbow, and the clouds, are phenomena of the lower regions of the atmofphere. The twilight, the meteors called fire-balls, or flying dragons, and the northern lights, inhabit the higher regions of the atmof- phere. See additional notes, No. I. Cling round the aerial boiv. 1. 1 1 7. See additional notes, No. II. Eve's filken couch. 1. 119. See additional notes, No. III. CANTO I. ECONOMY OF VEGETATION. 7 Where lighter gafes, circumfus'd on high, Form the vaft concave of exterior fky ; With airy lens the fcatter'd rays aflault, 125 And bend the twilight round the dulky vault ; Ride, with broad eye and fcintillating hair, The rapid Fire-ball through the midnight air; Where lighter gafes. 1. 133. Mr. Cavendifli has fliewn, that the gas cal- led inflammable air, is at leaft ten times lighter than common air: Mr. La- voifier contends, that it is one of the component parts of water, and is by him called hydrogene. It is fuppofed to afford their principal nourifhment to vegetables, and thence to animals, and is perpetually rifing from their de- compofition; this fource of it in hot climates, and in fummer months, is fa great as to exceed eftimation. Now, if this light gas paffes through the at- mofphere, without combining with it, it muft compofe another atmofphere over the aerial one, which muft expand, when the preffure above it is thus taken away, to inconceivable tenuity. If this fupernatural gaffeous atmofphere floats upon the aerial one, like ether upon water, what muft happen? I. It will flow from the line, where it will be produced in the greateft quantities, and become much accumulated over the poles of the earth. 2, The common air, or lower ftratum of the atmofphere, will be much thinner over the poles than at the line ; becaufe, if a glafs globe be filled with oil and water, and whirled upon its axis, the cen- trifugal power will carry the heavier fluid to the circumference, and the lighter will, in confequence, be found round the axis. 3. There may be a place at fome certain latitude between the poles and the line on each fide the equator, where the inflammable fupernatant atmofphere may end, owing to the greater centrifugal force of the heavier aerial atmofphere. 4. Between the termination of the aerial and the beginning cf the gafleous atmofphere, the airs will occafionally be intermixed, and thus become inflammable by the electric fpark. Thefe circumftances will afllft in explaining the phenomena of fire-balls, northern lights, and of fome variable winds, and long con- tinued rains. Since the above note wasfirft written, Mr. Volta, I am informed, has ap- plied the fuppofition of a fupernatant atmofphere of inflammable air, to ex- plain fome phenomena in meteorology. And Mr. Lavoifief has announced his defign to write on this fubject. Traite de Chimie, Tom. I. I am happy to find thefe opinions fupported by fuch refpectable authority. And bend the tivilight. 1. 126. The crepufcular atmofphere, or the region where the light of the fun ceafes to be refracted to us, is eftimated by phi- lofophers to be between 40 and 50 miles high, at which time the fun is about 1 8 degrees below the horizon; and the rarity of the air is fuppofed to be from 4000 to 10,000 times greater than at the furface of the earth. Cotes's Hydroft. p. 133. The duration of twilight differs in different fea- fons and in different latitudes. In England the fhorteft twilight is about the beginning of October and of March; in more northern latitudes, where the fun never finks more than 18 degrees below the horizon, the twilight continues the whole night. The time of its duration may allb be occafion- ally affected by the varying height of the atmofphere. A number of ob- lervations on the duration of twilight in different latitudes might afford confi- derable information concerning the aerial ftrata in the higher regions of the atmofphere, and might afllft in determining whether an exterior atmofphere of inflammable gas, or Hydrogene, exifts over the aerial one. 8 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART L Dart from the North on pale ele&ric ftreams, Fringing Night's fable robe with traniient beams. 130 Or rein the Planets in their fwift careers, Gilding with borrow'd light their twinkling fpheres ; Alarm with comet-blaze the fapphire plain, The wan ftars glimmering through its lilver train; Gem the bright Zodiac, ftud the glowing pole, 135 Or give the Sun's phlogiftic orb to roll. III. Nymphs ! your fine forms with fteps impaffive mock Earth's vaulted roofs of adamantine rock ; Round her ftill centre tread the burning foil, And watch the billowy Lavas as they boil} 140 Where, in bafaltic caves imprifon'd deep, Reluctant fires in dread fufpenfion fleep ; Or fphere on fphere in winding waves expand, And glad with genial warmth the incumbent land. So when the Mother-bird feledfo their food 145 With curious bill, and feeds her callow brood; Warmth from her tender heart eternal fprings, And, pleas'd, {he clafps them with extended wings. " You from deep cauldrons and unmeafur'd caves Blow flaming airs, or pour vitrefcent waves; 150 O'er fhining oceans ray volcanic light, Or hurl innocuous embers to the night. Alarm ivlth comet-blaze. 1. 133. See additional notes, No. IV. The Suns pblogijlic orb. \. 136. See additional notes, No. V. Round her jllll ce?itre. 1. 139. Many philofophers have believed that the central parts of the earth conlift of a fluid mafs of burning lava, which they have called a fubterraneous fun ; and have fuppofed that it contributes to the production of metals, and to the growth of vegetables. See additional notes, No. VI, Or fphere on fphere. \. 143. See additional notes, No. VII. Hurl innocuous embers. 1. 152. The immediate caufe of volcanic eruptions is believed to be owing to the water of the fea, or from lakes or inunda- tions, finding itfelf a paflage into the fubterraneous fires, which may lie at great depths. This muft firfl produce, by its coldnefs, a condenfation of the vapour there exifting , or a vacuum, and thus occafion parts of the earth's cruft or fhell to be forced down by the preflure of the incumbent atmof- phere. Afterwards the water being fuddenly raifed into fleam, produces all the explofive effeds of earthquakes. And by new accefiions of water, dui> CANTO!. ECONOMY OF VEGETATION. 9 While with loud (liouts to Etna Hecla calls, And Andes anfwers from his beacon'd walls ; Sea-wilder'd crews the mountain-ftars admire, 155 And beauty Beams amid tremendous fire. " Thus, when of old, as myflic bards prefume, Huge CYCLOPS dwelt in Etna's rocky womb, On thundering anvils rung their loud alarms, And leagu'd with VUCLAN forged immortal arms; 160 Defcending VENUS fought the dark abode, And footh'd the labours of the grifly God. While frowning Loves the threatening falchion wield, And tittering Graces peep behind the fhield, With jointed mail their fairy limbs o'erwhelm, 165 Or nod with paufing ftep the plumed helm; With radiant eye fhe view'd the boiling ore, Heard undifmay'd the breathing bellows roar, Admired their finewy arms, and fhoulders bare, And ponderous hammers lifted high in air, 170 With fmiles celeftial blefs'd their dazzled fight, And Beauty blazed amid infernal night. IV. Effulgent Maids ! you round deciduous day, Treflfed with foft beams, your glittering bands array; On Earth's cold bofom, as the Sun retires, 175 Confine with folds of air the lingering fires ; ing the intervals of the explofions, the repetition of the fhocks is caufed. Thefe circumftances were hourly illuftrated by the fountains of boiling wa- ter in Iceland, in which the furface of the water in the boiling wells funk down low before every new ebullition. Befides thefe eruptions occafioned by the fleam of water, there feems to be a perpetual effufion of other vapours, more noxious, and (as far as it is yet known) perhaps greatly more expanfile than water from the Volcanos in various parts of the world. As thefe Volcanos are fuppofed to be fpiracula, or breathing holes to the great fubterraneous fires, it is probable that the ef- cape of elaftic vapours from them is the caufe that the earthquakes of mo- dern days are of fuch fniall extent compared to thofe of ancient times, of which veftiges remain in every part of the World, and, on this account, may be faid not only to be innocuous, but ufeful. Confine with folds of air. 1. 176. The air, like all other bad conductors of electricity, is known to be a bad conductor of heat; and thence prevents the heat acquired from the fun's rays by the earth's furface from being fo foon diflipated, in the fame manner as a blanket, which may be confidered PART I. C io BOTANIC GARDEN. PART I. O'er Eve's pale forms diffufe phofphoric light, And deck with lambent flames the fhrine of Night. So, warm'd and kindled by meridian fkies, And viewM in darknefs with dilated eyes, 180 BOLOGNA'S chalks with faint ignition blaze, BECCARI'S (hells emit prifmatic rays. as a fponge filled with air, prevents the efcape of heat from the perfon wrap- ped in it. This feents to be one caufe of the great degree of cold on the tops of mountains, where the rarity of the air is greater, and it therefore becomes a better conductor both of heat and electricity. See note on Baro- metz, Vol. II. of this work. There is, however, another caufe to which the great coldnefs of moun- tains, and of the higher regions of the atmofphere, is more immediately to be afcribed, explained by Dr. Darwin in the Philof. Tranf. Vol. LXXVJII. who has there proved, by experiments with the air-gun and air-pump, that when any portion of the atmofphere becomes mechanically expanded, it ab- forbs heat from the bodies in its vicinity. And as the air which creeps along the plains expands itfelf, by a part of the preffure being taken off, when it afcends the fides of mountains, it, at the fame time, attracts heat from the fummits of thofe mountains, or other bodies which happen to be immerfed in it, and thus produces cold. Hence he concludes, that the hot air at the bottom of the Andes becomes temperate by its own rarefaction when it af- cends to the city of Quito ; and by its further rarefaction becomes cooled to the freezing point when it afcends to the fnowy regions on the fummits of thofe mountains. To this alto he attributes the great degree of cold ex- perienced by the aeronauts in their balloons; and which produces hail in fummcr at the height of only two or three miles in the atmofphere. Diffufe phofphoric light. 1. 177. I have often been induced to believe, from obfervation, that the twilight of the evenings is lighter than that of the mornings at the fame diftance from noon. Some may aicribe this to the greater height of the atmofphere in the evenings, having been rarefied by the fun during the day; but as its denfity muft at the fame time be dimi- nifhed, its power of refraction would continue the fame. I fhould rather fuppofe that it may be owing to the phofphorefcerit quality (as it is called) cf almoft all bodies; that is, when they have been expofed to the fun, they continue to emit light for a con fider able time afterwards. This is generally believed to arife either from fuch bodies giving out the light which they had previoufly abforbed, or to the continuance of a flow combuftion which the light they had been previoufly expofed to had excited. See the next note. Beccari's JbMs> 1. 1 8 2. Beccari made many curious experiments on the phofphoric light, as it is called, which becomes vifible on bodies brought into a dark room, after having been previoufly expofed to the funfhine. It ap- pears, from thefe experiments, that almoft all inflammable bodies poflefs this quality in a greater or lefe degree; white paper or linen, thus examined, after having been expofed to the funfhine, is luminous to an extraordinary degree. And if'a perfon, fhut up in a dark room, puts one of his hands out into the fun's light for a fliort time, and then retracts it, he will be able to fee that hand dirtinctly, and not the other. Thefe experiments feem to countenance the idea of light being abforbed, and again emitted from bodies when they are removed into da:knefs. But Beccari further pretended, that CANTO!. ECONOMY OF VEGETATION. n So to the facred Sun in MEMNON'S fane, Spontaneous concords quired the matin ftrain ; Touch'd by his orient beam, refponfive rings 185 The living lyre, and vibrates all its firings ; Accordant ailes the tender tones prolong, And holy echoes fwell the adoring fong. " You with light Gas the.lamps nocturnal feed, Which dance and glimmer o'er the marfhy mead; 190 Shine round Calendula at twilight hours, And tip with filver all her faffron flowers ; Warm on her mofly couch the radiant Worm, Guard from cold dews her love-illumin'd form, fome calcareous competitions, when expofed to red, yellow, or bhie lights, through coloured glaffes, would, on their being brought into a dark room, emit coloured lights. This miftaken fa<5l of Beccari's, Mr. Wilfon decidedly refutes; and, among many other curious experiments, difcovered, that if oy- fter-fhells were thrown into a common fire, and calcined for about half an hour, and then brought to a perfon who had previoufly been fome minutes in a dark room, that many of them would exhibit beautiful irifes of prifma- tic colours, from whence, probably, arofe Beccari's miftake. Mr. Wilfon from hence contends, that thefe kinds of phofphori do not emit the light they had previoufly received, but that they are fet on fire by the fun's rays, and continue for fome time a flow combuftion after they are withdrawn from the light. Wilfon's Experiments on Phofphori. Dodfley, 1775. The Bolognian ftone is a felenite, or gypfum, and has been long celebrated for its phofphorefcent quality after having been burnt in a fulphurous fire; and expofed, when cold, to the fun's light. It may be thus well imitated : Calcine oyfter-fhells half an hour, pulverize them when cold, and add one third part of flowers of fulphur, prefs them clofe into a fmall crucible, and calcine them for an hour or longer, and keep the powder in a phial clofe {topped. A part of this powder is to be expofed for a minute or two to the funbeams, and then brought into a dark room. The calcined Bolognian ftone becomes a calcareous hepar of fulphur; but the calcined fhells, as they contain the animal acid, may alfo contain fome of the phofphorus of Kunkel. In Memnons fane. 1, 183. See additional notes, No. VIII. The lamps nofiurnal. 1. 189. The ignis fatuus, or Jack a lantern, fo fre- quently alluded to by poets, is fuppofed to originate from the inflammable air, orHydrogene, given up from moraffes ; which being of a heavier kind, from its impurity, than that obtained from iron and water, hovers near the furface of the earth, and, uniting with common air, gives out light by its flow ignition. Perhaps fuch lights have no exiftence ; and the reflection oi a ftar on watery ground may have deceived the travellers, who have been faid to be bewildered by them: if the fa& was eftablifheH, it would much contribute to explain the phenomena of northern lights. I have travelled much in the night, in all feafons of the year, and over all kinds of foil, but never faw one of thefe Will o'wifps. Shine round Calendula, 1. 19 1. See note on Tropasolum in Vol. II. toe radiant Worm. 1. 193. See additional notes, No. IX. i* BOTANIC GARDEN. PART I. From leaf to leaf conduct the virgin light, 195 Star of the earth, and diamond of the night, You bid in air the tropic Beetle burn, And fill with golden flame his winged urn : Or gild the furge with infeft-fparks, that fwarm Round the bright oar, the kindling prow alarm; 200 Or arm in waves, electric in his ire, The dread Gymnotus with ethereal fire. The dread Gymnotus. 1. aoi. The Gymnotus electricus is a native of the river of Surinam, in South- America; thofe which were brought over to En- gland about eight years ago were about three or four feet long, and gave an electric fhock (as I experienced) by putting one finger on the back, near its head, and another of the oppofite hand into the water near its tail. In their native country they are faid to exceed twenty feet in length, and kill any man who approaches them in an hoftile manner. It is not only to efcapc its enemies that this furprizing power of the fifh is ufed, but alfo to take its prey; which it does by benumbing them, and then devouring them before they have time to recover, or by perfectly killing them ; for the quantity of the power feemed to be determined by the will or anger of the animal; as it fometimes {truck a fifh twice before it was fufficiently benumbed to be cafily fwallowed. The organs productive of this wonderful accumulation of electric matter ^have been accurately diffected and defcribed by Mr. J. Hunter. Philfcfi Tranf. Vol. LXV. And are fo divided by membranes as to compofe a very cxtenfive furface, and are fupplied with many pairs of nerves larger than any other nerves of the body : but how fo large a quantity is fo quickly ac- cumulated as to produce fuch amazing effects in a fluid ill adapted for the purpofe, is not yet fatisfactorily explained. The Torpedo poffefVes ajimilar power in a lefs degree, as was fhewn by Mr. Walch, and another fiih lately defcribed by Mr. Paterfon. Philof. Tranf. Vol. LXXVI. In the conftruction of the Leyden-Phial, (as it is called) which is coated on both fides, it is known, that above one hundred times the quantity of pofitive electricity can be condenfed on every fquare inch of the coating on one fide, than could have been accumulated on the fame furface if there had been no oppofite coating communicating with the earth; becaufe the nega- tive electricity, or that part of it which caufed its expanfion, is now drawn off through the glafs. It is alfo well known, that the thinner the glafs is (which is thus coated on both fides fo as to make a Leyden-Phial, or plate) the more electricity can be condenfed on one of its furfaces, till it become* fo thin as to break, and thence difcharge itfelf. Now, it is pofllble that the quantity of electricity condenfible on one fide of a coated phial may increafe in fome high ratio in refpect to the thinnefs of the glafs, fince the power of attraction is known to decreafe as the fquare* of the diflances, to which this circumflance of electricity feems to bear ibme analogy. Hence, if an animal membrane, as thin as the filk-worm fpins its filk, could be fo fituated as to be charged like the Leyden bottle, without b'urfting, (as fuch thin glafs would be liable to do,) it would be dif- ficult to calculate the immenfe quantity of electric fluid which might be ac- cumulated on its furface. No land animals are yet difcovered which poflefs this power, though the air would have been a much better medium for pro- CANTO I. ECONOMY OF VEGETATION. 13 Onward his courfe with waving tail he helms, And mimic lightnings fcare the watery realms; So, when with bridling plumes the bird of JOVE 205 Vindictive leaves the argent fields above, Borne on broad wings the guilty world he awes, And grafps the lightning in his filming claws. V. i. " Nymphs ! your (oft fmiles imcultur'd man fubdued, And charm'd the Savage from his native wood; 210 You, while amazed his hurrying Hords retire From the fell havoc of devouring Fire, Taught the rirft Art ! with piny rods to raife, By quick attrition the domeftic blaze, Fan with foft breath, with kindling leaves provide, 215 And lift the dread deftroyer on his fide. during its effects ; perhaps the fize of the neceffary apparatus would have been inconvenient to land animals. In his Jbining claivs. 1. 208. Alluding to an antique gem in the collection of the Grand Duke of Florence. Spence. Of devouring Fire. 1. 212. The firft and mo ft important difcovery of mankind feems to have been that of fire. For many ages, it is probable, fire was efteemed a dangerous enemy, known only by its dreadful devaftations ; aad that many lives muft have been loft, and many dangerous burns and wounds muft have afflicted thofe who firft dared to fubject it to the ufes of life. It is faid that the tall monkies of Borneo and Sumatra lie down with pleafure round any accidental fire in their woods; and are arrived to that degree of reafon, that knowledge of caufation, that they thruft into the re- maining fire the half-burnt ends of the branches to prevent its going out. One of the nobles of the cultivated people of Otaheite, when Captain Cook treated them with tea, catched the boiling water in his hand from the cock of the tea-urn, and bellowed with pain, not conceiving that water could become hot, like red fire. Tools of fteel conftitute another important difcovery in confequence of fire; and contributed, perhaps, principally to give the European nations fo great fuperiority over the American world. By thefe two agents, fire and tools of fteel, mankind became able to cope with the vegetable kingdom, and conquer provinces of forefts, which, in uncultivated countries, almoft ex- clude the growth of other vegetables, and of thofe animals which are necef- fary to our exiftence. Add to this, that the quantity of our food is alfo in- creafed by the ufe of fire, for fome vegetables become falutary food by means of the heat ufed in cookery, which are naturally either noxious or difficult of digeftion ; as potatoes, kidney-beans, onions, cabbages. The cafTava, when made into bread, is, perhaps, rendered mild by the heat it undergoes, more than by exprefiing its fupcrfluous juice. The roots of white bryony and of arum, I am informed, lofe much of their acrimony by boiling. i 4 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART I. So, with bright wreath of ferpent-treflfes crown'd, Severe in beauty, young MEDUSA frown'd : Erewhile fubdued, round IVifdonis JULgis rolPd, HifsM the dread fnakes, and flamed in burniuYd gold; 220 FlauVd on her brandifh'd arm the immortal fhield, And terror lightened o'er the dazzled field. 2. Nymphs ! you disjoin, unite, condenfe, expand, And give new wonders to the Chemift's hand ; On tepid clouds of rifing fleam afpire, 225 Or fix in fulphur all its folid fire ; With boundlefs fpring elaftic airs unfold, Or fill the fine vacuities of gold ; Young Medufa fro-wnd. 1. 2 1 8. The Egyptian Medufa is reprefented OH ancient gems, with wings on her head, fnaky hair, and a beautiful counte- nance, which appears intenfely thinking ; and was fuppofed to reprefent di- vine wifdom. The Grecian Medufa, on Minerva's fhield, as appears on other gems, has a countenance diftorted with rage or pain, and is fuppofed to reprefent divine vengeance. This Medufa was one of the Gorgons, at firft. very beautiful, and terrible to her enemies. Minerva turned her hair into fnakes ; and Perfeus having cut off her head, fixed it on the fhield of tkat goddefs; the fight of which then petrified the beholders. Dannet. Did. Orjix in fulpbur. 1. az6. The phenomena of chemical explofions cannot be accounted for without the fuppofition, that fome of the bodies employed contain concentrated or folid heat combined with them, to which the French chemifts have given the name of Calorique. When air is expanded in the air- pump, or water evaporated into fteam, they drink up or abforb a great quan- tity of heat; from this analogy, when gun-powder is exploded, it ought to abforb much heat; that is, in popular language, it ought to produce a great quantity of cold. When vital air is united with phlogiftic matter in refpira- tion, which feems to be a flow combuftion, its volume is leffened; the car- bonic acid, and perhaps phofphoric acid, are produced; and heat is given out; which, according to the experiments of Dr. Crawford, would feem to be depofited from the vital air. But as the vital air in nitrous acid is con- denfed from a light elaftic gas to that of a heavy fluid, it muft poffefs lefs heat thai^iefore. And hence a great part of the heat which is given out in firing gifllpowder, I fhould fuppofe, muft refide in the fulphur or charcoal. Mr. Lavoifier has fhewn, that vital air, or Oxygene, lofes lefs of its heat when it becomes one of the component parts of nitrous acid, than in any other of its combinations; and is hence capable of giving out a great quan- tity of heat in the explofion of gun-powder; but as there feems to be great analogy between the matter of heat, or Calorique, and the electric matter ; and as the worft conductors of electricity are believed to contain the greateft quantity of that fluid; there is reafon to fufpect, that 'the worft conductors of heat may contain the moft of that fluid; as fulphur, wax, filk, air, glafs. Sec note on 1. 174 of this Canto. CANTO!. ECONOMY OF VEGETATION. 15 With fudden flafh vitrefcent fparks reveal, By fierce collifion from the flint and fleel; 230 Or mark with mining letters KUNKEL'S name In the pale Phofphor's felf-confuming flame. So the chafte heart of fome enchanted Maid Shines with infidious light, by Love betrayed ; Round her pale bofom plays the young Deflre, 235 And flow (he waftes by felf-confuming fire. 3. " You taught myfterious BACON to explore Metallic veins, and part the drofs from ore ; With fylvan coal in whirling mills combine The cryftal'd nitre, and the fulphurous mine; 240 Through wiry nets the black diffufion ftrain, And clofe an airy ocean in a grain. Vitrefcent fparks. 1. 229. When flints are ftruck againft other flints they have the property of giving fparks of light ; but it feems to be an internal light, perhaps of electric origin, very different from the ignited fparks which are ftruck from flint and fteel. The fparks produced by the collifion of fteel with flint, appear to be globular particles of iron, which have been fufed, and imperfectly fcorified or vitrified. They are kindled by the heat produced by the collifion; but their vivid light, and their fufion and vitrification are the effects of a combuftion continued in thefe particles during their paflage through the air. This opinion is confirmed by an experiment of Mr. Hawkf- bee, who found that thefe fparks could not be produced in the exhaufted re- ceiver. See Keir's Chemical Diet. art. Iron, and art. Earth verifiable. 'The pale Phofpbor. 1. 23 2. See additional notes, No. X. And clofe an airy ocean. 1. 242. Gun-powder is plainly defcribed in the works of Roger Bacon, before the year 1267. He defcribes it in a curious manner, mentioning the fulphur and nitre, but conceals the charcoal in an anagram. The words are, fed tamen falis petrae lure mope can ubre, et ful- phuris; et fie facics tonitrum, et corrufcationem, li fcias, artificium. The words lure mope can ubre are an anagram of carbonum pulvere. Biograph. Britaa. Vol. 1. Bacon de Secretis Operibus, Cap. XI. He adds, that he thinks, by an artifice of this kind, Gideon defeated the Midianites with only three hundred men. Judges, Chap. VII. Chamb. Die!:, art. Gun-powder. As Bacon does not claim this as his own invention, it is thought., by many, to have been of much more ancient difcovery. The permanently elaftic fluid, generated in the firing of gun-powder, is calculated by Mr. Robins to be about 244 if the bulk of the powder be I. And that the heat generated at the time of the explofion occafions the rare- fied air, thus produced, to occupy about 1000 times the fpace of the gun-pow- der. This preffure may therefore be called equal to 1000 atmofpheres, or fix tons upon a fquare inch. As the fuddennefs of this explofion muft con- tribute much to its power, it would feem that the chamber of powder, to produce its greateft effect, fhould be lighted in the centre of it ; which, I be- lieve, is not attended to in the manufacture of mufkets or piftols. 16 BOTANIC GARDEN". PART!. Pent in dark chambers of cylindric brafs, Slumbers in grim repofe the footy mafs ; Lit by the brilliant fpark, from grain to grain 245 Runs the quick fire along the kindling train ; On the pain'd ear-drum burfts the fudden crafh, Starts the red flame, and Death purfues the flafh. Fear's feeble hand directs the fiery darts, And ftrength and courage yield to chemic arts; Guilt with pale brow the mimic thunder owns, And Tyrants tremble on their blood -ftain'd thrones. VI. Nymphs ! you erewhile on fimmering cauldrons play'd, And calPd delighted Savery to your aid ; From the cheapnefs with which a very powerful gun-powder is likely foon to be manufactured from aerated marine acid, or (from a new method of forming nitrous acid by means of manganefe or other calciform ores, it may probably, in time, be applied to move machinery, and fuperfede the ufe of fleam. There is a bitter invective in Don Quixote againft the inventors of gun- powder, as it levels the ftrong with the weak, the knight cafed in fleel with the naked fhepherd, thofe who have been trained to the fword with thofe who are totally unflcilful in the ufe of it ; and throws down all the fplendid diftin&ions of mankind. Thefe very reafons ought to have been urged to fhew that the difcovery of gun-powder as been of public utility, by weaken- ing the tyranny of the few over the many. Delighted Savery. \. 254. The invention of the fteam-engine for raifmg water by the preflure of the air, in confequence of the condemnation of fteam, is properly afcribed to Capt. Savery ; a plate and description of this machine is given in Harris's Lexicon Technicum, art. Engine. Though the Marquis of Worcefter, in his Centu/y of Inventions, printed in the year 1663, had de- fcribed an engine for raifmg water by the explofive power of fteam long before Savery's. Mr. Defaguliers affirms, that Savery bought up all he could procure of the books of the Marquis of Worcefter, and deftroyed them, profeffing himfelf then to have difcovered the power of fteam by ac- cident, which feems to have been an unfounded flander. Savery applied it to the raifmg of water to fupply houfes and gardens, but could not accom- plifh the draining of mines by it. Which was afterwards done by Mr. Newcomen and Mr. John Cowley, at Dartmouth, in the year 1712, who added the|nfton. A few years ago Mr. Watt, of Glafgow, much improved this machine, and with Mr. Boulton, of Birmingham, has applied it to variety of purpofes, fuch as railing water from mines, blowing bellows to fufe the ore, fupplying towns with water, grinding corn, and many other purpofes. There is rea- fon to believe it may in time be applied to the rowing of barges, and the moving of carriages along the road. As the fpecific levity of air is too great for the fupport of great burthens by balloons, there feems no probable me- thod of flying conveniently but by the power of fteam, or fome other explo- five material ; which another half century may probably difcover. See ad- ditional notes, No. XI. CANTO!. ECONOMY OF VEGETATION. 17 Bade round the youth explofive Steam afpire 255 In gathering clouds, and wing'd the wave with fire; Bade with cold flreams the quick exparifion flop, And funk the immenfe of vapour to a drop. Prefs'd by the ponderous air the Piflon falls Refifllefs, fliding through its iron walls ; 260 Quick moves the balanced beam of giant-birth, Wields his large limbs, and, nodding, fhakes the earth. " The Giant-Power from earth's remoteft caves Lifts witli flrong arm her dark relu&ant waves ; Each cavern'd rock, and hidden den explores, 265 Drags her dark coals, and digs her (hining ores. Next, in clofe cells of ribbed oak confin'd, Gale after gale, He crouds the flruggling wind ; The imprifon'd florins through brazen noflrils roar, Fan the white flame, and fufe the fparkling ore. 270 Here high in air the rifing flream He pours To clay-built cifterns, or to lead-lined towers; Frefh through a thoufand pipes the wave diflils, And thirfly cities drink the exuberant rills. There the vafl mill-flone, with inebriate whirl, 275 On trembling floors his forceful fingers twirl. Whofe flinty teeth the golden harvefls grind, Feafl without blood ! and nouriih human-kind. Feaft ivlthout blood! 1. 278. The benevolence of the great Author of all things is greatly manifeft in the fum of his works, as Dr. Balguy has well evinced in his pamphlet on Divine Benevolence afierted, printed for Davis, 1781. Yet, if we may compare the parts of nature with each other, there are fome circumftanccs of her economy which feem to contribute more to the general fcale of happinefs than others. Thus the ncurilhment of animal bodies is derived from three fources: r. The milk given from the mother to the offspring : in this excellent contrivance the mother has pleafure in af- fording the fuftenance to the child, and the child has pleafure in receiving it. a. Another fource of the food of animals includes feeds, or eggs: in thefe the embryon is in a torpid or infenfible ftate, and there is along with it, laid up for its early nourifhment, a flore of provifion, as the fruit be- longing to fome feeds, and the oil and ftarch belonging to others; when thefe are confumed by animals, the unfeeling feed, or egg, receives no pain, but the animal receives pleafure which confumes it. Under this article may be included the bodies of animals which die naturally. 3. But the laft method of fupporting animal bodies by the deftruction of other living animals, as lions preying upon lambs, thefe upon living vegetables, and PART I. D i8 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART L " Now his hard hands on Mona's rifted crefl, Bofom'd in rock, her azure ores arreftj 280 With iron lips his rapid rollers seize The lengthening bars, in thin expanfion fqueeze ; Defcending fcrews with ponderous fly-wheels wound The tawny plates, the new medallions round ; Hard dyes of fteel the cupreous circles cramp, 285 And with quick fall his mafTy hammers ftamp. The Harp, the Lily and the Lion join, And GEORGE and BRITAIN guard the fterling coin. " Soon (hall thy arm, UnconqueSd Steam f afar Drag the flow barge, or drive the rapid car; 290 Or on wide-waving wings expanded bear The flying-chariot through the fields of air. Fair crews triumphant, leaning from above, Shall wave their fluttering kerchiefs as they move ; Or warrior-bands alarm the gaping croud, 295 And armies shrink beneath the {hadowy cloud* " So mighty HERCULES o'er many a clime Waved his vaft mace in Virtue's caufe fublirne, mankind upon them all, would appear to be a lefs perfect part of the economy of nature than thofe before mentioned, as contributing lefs to the fum of general happinefs. Manas rifted creji. 1.279. Alluding to the very valuable copper-mines in the ifle of Anglefey, the property of the Earl of Uxbridge. With iron lips. 1. 28 1. Mr. Boulton has lately conftructed at Soho, near Birmingham, a moft magnificent apparatus for Coining, which has coll him fome thoufand pounds ; the whole machinery is moved by an improved fteam-engine, which rolls the copper for half-pence finer than copper has before been rolled foi* the purpofe of making money ; it works the coupoirs, or fcrew-preffes for cutting out the circular pieces of copper, and coins both the faces and edges of the money, at the fame time, with fuch fuperior ex- cellence, and cheapnefs of workmanfliip, as well as with marks of fuch powerful machinery, as muft totally prevent clandeftine imitation, and, in confequence, fave many lives from the hand of the executioner; a circum- ftance worthy the attention of a great minifter. If a civic crown was given in Rome for preferving the life of one citizen, Mr. Boulton (hould be co- vered with garlands of oak! By this machinery four boys, of ten or twelve years old, are capable of ftriking thirty thoufand guineas in an hour, and the machine itfelf keeps an unerring account of the pieces ftruck. So mighty Hercules 1. 297. The ftory of Hercules feems of great anti- quity, as appears from the fimplicity of his drefs and armour, a lion's flciu CANTO I. ECONOMY OF VEGETATION. 19 Unmeafurecl flrength with early art combined, Awed, ferved, prote&ed, and amazed mankind. 300 Firft two dread Snakes, at JUNO'S vengeful nod, Climb 'd round the cradle of the fleeping God; Waked by the {hrilling hifs and milling found, And (bricks of fair attendants trembling round, Their gafping throats with clenching hands he holds ; 305 And Death untwifts their convoluted folds. Next in red torrents from her fevenfold heads Fell HYDRA'S blood on Lerna's lake he fheds; Grafps ACHELOUS with refiftlefs force, And drags the roaring River to his courfe; 310 Binds with loud bellowing and with hideous yell, The monfler Bull, and threefold Dog of Hell. " Then where Nemea's howling forefts wave, He drives the Lion to his dufky cave; and a club; and from the nature of many of his exploits, the deftruclion of wild beafts and robbers. This part of the hiftory of Hercules feems to have related to times before the invention of the bow and arrow, or of " fpinning flax. Other ftories of Hercules are perhaps of later date, and ap- pear to be allegorical, as his conquering the river-god Achelous, and bring- ing Cerberus up to day-light; the former might refer to his turning the courfe of a river, and draining a morafs, and the latter to his expofing a part of the fuperftition of the times. The ftr angling the lion, and tearing his jaws afunder, are defcribed from a. ftatue in the Mufeum Florentinum, and from an antique gem; and the grafping Anteus to death in his arms, as he lifts him from the earth, is defcribed from another ancient cameo. The famous pillars of Hercules have been varioufly explained. Pliny afferts that the natives of Spain and of Africa believed that the mountains of Abyla and Calpe, on each fide of the ftraits of Gibraltar, were the pillars of Her- cules; and that they were reared by the hands of that god, and the fea ad- mitted between them. Plin. Hift. Nat. p. 46. Edit. Manut. Venet. 16.09. If the paflage between the two continents was opened by an earthquake in ancient times, as this allegorical ftory would feem to countenance, there muft have been an immenfe current of water at firft run into the Mediter-. ranean from the Atlantic; iince there is at prefent a ftrong ftream fets always from thence into the Mediterranean. Whatever may be the caufe, which now conftantly operates, fo as to make the furface of the Mediterranean lower than that of the Atlantic, it muft have kept it very much lower before a paifage for the water through the ftraits was opened. It is probable, before iuch an event took place, the coafts and iflands of the Mediterranean ex- tended much further into that fea, and were then, for a great extent of country, deilroyed by the floods cccalioned by the new rife of water, and have fince remained beneath the fea. Might not this give rife to the flood f Deucalion? See note Caffia, Vol. II. of this work. so BOTANIC GARDEN. PART I. Seized by the throat, the growling fiend di farms, And tears his gaping jaws with finewy arms ; Lifts proud ANTAEUS from his mother-plains, And with ftrong grafp the ftruggling Giant drains ; Back falls his fainting head, and clammy hair, Writhe his weak limbs, and flits his life in air; By fteps reverted, o'er the blood-drop'd fen He tracks huge CACUS to his murderous den ; Where breathing flames through brazen lips he fled, And {hakes the rock-roof M cavern o'er his head. " Laft with wide arms the folid earth He tears, 325 Piles rock on rock, on mountain mountain rears; Heaves up huge Abyla on Afric's fand, Crowns with high Calpe Europe's falient flrand; Crefts with oppofing towers the fplendid fcene, And pours from urns immenfe the fea between. 330 Loud o'er her whirling flood Charybdis roars, Affrighted Scylla bellows round his {hores ; Vefuvio groans through all his echoing caves, And Etna thunders o'er the infurgent waves. VII. i. Nymphs ! your fine hands ethereal floods amafs From the warm cufhion, and the whirling glafs; 336 Beard the bright cylinder with golden wire, And circumfufe the gravitating fire. Cold from each point cerulean luftres gleam, Or flioot in air the fcintillating ftream. i 340 Ethereal foods amafs. \. 335. The thebry of the accumulation of the electric fluid, by means of the glafs globe and cufhion, is difficult to com- .prehend. Dr. Franklin's idea of the pores of the glafs being opened by the friction, and thence rendered capable of attracting more electric fluid, which it again parts with, as the pores contract again, feems analogous, in fome meafure, to the heat produced by the vibration, or condenfation of bodies, as when a nail is hammered or filed till it becomes hot, as mention- ed in additional notes, No. VII. Some philofophers have endeavoured to account for this phenomenon, by fuppofing the exiftence of two electric fluids, which may be called the vitreous and refinous ones, inftead of the plus and minus of the fame ether. But its accumulation on the rubbed glafs bears great analogy to its accumulation on the furface of the Leyden bottle, and cannot, perhaps, be explained from any known mechanical or chemical prin- ciple. See note on Gymnotus, 1. 202 of this Canto. Cold from each point, 1. 339. Sec additional notes, No. XIII. CANTO!. ECONOMY OF VEGETATION., at So, borne on brazen talons, wafch'd of old The fleeplefs dragon o'er his fruits of gold; Bright beam'd his fcales, his eye-balls blazed with ire, And his wide noflrils breath'd inchanted fire. " You bid gold-leaves, in cryftal lantherns held, 345 Approach attracted, and recede repell'd; While paper-nymphs inftincl: with motion rife, And dancing fauns the admiring Sage furprize. Or, if on wax fome fearlefs Beauty (land, And touch the fparkling rod with graceful hand ; 350 Through her fine limbs the mimic lightnings dart, And flames innocuous eddy round her heart : O'er her fair brow the kindling luftres glare, Blue rays diverging from the bridling hair ; While fome fond youth the kifs ethereal fips, 355 And foft fires iffue from their meeting lips. So round the virgin Saint in filver dreams The holy Halo fhoots its arrowy beams. " You croud in coated jars the denfer fire, Pierce the thin glafs, and fufe the blazing wire; 360 You bid gold-leaves, 1. 345. Alluding to the very fen fible electrometer im- proved by Mr. Bennett : it confifts of two flips of gold-leaf lufpended from a tin cap in a glafs cylinder, which has a partial coating without, com- municating with the wooden ped^ftal. If a ftick of fealing-wax be rubbed for a moment on a dry cloth, and then held in the air, at the dijlance of two er three feet from the cap of this inftrument, the gold leaves feparate, fuch is its aftonifliing fenfibiiity to electric influence! (See Bennett on electricity. Johnfon. Lond.) The nerves of fenfe of animal bodies do not feem to be affected by lefs quantities of light or heat. 'The holy Halo. 1. 358. I believe it is not known with certainty at what time the painters firft introduced the luminous circle round the head, to im- port a Saint or holy perfon. It is now become a part of the fymbolic lan- guage of painting, and it is much to be wifhed that this kind of hieroglyphic character was more frequent in that art, as it is much wanted to render hiftoric pictures both more intelligible and more fublimc ; and why fhoukl not painting, as well as poetry, exprefs itfelf in metaphor, or in diftinct al- legory ? A truly great modern painter lately endeavoured to enlarge the fphere of pictorial language, by putting a demon behind the pillow of a wicked man on his death-bed. Which, unfortunately for the fcientific part of painting, the cold criticifm of the prefent day has depreciated, and thus barred, perhaps, the only road to the further improvement in this fcicuce. m 3 6 > 22 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART!. Or dart the red fla(h through the circling band Of youths and timorous damfels, hand in hand. Starts the quick Ether through the fibre-trains Of dancing arteries, and of tingling veins, 'Goads each fine nerve, with new fenfation thrill'd, Bends the relu6uant limbs with power unwill'd; Palfy's cold hands the fierce concuffion own, And Life clings trembling on her tottering throne. So from dark clouds the playful lightning fprings, Rives the firm oak, or prints the Fairy-rings. 370 2. Nymp/is ! on that day Ye (hed from lucid eyes Celeftial tears, and breathed ethereal fighs ! When RICHMAN rear'd, by fearlefs hafte betray 'd, The wiry rod in Nieva's fatal (hade ; With neio fenfation tbriWd. 1. 365. There is probably a fyftem of nerve* in animal bodies for the purpofe of perceiving heat ; fmce the degree of this fluid is fo neceffary to health, that we become prefcntly injured, either by its cxcefs or defe&; and becaufe aim oft every part of our bodies is fupplied with branches from different pairs of nerves, which would not feem necef- fary for their motion alone. It is therefore probable, that our fenfation of electricity is only of its violence in paffing through our fyftem, by its fud- denly diftending the mufcles, like any other mechanical violence; and that it is general pain alone that we feel, and not any fenfation analogous to the fpecific quality of the object. Nature may feem to have been niggardly to mankind in beftowing upon them fo few fenfes; fmce a fenfe to have per- ceived eledricity, and another to have perceived magnetifm, might have been of great fervice to them, many ages before thefe fluids were difcovered by accidental experiment; but it is pofliblc an increafed number of fenfes might have incommoded us by adding to the fize of our bodies. Palfys cold hands. 1. 367. Paralytic limbs are in general only incapable of being ftimulated into adtion by the power of the will; fmce the pulfe continues to beat, and the fluids to be ablbrbed in them ; and it commonly happens, when paralytic people yawn and flretch themfelves (which is not a voluntary motion,) that the affecled limb moves at the fame time. The temporary motion of a paralytic limb is likewife caufed by paffing the elec- tric fhock through it; which would feem to indicate fome analogy between the elecTric fluid and the nervous fluid, which is feparated from the blood by the brain, and thence diffufed along the nerves, for the purpofes of mo- tion and fenfation. It probably deftroys life, by its fudden expanfion of the nerves, or fibres of the brain, in the fame manner as it fufes metals, and fpfmters wood or ftone, and removes the atmofphere when it paffes from one object to another in a denfe ftate. Prints the Fairy-rings. 1. 370. See additional notes, No. XIII. When Rlclman reared. 1. 373. Dr. Richman, Profeffor of Natural Philo- fophy at Peterfburgh, about the year 1763, elevated an infulated metallic rod to colled: the aerial electricity, as Dr. Frauklin had previoufly done at CANTO!. ECONOMY OF VEGETATION. 23 Clouds o'er the Sage, with fringed fkirts fucceed, 375 Flam follows flalh, the warning corks recede ; Near and more near He ey'd, with fond amaze, The filver ftreams, and watch'd the fapphire blaze ; Then burfts the fteel, the dart electric fped, And the bold Sage lay number'd with the dead ! 380 Nymphs ! on that day Ye fried from lucid eyes Celeftial tears, and breathed ethereal fighs ! / 3. " You led your FRANKLIN to your glaz'd retreats, Your air-built caftles, and your filken feats ; Bade his bold aim invade the lowering Iky, 385 And feize the tip-toe lightnings ere they fly ; O'er the young Sage your myftic mantle fpread, And wreath'd the crown electric round his head. Thus, when on wanton wing intrepid Love Snatch'd the rais'd lightning from the arm of JOVE ; 390 Philadelphia ; and as he was obferving the repulfion of the balls of his ele&rometer, approached too near the condu&or, and receiving the light- ning in his head, with a loud explofion, was ftruck dead amidft his family. You led your Franklin. 1. 383. Dr. Franklin was the firft that difcovered that lightning confifted of electric matter; he elevated a tall rod with a wire wrapped round it, and fixing the bottom of a rod into a glafs bottle, and preferving it from falling by means of filk firings, he found it eledtrified whenever a cloud paffed over it, receiving fparks by his finger from it, and charging coated phials. This great difcovery taught us to defend houfcs, and (hips, and temples, from lightning, and alfo to underfland that people are always perfectly fafe in a room during a thunder-florm, if they keep themfcl-ves at three or four fett diflance from the ivalls ; for the matter of lightning, in pafling from the clouds to the earth, or from the earth to the clouds, runs through the walls of a houfe, the trunk of a tree, or other elevated obje<Sl; except there be fome moifter body, as an animal, in contact with them, or nearly To; and in that cafe the lightning leaves the wall or tree, and pafies through the animal ; but as it can pafs. through metals with ftill greater fa- cility, it will leave animal bodies to pafs through metallic ones, If a. perfon, in the open air, be furprifed by a thunder-ftorm, he will know his danger by obferving, on a fecond watch, the time which pafies between the flalh and crack, and reckoning a mile for every four feconds and a half, and a little more. For found travels at the rate of 1141 feet in a fecond of time; and the velocity of light, through fuch fmall diftances, is not to be eftimated. In thefe circumftances a perfon would be fafer by lying down on the ground than ere6t, and ftill fafer if within a few feet of his horfe; which, being then a more elevated animal, will receive the fliock in pre- ference, as the cloud pafles over. See additional notes, No. XIII. Intrepid Love. 1. 389. This allegory is uncommonly beautiful, reprefent- ing Divine Jufttce as difarmed by Divine Love, and relenting of his purpofe. $ 4 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART I. Quick o'er-his knee the triple bolt He bent, The clufter'd darts and forky arrows rent, Snapt with illumin'd hands each flaming (haft, His tingling ringers (hook, and ftamp'd, and laugh'd; Bright o'er the floor the fcattered fragments blaz'd, 395 And Gods, retreating, trembled as they gaz'd ; The immortal Sire, indulgent to his child, Bow'd his ambrofial locks, and Heaven, relenting, fmiled. VIII. " When Air's pure eflence joins the vital flood, And with phofphoric Acid dyes the blood, 400 Your Virgin trains the tranfient heat difpart, And lead the foft combuftion round the heart ; Life's holy lamp with fires fucceflive feed, From the crown'd forehead to the proftrate weed, From Earth's proud realms to all that fwim or fvveep 405 The yielding ether or tumultuous deep. You fwell the bulb beneath the heaving lawn, Brood the live feed, unfold the burfting ipawn; It is exprefled on an agate in the Great Duke's collection at Florence. Spence. Tranfient heat difpart. 1. 401. Dr. Crawford, in his ingenious work on ani- mal heat, has endeavoured to prove, that during the combination of the pure part of the atmofphere with the phlogiftic part of the blood, that much of the matter of the heat is given out from the air ; and that this is the great and perpetual fource of the heat of animals: to which we 'may add, that the phof- phoric acid is probably produced by this combination; by which acid the colour of the blood is changed in the lungs from a deep crimfon to a bright Icarlct. There feems to he, however, another fource of animal heat, though of a fimilar nature ; and that is from the chemical combinations produced in all the glands; fince, by whatever caufe any glandular fecretion is in- creafed, as by friction or topical inflammation, the heat of that part becomes increased at the fame time; thus, after the hands have been for a time im- merled in fnow, on coming into a warm room, they become red and hot, without any increafed pulmonary action. BESIDES THIS, there would ieem to be another material received from the air by refpiration; which is fo neceflary to life, that the embryon muft learn to breathe almoft within a minute after its birth, or it dies. The perpetual neceflity of breathing ihews, that the material thus acquired is perpetually confuming cr efcap- jng, and, on that account, requires perpetual renovation. Perhaps the fpi- rit of animation itfelf is thus acquired from the atmofphere, which, if it be fuppofed to be finer or more fubtle than the electric matter, could not .long be retained in our bodies, and muft therefore require perpetual reno- vaton. CANTO I. ECONOMY OF VEGETATION. 25 Nurfe with foft lap, and warm with fragrant breath The embryon panting in the arms of Death; 410 Youth's vivid eye with living light adorn, And fire the rifing blufti of Beauty's golden morn. " Thus when the Egg of Night, on Chaos hurl'd, Burft, and difclofed the cradle of the world ; Firft from the gaping (hell refulgent fprung ' 41$ Immortal Love, his bow celeftial ftrung ; O'er the wide wafte his gaudy wings unfold, Beam his foft fmiles, and wave his curls of gold; With filver darts He pierced the kindling frame, And lit with torch divine the ever-living flame." 420 IX. The Goddefs paufed, admired with confcious pride The effulgent legions marfhal'd by her fide, Forms, fphered in fire, with trembling light array'd, Ens without weight, and fubftance without fhade ; And while tumultuous joy her bofom warms, 425 Waves her white hand, and calls her hofts to arms. " Unite, illuftrious Nymphs ! your radiant powers, Call from their long repofe the Vernal Hours. Wake with foft touch, with rofy hands unbind The ftruggling pinions of the weflern JVind: 430 Ybus tuben the Egg of Night, 1. 413. There were two Cupids belonging to the ancient mythology, one much elder than the other. The elder Cu- pid, or Eros, or Divine Love, was the firft that came out of the great egg of night, which floated in Chaos, and was broken by the horns of the celeftial bull, that is, was hatched by the warmth of the fpring. He was winged and armed, and by his arrows and torch pierced and vivified all things, producing life and joy. Bacon, vol. V. p. 197. Quarto edit. JLond. 1778. " At this time, (fays Ariftophanes,) fable-winged night pro- " duced an egg, from whence fprung up like a bloffom Eros, the lovely, " the deflrable, with his glofly golden wings." Avibus. Bryant's Mytho- logy, vol. II. p. 350, fecond edition. This interefting moment of this fublime allegory, Mrs. Cofway has chofen for her very beautiful painting. She has reprefented Eros, or Divine JLove, with large wings, having the ftrength of the eagle's wings, and the fplendour of the peacock's, with his hair floating in the form of flame, and with a halo of light vapour round his head, which illuminates the painting, while he is in the a& of fpr ing- ing forwards, and with his hands feparating the elements. Of the ivejtern Wind. 1. 430. The principal frofts of this country are ac- .companied or produced by u N. E. wind, and the thaws by a S. W. wind; PART I. E 26 BOTANIC QARDEN. PART I. Chafe his wan cheeks, his ruffled plumes repair, And wring the rain-drops from his tangled hair. Blaze round each Crofted rill, or ftagna'nt wave, And charm the NAIAD from her iilent cave; Where, ihrined in ice, like NIOBE {he mourns, 435 And clafps with hoary arms her empty urns. Call your bright myriads, trooping from afar, With beamy helms, and glittering (hafts of war ; In phalanx firm, the Fiend of Froft afTail, Break his white towers, and pierce his cryftal mail ; 440 the rcafon of which is, that the N. E. winds confift of regions of ai-r brought from the north, which appear to acquire an eafterly direction as they ad- vance; and the S. W. winds confift of regions of air brought from the fouth, which appear to acquire a wefterly direction as they advance. The furface of the earth nearer the pole moves flower than it dees in our latitude ; whence the regions of air brought from thence move flower, when they arrive hither, than the earth's furface, with which they now become in contact; that is, they acquire an apparent eafterly direction, as the earth moves from weft to eaft fafter than this new part of its atmofphere. The S. W. winds, on the contrary, confift of regions of air brought from the fouth, where the furface of the earth moves fafter than in our latitude ; and have, therefore, a wefterly direction when they arrive hither, by their mov- ing fafter than the furface of the earth, with which they are in contact ; and, in general, the nearer to the weft, and the greater the velocity of thefe winds, the warmer they fhould be in refpecl to the feafon of the year, fmce they have been brought more expeditioufly from the fouth than thofe winds which have lefs wefterly direction, and have thence been lefs cooled in their paflage. Sometimes I have obferved the thaw to commence immediately on the change of the wind, even within an hour, if I am not miftaken, or fooner. At other times, the S. W. wind has continued a day, or even two, before the thaw has commenced ; during which time fome of the frofty air, which had gone fouthwards, is driven back over us; and, in confequence, has taken a wefterly direction as well as a fouthtrn one. At other times, I have ob- ferved a froft, with a N. E. wind, every morning, and a thaw, with a S. W. wind, every noon, for feveral days together. See additional notes, No. XXXIII. The Plcnd of Frcjl. 1. 439. The principal injury done to vegetation by froft, is from the expanfion of the water contained in the velTels of plants. Water, converted into ice, occupies a greater i'pace than it did before, as appears by the burfting of bottles, filled with water at the time of their freez- ing. Hence froft deftroys thofe plants of our ifland firft, which are moft fucculent ; and the moft -fucculent parts firft of other plants, as their leaves and laft year's fhoots ; the vefiels of which are diftended and burft by the expanfion of their freezing fluids; while the drier, or more refinous plants,, as pines, yews, laurels, and other ever-grtens, are lefs liable to injury from cold. The trees in vallies are, on this account, more injured by the vernal frofts than thofe on eminences, becaul'e their early fucculent fhoots come out fooner. Hence fruit trees, covered by a fix-inch coping of a wall, are lefs injured by the vevnal froils, becaufe their being fhielded from Ihowers CANTO I. ECONOMY OF VEGETATION. a/ To Zembla's moon-bright coafts the Tyrant bear, And chain him, howling, to the Northern Bear. ** So when enormous GRAMPUS, iffuing forth From the pale regions of the icy North, Waves his broad tail, and opes his ribbed mouth, ,445 And feeks on winnowing fin the breezy South ; From towns deferted rufti the breathlefs hofts, Swarm round the hills, and darken all the coafts ; Boats follow boats along the fhouting tides, And fpears and javelins pierce his blubbery fides ; 450 Now the bold Sailor, raifed on pointed toe, Whirls the wing'd harpoon on the flimy foe; Quick finks the monfter in his oozy bed, The blood-ftain'd furges circling o'er his head, Steers to the frozen pole his wonted track, 455 And bears the iron tempeft on his back. / X. " On wings of flame ethereal Virgins ! fweep O'er Earth's fair bofom, and complacent deep ; Where dwell my vegetative realms benumb'd, In buds imprifon'd or in bulbs iutomb'd. 460 and the defcending night-dews, has prevented them from Being moift at the time of their being frozen ; which circumftance has given occafion to a vulgar error amongft gardeners, who fuppofe froft to defcend. As the common heat of the earth, in this climate, is 48 degrees, thofe ten- der trees which will bear bending down, are eafily fecured from the froft, by fpreading them upon the ground, and covering them with ftraw or fern. This particularly fuits fig-trees, as they eafily bear bending to the ground, and are furnifned with an acrid juice, which fecures them from the depre- dations of infecls, but are, neverthelefs, liable to be eaten by mice. See ad- ditional notes, No. XII. In buds imprifond. 1. 460. The buds and bulbs of plants conftitute what is termed by Linnaeus the Hybernaculum, or winter cradle of the embryon ve- getable. The buds arife from the bark on the branches of trees, and the bulbs from the caudex of bulbous-rooted plants, or the part from which the fibres of the root are produced: they are defended from too much moifture, and from frofts, and from the depredations of infects, by various contrivances, as by fcales, hairs, refmous varnifhes, and by acrid rinds. The buds of trees are of two kinds, either flower-buds or leaf-buds; the former of thefe produce their feeds, and die ; the latter produce other leaf- buds, or flower -buds, and die. So that all the buds of trees may be confi- dered as annual plants, having their embryon produced during the preceding fummer. The fame feems to happen with refpe6t to bulbs; thus a tulip produces annually one flower-bearing bulb, fometimes two, and feveral leaf- a8 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART T. Pervade, pellucid Forms ! their cold retreat, Ray from bright urns your viewlefs floods of heat ; From Earth's deep waftes define torrents pour, Or fhed from heaven the fcintillating fhower ; bearing bulbs ; and then the old root perifhes. Next year the flower-bearing bulb produces feeds and other bulbs, and perifhes ; while the leaf-bearing bulb, producing other bulbs only, perifhes likewife ; thefe circumftances cftablifh a ftridt analogy between bulbs and buds. See additional notes, No. XIV. Fieiulefs foods cf beat. 1. 461. The fluid matter of heat, or Calorique, in which all bodies are immerfed, is as neceflary to vegetable as to animal ex- iftence. It is not yet determinable whether heat and light be different ma- terials, or modifications of the fame materials, as they have fome properties in common. They appear to be both of them equally neceffary to vegeta- ble health, fmce, without light, green vegetables become firfl yellow ; that is, they lofe their blue colour, which contributed to produce the green ; and afterwards they alfo lofe the yellow, and become white ; as is feen in cel- lery blanched or etiolated for the table, by excluding the light from it. The upper furface of leaves, which I fuppofe to be their organ of refpira- tion 4 feems to require light as well as air; fmce plants which grow in win- dows, on the infide of houfes, are equally folicitous to turn the upper fide of their leaves to the light. Vegetables, at the fame time, exfude or per- fpire a great quantity from their leaves, as animals do from their lungs; this perfpirable matter, as it rifes from their fine veflels, (perhaps much finer than the pores of animal fkins,) is divided into inconceivable tenuity ; and, when a&ed upon by the fun's light, appears to be decompofed; the hydro- gene becomes a part of the vegetable, competing oils or refins; and the oxy- gene, combined with light or calorique, afcends, producing the pure part of the atmofphere, or vital air. Hence, during the light of the day, vegetables give up more pure air than their refpiration injures; but not fo in the night, even though equally expofed to warmth. This fingle fa6t would feem to ihew, that light is effentially different from heat; and it is, perhaps, by its combination with bodies, that their combined or latent heat is fet at liberty, and becomes fenfible. See additional notes, No. XXXIV. Electric torrents pour. 1. 463. The influence of electricity in forwarding *he germination of plants, and their growth, feems to be pretty well efta- blifhed, though Mr. Ingenhouz did not fucceed in his experiments, and thence doubts the fuccefs of thofe of others; and though Mr. Rouland, from his new experiments, believes that neither pofitive nor negative elec- tricity increafes vegetation, both which philosophers had previoufly been fuppofters of the contrary doctrine, for many other naturalifts have fmce repeated their experiments relative to this object, and their new refults have confirmed their former ones. Mr. D'Ormoy, and the two Roziers, have found the fame fuccefs in numerous experiments which they have made in the laft two years; and Mr. Carmoy has fhewn, in a convincing manner, that electricity accelerates germination. Mr. D'Ormoy not only found various feeds to vegetate fooner, and to grow taller, which were put upon his infulated table, and fupplied with elec- tricity, but alfo, that filk-worms began to fpin much fooner which were kept electrified, than thofe of the fame hatch, which were kept in the fame place and manner, except that they were not electrified. Thefe ex- periments of M% D'Ormoy are detailed at length in the Journal de Phyfique cf Rozier, Tom. XXXV. p. 270. CANT6I. ECONOMY OF VEGETATION. ^ Pierce the dull root, relax its fibre-trains, 465 Thaw the thick blood, which lingers in its veins ; Melt with warm breath the fragrant gums, that bind The expanding foliage in its fcaly rind ; And as in air the laughing leaflets play, And turn their {tuning bofoms to the ray, 470 NYMPHS ! with fweet fmile, each opening flower invite, And on its damaflk eyelids pour the light. " So (hall my pines, Canadian wilds that (hade, Where no bold ftep has pierc'd the tangled glade, High-towering palms, that part the Southern flood, 475 With fhadowy ifles, and continents of wood, Oaks, whofe broad antlers creft Britannia's plain, Or bear her thunders o'er the conquer'd main, Shout, as you pafs, inhale the genial ikies, And bafk and brighten in your beamy eyes ; 480 BOW their white heads, admire the changing clime; Shake from their candied trunks the tinkling rime ; With burfting buds their wrinkled barks adorn, And wed the timorous floret to her thorn ; Deep ftrike their roots, their lengthening tops revive, 485 And all my world of foliage wave, alive. " Thus, with Hermetic art, the ADEPT combines The royal acid with cobaltic mines ; M. Bartholon, who had before written a tract on this fubject, and pro- pored ingenious methods for applying electricity to agriculture and garden- ing, has alfo repeated a numerous fet-of experiments; and fhews, both that natural electricity, as well as the artificial, increafes the growth of plants, and the germination of feeds; and oppofes Mr. Ingenhouz by very nume- rous and conclufive facts. Ib. Tom. XXXV. p. 401. Since, by the late difcoveries or opinions of the chemifts, there is reafon to believe, that water is decompofed in the veflels of vegetables ; and that the Hydrogene, or inflammable air, of which it in part confifls, contributes to the nourifhment of the plant, and to the production of its oils, refms, gums, fugar, &c. and, laftly, as electricity decompofes water into thefe two airs, termed Oxygene and Hydrogene, there is a powerful analogy to induce us to believe, that it accelerates or contributes to the growth of ve- getation, and, like heat, may pofiibly enter into combination with many bodies, or form the bafis of fome yet unanalized acid. Tk:is ivith Hermetic art. 1. 487. The fympathetic inks made by Zaffre, difiblvedin the marine and nitrous acids, have this curious property, that, 3$ BOTANIC GARDEN. PART I. Marks, with quick pen, in lines unfeen portrayed, The blu(hing mead, green dell, and dufky glade; 490 Shades, with pellucid clouds, the tintlefs field, And all the future Group exifts conceal'd ; Till, waked by fire, the dawning tablet glows, Green fprings the herb, the purple floret blows ; Hills, vales, and woods, in bright fucceffion rife, 495 And all the living landfcape charms his eyes. XI. " With creft of gold fhould fuhry SIRTUS glare, And with his kindling treffes fcorch the air; With points of flame the (hafts of Summer arm, And burn the beauties he defigns to warm : 500 So erft when JOVE his oath extorted mourn 'd, And, clad in glory, to the Fair return'd ; While Loves at forky bolts their torches light, And refting lightnings gild the car of Night; His blazing form the dazzled Maid admir'd, 505 Met with fond lips, and in his arms expir'd; Nymphs ! on light pinion lead your banner'd hofts High o'er the cliffs of ORKNEY'S gulphy coafts ; Leave on your left the red volcanic light, Which HECLA lifts amid the dufky night; 510 Mark, on the right, the Dofrinis fnow-capt brow, Where whirling Maelftrome roars and foams below ; Watch, with unmoving eye, where CEP HE us bends His triple crown, his fcepter'd hand extends ; being brought to the fire, one of them becomes green, and the other red; but what is more wonderful, they again lofe thefc colours (unlefs the heat has been too great,) on their being again withdrawn from the fire. Fire- fcreens have been thus painted, which, in the cold, have fhewn only the trunk and branches of a dead tree, and fandy hills, which, on their approach to the fire, have put forth green leaves and red flowers, and grafs upon the mountains. The procefs of making thcfc inks is very eafy; take Zaffire, as fold by the druggifts, and digeft it in aqua-regia, and the calx of Cobalt will be dhTolved ; which folution muft be diluted with a little common water, to prevent it frorn making too ftrong an impreffion on the paper; the co- lour, when the paper is heated, becomes of a fine green-blue. If Zaffre, or Regulus of Cobalt, be diffolved in the fame manner in fpirit of nitre, or aqua-fortis, a reddifh colour is produced on expofing the paper to heat. Che- mical Dictionary, by Mr. Keir, art. Ink Sympathetic. CANTCX!. ECONOMY OF VEGETATION. $t Where ftuds CASSIOPE, with ftars unknown, 515 Her golden chair, and gems her fapphire zone ; Where with vaft convolution DRACO holds The ecliptic axis in his fcaly folds, O'er half the ikies his neck enormous rears, And with immenfe meanders parts the BEARS; 520 Onward the kindred BEARS, with footftep rude, Dance round the pole, purfuing and purfued. *' There in her azure coif and ft any dole, Grey Twilight fits, and rules the {lumbering Pole; Bends the pale moon-beams round the fparkling coaft, 525 And ftrews, with livid hands, eternal froft. There, Nymphs ! alight, array your dazzling powers, With fudden march alarm the torpid Hours ; On ice-built ifles expand a thoufand fails, Hinge the ftrong helms, and catch the frozen gales; 530 With Jlars unknown. 1. 515. Alluding to the ftar which appeared in the thair of Cafliopea in the year 1572, which, at firft, furpaffed Jupiter in mag- nitude and brightnefs, diminifhed by degrees, and difappeared in 1 8 months; it alarmed all the aftronomers of the age, and was efteemed a comet by ibme. Could this have been the Georgium Sidus ? On ice-built i/les. 1. 529. There are many reafons to believe, from the ac- counts of travellers and navigators, that the iflands of ice in the higher northern latitudes, as well as the Glaciers on the Alps, continue perpetually to increafe in bulk. At certain times in the ice-mountains of Switzerland, there happen cracks which have fhown the great thicknefs of the ice, as fome of thefe cracks have meafured three or four hundred ells deep. The great iflands of ice in the northern feas near Hudfon's bay, have been ob- ferved to have been immerfed above one hundred fathoms beneath the fur- lace of the fea, and to have rifen a fifth or fixth part above the furface, and to have meafured between three and four miles in circumference. PhiL Tranf. No. 465. Se&. 2. Dr. Lifter endeavoured to mew, that the ice of fea-water contains fome fait, and perhaps lefs air than common ice, and that it is, therefore, much more difficult of folution; whence he accounts for the perpetual and great increafe of thefe floating iflands of ice. Philof. Tranf. No. 169. As, by a famous experiment of Mr. Boyle's, it appears, that ice evapo- rates very faft in fevere frofty weather, when the wind blows upon it ; and as ice, in a thawing ftate, is known to contain fix times more cold than wa- ter at the fame degree of fenfible coldnefs, it is eafy to underftand, that winds blowing over iflands and continents of ice, perhaps much below no- thing on Fahrenheit's fcale, and coming from thence into our latitude, muft bring great degrees of cold along with them. If we add to this the quan- tity of cold produced by the evaporation of the water, as well as by the folution of the ice, we cannot doubt but that the northern ice is the prin- cipal fource of the coldnefs of our winters, and that it is brought hither by ihe regions of air blowing from the north, and which take an apparent ji BOTANIC GARDEN'. PART!, The winged rocks to feverifh climates guide, Where fainting Zephyrs pant upon the tide ; Pafs, where to CEUTA CALPE'S thunder roars, And anfwering echoes (hake the kindred {bores ; Pafs, where with palmy plumes CANARY fmiles, 535 And in her filver girdle binds her ifles ; Onward, where Niger's dufky Naiad laves A thoufand kingdoms with prolific waves, Or leads o'er golden fands her threefold train In fteamy channels to the fervid main, 540 While fwarthy nations croud the fultry coafl, Drink the frerti breeze, and hail the floating Froft, Nymphs ! veilM in mift, the melting treafures fleer, And cool, with artic fnows, the tropic year. So from the burning Line, by Monfoons driven, . 545 Clouds fail in fquadrons o'er the darkened heaven ; eafterly direction, by their coming to a part of the fufface of the earth which moves fafter than the latitude they come from. Hence the increafe of the ice in the polar regions, by increasing the cold of our climate, adds, at the fame time, to the bulk of the Glaciers of Italy and Switzerland. If the nations who inhabit this hemifphere of the globe, inftead of de- ftroying their feamen, and exhaufting their wealth in unneceffary wars, could be induced to unite their labours to navigate thefe immenfe mafles of ice into the more fouthern oceans, two great advantages would refult to mankind; the tropic countries would be much cooled by their iblution, and our winters, in this latitude, would be rendered much milder, for perhaps a century or two, till the mafles of ice become again enormous. Mr. Bradley afcribes the cold winds and wet weather which fometimes happen in May and June, to the folution of ice-iflands accidentally floating from the north. Treatife on Huibandry and Gardening, vol. II. p. 437. And adds, that Mr. Barham, about the year 1718, in his voyage from Ja- maica to England, in the beginning of June, met with ice-iflands coming from the north, which were furrounded with fo great a fog, that the fhip was in danger of flriking upon them, and that one of them meafured fixty miles in length. We have lately experienced an inftance of ice-iflands brought from the fouthern polar regions, on which the Guardian {truck at the beginning of her pafluge from the Cape of Good-Hope towards Botany-Bay, on Decem- ber 22, 1789. Thefe iflands were involved in mift, were about one hun- dred and fifty fathoms long, and about fifty fathoms above the furface of the water. A part from the top of one of them broke otF, and fell into the fea, caufing an extraordinary commotion in the water, and a thick fmoke all round it. Threefold train. 1. 539. The river Niger, after traverfing an immenfe tra.51 of populous country, is fuppofed to divide itfelf into three other great rivers; the Rio Grande, the Gambia, and the Senegal. Gold-dull is ob- tained from the fands of thefe rivers. CANTO I. ECONOMY OF VEGETATION. 33 Wide wades of fand the gelid gales pervade, And Ocean cools beneath the moving (hade. ' XII. Should SOLSTICE, ftalking through the fickening bower;s, Suck the warm dew-drops, lap the falling mowers; 550 Kneel, with parch'd lip, and bending from its brink, From dripping palm the fcanty river drink ; Nymphs ! o'er die foil ten thoufand points eret> And high in air the electric flame collecl:. Soon (hall dark' mifts, with felf-attraclion, mroud 555 The blazing day, and fail in wilds of cloud; Each tilvery Flower the dreams aerial quaff, Bow her fweet head, and infant Harved laugh. " Thus when ELIJA mark'd from CarmePs brow In bright expanfe the briny flood below ; Roli'd his red eyes amid the fcorching air, Smote his firm ( bread, and breath'd his ardent prayer; Wide ivajlt-s of fund. 1. 547. When the fun is in the fouthem tropic, 3<jf deg. diftant from the zenith, the thermometer is feldom lower than 72 deg. at Gonclar, in Abyffinia, but it fails to 60 or 53 deg. when the fun is im- mediately vertical ; fo much does the approach of rain counteract the heat of the fun. Bruce's Travels, vol. III. p. ^70. Ten tboufand points erett. 1. 553. The folution of water in air, or in calo- rique, feems to acquire electric matter, at the fame time, as appears from an experiment of Mr. Bennet. He put fome live coals into an infulated funnel of metal, and throwing on them a little water, obferved, that the af- cending fleam was eleclrifed plus, and the water which defcended through the funnel was electrifed minus. Hence it appears, that though clouds, by their change of form, may fometimes become eledtrifed minus, yet they have, in general, an accumulation of electricity. This accumulation of electric matter alfo evidently contributes to fupport the atmofpheric vapour ^vheft it is condenled into the form of clouds, bccaufe it is feen to deicend rapidly after the flaihes of lightning have diminifhed its quantity; whence there is reafon to conclude, that very numerous metallic rods, with fine points erected high in the air, might induce it, at any time, to part with fome of its water. If we may trull the theory of Mr. Lavoifier Concerning the compofi- tion and decompoljtion of water, there would feem another fource of thunder- (howers; and that is, that the two gaffes termed exygene gas, or vital air, and hydrogene gas, or inflammable air, may exift in the lummer atmoiphere in a ftate of mixture, but not of combination, and that the elec- tric fpark, or flalh of lightning, may combine them, and produce water in* flantaneoufly. PART I. f 34 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART L High in the miclft a mafly altar flood, And flaughter'd offerings prefs'd the piles of wood ; While ISRAEL'S chiefs thefacred hill furround, 565 And famifh'd armies croud the dufty ground ; While proud Idolatry was leagu'd with dearth, And withered Famine fwept the defert earth. " O/2, mighty LORD ! thy woe-worn fervant hear, " Who calls thy name in agony of prayer; 570 " Thy fanes difhonour'd, and thy prophets (lain, " Lo ! I alone furvive of all thy train ! " Oh, fend from heaven thy facred fire and pour " O'er the parch'd land the falutary fhower, " So fhall thy Prieft thy erring flock recal, 575 " And fpeak in thunder,- Thou art Lord of all." He cried, and kneeling on the mountain-fands, Stretch'd high in air his fupplicating hands. - Defcending flames the dufky fhrine illume; Fire the wet wood, the facred bull confume ; 580 Wing'd from the fea the gathering mitts arife, And floating waters darken all the fkies ; The King, with fluffed reins, his chariot bends, And wide o'er earth the airy flood defcends; With mingling cries difperfing hofts applaud, 585 And (homing nations own THE LIVING GOD." The Goddcfs ceafed the exulting tribes obey, Start from the foil, and win their airy way ; The vaulted fkies, with ftreams of tranfient rays, Shine, as they pafs, and earth and ocean blaze. 596 So from fierce wars, when lawlefs Monarchs ceafe, Or Liberty returns with laurel'd Peace, Bright fly the fparks, the colour'd luftres burn, Flafli follows flufli. and flame- wino'd. circles turn; Blue ferpents fvveep along the dufky air, 595 Lnp'd by long trains of fcinlillating hair; Red rockets rife, loud cracks are heard on high, And fhowers of flars rufh headlong from the fky, Burft, as in iilver lines they hifs along, And the quick flam, unfolds the gazing throng. 600 ARGUMENT SECOND CANTO. ADDRESS to the Gnomes. I. The Earth thrown from a volcano of thev Sun ; its atmofphere and ocean ; its journey through the zodiac ; vicifiitude of day-light, and of feafons, II. II. Primeval Iflands. Paradife, or the golden age. Venus rifmg from the fea, 33. III. The firft great earthquakes ; continents raifed from the fea; the Moon thrown from a volcano, has no atmofphere, and is frozen; the earth's diurnal motion retarded; its axis jnorc inclined; whirls with the moon round a new centre, 67. IV. Forma- tion of lime-fton* by aqueous folution; calcareous fpar; white marble; an- cient ftatue of Hercules refting from his labours. Antinous. Apollo of Belvidere. Venus de Medici. Lady Elizabeth Fofter, and Lady Melbourn, by Mrs. Darner, 93. V. i. Of moraffes. Whence the production of fait by elutriation. Salt-mines at Cracow, 115. 2. Production of nitre. Mars and Venus caught by Vulcan, 143. 3. Production of iron. Mr. Michel's improvement of artificial magnets. Ufes of fteel in agriculture, navigation, war, 183. 4. Production of acids, whence Flint, Sea-fand, Selenite, Af- beflus, Fluor, Onyx, Agate, Mocho, Opal, Sapphire, Ruby, Diamond. Jupiter and Europa, 215. VI. I. New fubterraneous fires from fermenta- tion. Production of Clays; manufacture of Porcelain in China; in Italy; in England. Mr. Wedgwood's works at Etruria, in Staffordfhire. Ca- meo of a Slave in Chains ; of Hope. Figures on the Portland or Barberini vafe explained, 271. 2. Coal; Pyrite; Naptha; Jet; Amber. Dr. Frank- lin's difcovery of difarming the Tempeft of its lightning. Liberty of Ame- rica; of Ireland; of France, 349. VII. Ancient central fubterraneous fires. Production of Tin, Copper, Zink, Lead, Mercury, Platina, Gold, and Sil- ver. Deftruction of Mexico. Slavery of Africa, 395. VIII. Deftruction of the armies of Cambyfes, 431. IX. Gnomes like ftars of an Orrery. Inroads of the fea flopped. Rocks cultivated. Hannibal paffes the, Alps, 499. X. Matter circulates. Manures to Vegetables like Chyle to Animals. Plants rifmg from the Earth. St. Peter delivered from Prifon, 537. Tranfmi- gration of matter, 575. Death and refufcitation of Adonis, 585. Depar- ture of the Gnomes, 6ll. THE BOTANIC GARDEN. ECONOMY OF VEGETATION. CANTO II. -TxND now the Goddefs, with attention fweet, Turns to the Gnomes that circle round her feet ; Orb within orb approach the marftial'd trains, And pigmy legions darken all the plains ; Thrice fhout, with lilver tones, the applauding bands, 5 Bow, ere She fpeaks, and clap their fairy hands. So the tall grafs, when noon-tide zephyr blows, Bends its green blades in undulating rows ; Wide o'er the fields the billowy tumult fpreads, And ruftling harvefts bow their golden heads. 10 I. " Gnomes ! your bright forms, prefiding at, her birth, Clung in fond fquadrons round the new-born Earth ; When high in ether,' with explofion dire, From the deep craters of his realms of fire, The whirling Sun this ponderous planet hurl'd, 15 And gave the aftonifh'd void another world. When from its vaporous air, condenfed by cold, Defcending torrents into oceans roll'd ; From the deep craters. I. 14. The exiftence of folar volcanos is counte- nanced by their analogy to terreftrial and lunar volcanos, and by the fpots on the fun's dilk, which have been fhewn by Dr. Wilfon to be excavations through its luminous furface, and may be fuppofed to be the cavities from, whence the planets and comets were ejected by explofions. See additional notes, No. XV. on folar volcanos. When from its -vaporous air. 1. 17. If the nucleus of the earth was thrown out from the fun by an explofion, along with as large a quantity of fur- rounding hot vapour as its attraction would occafion to accompany it, the ponderous fcmi-fluid nucleus, would take a fpherical form, from the attrac- 3.8 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART!. And fierce attraction, with relcntlefs force, Bent the reluctant wanderer to its courfe. 20 " Where yet the Bull, with diamond-eye, adorns The Spring's fair forehead, and with golden horns ; Where yet the Lion climbs the ethereal plain, And {hakes the Summer from his radiant mane ; Where Libra lifts her airy arm, and weighs, 25 Poifed in her filver balance, nights and days; With paler luftres where Aquarius burns, And mowers the ftill fnow from his hoary urns; Your ardent troops purfued the flying fphere, Circling the ftarry girdle of the year; 30 While fvveet viciffitudes of day and clime JyfarkM the new annals of enafcent Time. II. " You trod, with printlefs ftep, Earth's tender globe, While Ocean wrap'd it in his azure robe ; Beneath his waves her hardening ftrata fpread, 35 Raifed her Primeval I/lands from his bed, tlon of Its own parts, which would become an oblate fpheroid from its di- urnal revolution. As the vapour cooled the water v/ould be precipitated, and an ocean would furround the fpherical nucleus with a fuper-incumbent atmofphere. The nucleus of folar lava would likewife become harder as it became cooler. To underftand how the ftrata of the earth were afterwards formed from the fediments of this circumfluent ocean, the reader is refer- red to an ingenious Treatife on the Theory of tHe Earth, by Mr. White- hurfl, who was. many years a watch-maker and engineer 'at Derby, but whofe ingenuity, integrity, and humanity, were rarely equalled in any fta- tion of life. While Ocean larap'd. 1. 34. See additional notes, No. XVI. on the pro- duction of calcareous earth. Her hardening Jlrata fpread. \.3$. The granite, or moor-ftone, or porpbory, conftitute the oideft part of the globe, fince the lime-ftone, {hells, coralloids, and other fea productions, reft upon them; and upon thefe fea productions are found clay, iron, coal, fait, and filiceous fand, or grit-ftone. Thus there feem to be three divifions of the globe diftinclly marked : the firft I fuppofe to have been the original nucleus of the earth, or lava projected from the fun; 2. over this lie the recrements of animal and vegetable matter pro- duced in the ocean; and, 3. over thefe the recrements of animal and vege- table matter produced upon the land. Befides thefe there are bodies which owe their origin to a combination of thofe already mentioned, as filiceous fand, fluor, alabafter, which feem to have derived their acids orginally from the vegetable kingdom, and their earthy bafes from fea productions. See additional notes, No. XVI. on calcareous earth. Ra'jfed her Primeval I/lands. 1. 36. The nucleus of the earth, ftill covered CANTO II. ECONOMY OF VEGETATION. 39 Stretch 'd her wide lawns, and funk her winding dells, And deck'd her fliores with corals, pearls, and {hells. " O'er thofe bleft ifles no ice-crown'd mountains tower'd, No lightnings darted, and no tempefts lower'd; 40 Soft fell the vefper-drops, condenfed below, Or bent in air the rain-refra&ed how ; Sweet breathed the zephyrs, juft perceiv'd and loft ; And brinelefs billows only kifs'd the coaft ; Round the bright zodiac danc'd the vernal, hours, 45 And Peace, the Cherub, dwelt in mortal bowers ! " So young DIONE, nurfed beneath the waves, And rock'd by Nereids in their coral caves, Charm'd the blue fifterhood with playful wiles, Lifp'd her fweet tones, and tried her tender fmiles. 50 with water, received perpetual increafe by the immenfe quantities of fhells and coralloids either annually produced and relinquifhed, or left after the death of the animals. Thefe would gradually, by their different degrees of cohefion, be,fome of them more and others lefs, removeable, by the influence of folar tides, and gentle tropical breezes, which then muft have probably extended from one pole to .the other; for it is fuppofed the moon was not yet produced, and that no ftorms, or unequal winds, had yet exiftence. Hence, then, the primeval iflands had their gradual origin, were raifed but a few feet above the level of the fea, and were not expofed to the great or fudden variations of heat and cold, as is fo well explained in Mr. Whitehurft's Theory of the Earth, chap. xvi. Whence the paradife of the facred writers, and the golden age of the profane ones, feems to have had a real exiftence. As there can be no rainbow, when the heavens are covered with clouds, becaufe the fun-beams are then precluded from falling upon the rain-drops oppoiite to the eye of the fpedtator, the rainbow is a mark of gentle or partial fhowcrs. Mr. Whitehurft has endeavoured to fliow, that the primitive iflands were only moiftened by nodurnal dews, and not by fhowers, as occurs at this day to the Delta of Egypt ; and is thence of opi- nion, that the rainbow had no exiftence till after the production of moun- tains and continents. As the fait of the fea has been gradually accumulat- ing, being wafhed down into it from the recrements of animal and vege- table bodies, the fea muft originally have been as freih as river water ; and as it is not yet faturated with fait, mufl become annually more faline. See note on 1. 117 of this Canto. So young Dicne. 1. 47. There is an ancient gem reprefenting Venus rifing out of the ocean, fupported by two Tritons. From the formality of the defign, it would appear to be of great antiquity, before the intro- duction of fine tafte into the world. It is probable, that this beautiful allegory was originally an hieroglyphic piclure (before the invention of let- ters) deicriptive of the formation of the earth from the ocean, which fcenvs to have been an opinion of many of the moft ancient philofophers. 40 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART I, Then, on her beryl throne, by Tritons borne, Bright rofe the Godclefs like the Star of morn ; When with foft fires the milky dawn He leads, And wakes to life and love the laughing meads ; With rofy fingers, as uncurPd they hung 55 Round her fair brow, her golden locks (he wrung ; O'er the fmooth furge on filver fandals flood, And look'd enchant menc on the dazzled flood. The bright drops rolling from her lifted arms, In flow meanders wander o'er her charms, 60 Seek round her fnowy neck their lucid track, Pearl her white (boulders, gem her ivory back, Round her fine waift and fwelling bofom fwim, And ftar with glittering brine each cryftal limb. The immortal form enamour'd Nature hail'd, 65 And Beauty blazed to heaven and earth, unveil'd. III. " You! who then, kindling after many an age, Saw, with new fires, the firft volcano rage, Tbejirjl -volcano. 1. 68. As the earth, before the exiftence of earthquakes, was nearly level, and the greateft part of it covered with fea; when the firft great fires began deep in the internal parts of it, thofc parts would become much expanded; this expansion would be gradually extended, as the heat increafed, through the whole terraqueous globe of ; ooo miles diame- ter ; the cruft would thence, in many places, open into fiffures, which, by admitting the fea to flow in upon the fire, would produce not only a quan- tity of fleam beyond calculation, by its expanfion, but would alfo, by its de- compofition, produce inflammable air and vital air in quantities beyond con- ception, fufficient to effect thofe violent explofions, the veftiges of which, all over the world, excite our admiration and our ftudy. The difficulty of un- derftanding how fubterraneous fires could exift without the prefence of air, has difappeared fmce Dr. Prieflley's difcoveries of fuch great quantities of pure air, which conftitute all the acids, and, confequently, exift in all faline bodies, as fea-falt, nitre, lime-ftone, and in all calciform ores, as manganefe, calamy, ochre, and other mineral fubftances. See an ingenious treatife, by Mr. Michel, on earthquakes, in the Philof. Tranf. In thtfe firft tremendous ignitions of the globe, as the continents were heaved up, the jailies, which now hold the fea, were formed by the earth, fubfiding into the cavities made by the rifing mountains, as the fteam which railed them condenfed; which would thence not have any caveins of great extent remain beneath them, as fome philofophers have imagined. The earthquakes of modern days are of very fmall extent indeed, compared to thofe of ancient times, and are ingenioufly compared, by M. De Luc, to the o.perations of a mob-hill, where, from a fmall cavity, are raifed, from time to time, fmall quantities of lava, or pumice-ftone. Monthly Review, June, 1790. CANTO II. ECONOMY OF VEGETATION. 41 O'er faiouldcring heaps of livid fulphur fwcll At Earth's firm centre, and diftend her {hell, 70 Saw, at each opening cleft, the furnace glow, And feas rufli headlong on the gulphs below. Gnomes ! how you fhriek'd, when through the troubled air Roar'd the fierce din of elemental war ; When rofe the continents, and funk the main, 75 And Earth's huge fphere, exploding, burft in twain. Gnomes ! how you gazed, when from her wounded fide, Where now the South- Sea heaves its wafte of tide, Rofe on fwift wheels the MOON'S refulgent car, Circling the folar orb, a lifter flar, 80 Dimpled with vales, with fliining hills embofs'cl, And rolTd round earth her airlefs realms of froft. * ; Gnomes ! how you trembled, with the dreadful force, When Earth, recoiling, ftagger'd from her courfe; The Moon's refulgent cat;. 1. 79. See additional notes, No. XV. on folar volcanos. Her altlcfs realms of frojl. 1. 82. If the moon had no atmofphere at the time of its elevation from the earth, or if its atmofphere was afterwards ftolen from it by the earth's attraction, the water on the moon would rife quickly into vapour, and the cold produced by a certain quantity of this evaporation, would congeal the remainder of it. Hence it is not probable that the moon is at prefent inhabited, but, as it feems to have fuffered, and to continue to fuffer much by volcanos, a fufficient quantity of air may, in procefs of time, be generated to produce an atmofphere, which may prevent its heat from fo eafily efcaping, and its water from fo eafily evaporating, and thence become fit for the production of vegetables and animals. That the moon pofleffes little or no atmofphere, is deduced from the un- diminifiied luftre of the flars, at the inftant when they emerge from be- hind her diflc. That the ocean of the moon is frozen, is confirmed from there being no appearance of lunar tides, which, if they cxiiled, would cover- the part of her dilk neareft the earth. See note on Canto III. 1. 61. When Earthy recoiling. I. 84. On fuppofition that the moon was thrown from the earth by the explofion of water, or the generation of other vapours oi greater power, the remaining part of the globe would recede from its orbit in one direction as the moon receded in another, and that in propor- tion to the refpective momentum of each, and would afterwards revolve round their common centre of gravity. If the moon rofe from any part of the earth except exactly at the line or poles, the {hock would tend to turn the axis of the earth out of its previ- ous direction. And as a mafs of matter rifing from deep parts of the globe would have previoufly acquired lefs diurnal velocity than the earth's furface, -from whence it rofe, it v/ould receive, during the time of its rifiug, addi- PART I. G 42 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART I, When, as her Line in flower circles fpun, 85 And her fhock'd axis nodded from the fun, With dreadful march the accumulated main Swept her vaft wrecks of mountain, vale, and plain ; And, while new tides their (liouting floods unite, And hail their Queen, fair Regent of the night, 90 Chain'd to one centre, whirl'd the kindred fpheres, And mark'd with lunar cycles folar years. IV. " Gnomes! you then bade diflblving Shell* diftil From the loofe fummits of each fhatter'd hill, To each tine pore and dark inteiftice flow, 95 And fill with liquid chalk the mafs below. Whence fparry forms in dufky caverns gleam With borrow'd light, and twice refract the beamj While in white beds congealing rocks beneath Court the nice chifiel, and defire to breathe. 100 tional velocity from the earth's furface, and would, confequently, fo much retard the motion of the earth round its axis. When the earth thus receded, the fhock would overturn all its buildings and forefts, and the water would rum, with inconceivable violence, over its furface, towards the new fatellite, from two caufes, both by its not at firft acquiring the velocity with which the earth receded, and by the attraction of the new moon, as it leaves the earth: on thefe accounts, at firft, there would be but one tide till the moon receded to a greater diftance, and the earth, moving round a common centre of gravity between them, the water on the fide fartheft from the moon would acquire a centrifugal force, in refpetSt to this common centre, between itfelf and the moon. Diflolving Jbells dijlil. 1. 93. The lime-ftone rocks have had their origin from fhells formed beneath the fea, the ibfter ftrata gradually diflblving, and filling up the interftices of the harder ones;, afterwards, when thefe accu- mulations of {hells were elevated above the waters, the upper ftrata be- came diffolved by the actions of the air and dews, and filled up the inter- fUces beneath, producing fclid rocks of different kinds, from the coarfe lime- itones to the fineft marbles. When thofe lime-ftones have been in fuch a fituation that they could form perfect cryftals, they are called fpars, fome of which poffefs a double refraction, as obferved by Sir Ifaac Newton. When thefe cryftals are jumbled together, or mixed with fome colouring impurities,, it is termed marble, if its texture be equable and firm; if its texture be coarfe and porous, yet hard, it is called limc-ftone ; if its texture be very loofe and porous, it is termed chalk In fome rocks the mells remain almoft unchang- ed, and only covered, or bedded, with lime-ftone, which feems to have been diffolved, and funk down amongft them. In others the fofter mells and bones are diffolved, and only fhark's teeth, or harder echini, have preferved thei r form, inveloped in the chalk or lime-ftone. In fome marbles the folution has been complete, and no vefliges of fhell appear, as in the white kind, called ftatuary by the workmen. Sec additional notes, No. XVI. ' CANTO II. ' ECONOMY OF VEGETATION. 43 " Hence wearied HERCULES in marble rears His languid limbs, and refts a thoufand years ; Still, as he leans {hall young ANTINOUS pleafe With carelefs grace, and unaffected eafe ; Onward, with loftier ftep, APOLLO fpring, 105 And launch the unerring arrow from the firing ; In Beauty's bafhful form, the veil unfurPd, Ideal VENUS win the gazing world. Hence, on ROUBILIAC'S tomb {hall Fame fublime Wave her triumphant wings, and conquer Time; I IO Long with foft touch {hall DAMER'S chifiel charm, With grace delight us, and with t>eauty warm ; FOSTER'S fine form {hall hearts unborn engage", And MELBOURN'S fmile enchant another age. V. " Gnomes ! you then taught tranfuding dews to pafs Through time-fall'n woods, and root-inwove morafs 116 Age after age; and with filtration fine Difpart, from earths and fulphurs, the faline. Hence ivearied Hercules. 1. IOI. Alluding to the celebrated Hercules of Glyco refting after his labours; and to the eafy attitude of Antinous; the lofty ftep of the Apollo of Belvidere ; and the retreating modefty of the Ve- nus de Medici. Many of the defigns of Roubiliac, in Weftminfter Abbey, are uncommonly poetical ; the allegory of Time and Fame contending for the' trophy of General Wade, which is here alluded to, is beautifully told; the wings of Fame are ftill expanded, and her hair ftill floating in the air; which not only fhevvs that fhe has that moment arrived, but alfo that her force is not yet expended ; at the fame time that the old figure of Time, with his difordered wings, is rather leaning backwards, and yielding to her impulfe, and muft apparently, in another inftant, be driven from his attack upon the trophy. Fojlers fine form. 1, 113. Alluding to the beautiful ftatues of Lady Elizabeth Fofter, and of Lady Melbourn, executed by the honourable Mrs. Darner. Root-inwove morafs. 1. 1 1 6. The. great mafs of matter which refts upon the lime-ftone ftrata of the earth, or upon the granite, where the lime-ftone ftratum has been removed by earthquakes, or covered by lava, hcis had its origin from the recrements of vegetables and of air-breathing animals, as the lime-ftone had its origin from fea animals. The whole habitable world was originally covered with woods, till mankind formed themfeives into focie- ties, and fubdued them by fire and by fteel. Hence woods, in uncultivated countries, have grown and fallen through many ages, whence mcraffes of immenfe extent; and from thefe, as the more foluble parts were wafhed away firft, were produced fea-falt, nitre, iron, and variety of acids,., which, combining with calcareous matter, were productive of many fcfiil bodies, as flint, iea-fand, felenite, with the precious ftones, and perhaps the diamond. See additional notes, No. XVTi. 44 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART!. I. " Hence, with diffufive Salt old Ocean fteeps His, emerald {hallows, and his fapphire deeps. I2O Oft in wide lakes, around their warmer brim, In hollow pyramids the cryftals fwim ; Or, fufed by earth-born fires, in cubic blocks Shoot their white forms, and harden into rocks. " Thus, cavern'd round in CRACOW'S mighty mines, 125 With cryftal walls a gorgeous city fhines ; Scoop'd in the briny rock long ftreets extend Their hoary courfe, and glittering domes afcend ; Hence, with J/Jfiifive Salt. 1. 119. Salts of various kinds are produced from the recrements of animal and vegetable bodies, fuch as phofphorir, ammoniacal, marine fait, and others; thefe are waihed from the earth by rains, and carried down our rivers into the fea; they feem all here to de- compofe each other, except the marine fait, which has, therefore, from the beginning of the habitable world, been perpetually accumulating. There is a town in the immenfe falt-mines of Cracow, in Poland, with a market-place, a river, a church, and a famous ftatue, (here fuppofed to be of Lot's wife) by the moift or dry appearance of which the fubterranean in- habitants are faid to know when the weather is fair above ground. The gal- leries in thefe mines are fo numerous and fo intricate, that wotkmen have frequently loft their way, their lights having been burnt out, and have pe- rifhed before they could be found. Effais, &c. par M. Macquart. And though the arches of thefe different ftories of galleries are boldly executed, yet they are not dangerous, as they are held together, or fupported, by larg-c rnafies of timber of a foot fquare ; and thefe vaft timbers remain perfectly found for many centuries, while all other pillars, whether of brick, cement, or fait, foon diffolve, or moulder away. Ibid. Could the timbers over wa- ter-mill wheels or cellars, be thus preferved by occafionally foaking them with brine? Thefe immenfe maffes of rock-falt feem to have been pro- duced by the evaporation of fea-water, in the early periods of the world, by fubterranean fires. Dr. Hutton's Theory of the Earth. See alfo Theo- rie des Sources Salees, par M. Struve. Hiiloire de Sciences de Laufanne, Tom. II. This idea of Dr. Hutton's is confirmed by a facft mentioned in M. Macquart's Effais fur Mineralogie, who found a great quantity of foffil ihells, principally bi-valves and madre-poree, in the falt-mines of Wialiczka, near Cr*cow. During the evaporation of the lakes of falt-water, as in ar- tificial lalt-works, the fait begins to cryftallize near the edge, where the water is fhalloweft, forming hollow inverted pyramids, which, when they become of a certain lize, fubfide by their gravity; if urged by a ftronger fire, the fait fufes, or forms large cubes; whence the fait fhaped in hollow pyramids, called fiake-falt, is better tailed, and preferves flefii better, than the baiket or powder fait; becaufe it is made by lefs heat, and thence con- tains more of the marine acid. The fea-water about oi:r ifhnd contains from about one twenty-eighth to one thirtieth part of fea-fnlt, and about one eightieth of magneiian fait. See Brownrigg on Suit. So-: note on 0;}- ij vol. II. of this work. CANTO II. ECONOiMY OF VEGETATION. 45 Down the bright fteeps, emerging into day, Impetuous fountains burft their headlong way, 130 O'er milk-white vales in ivory channels fpread, And wandering, feek their fubterraneous bed. Form'd in pellucid fait, with chiiTel nice, The pale lamp glimmering through the fculptured ice, With wild reverted eyes fair LOTTA ftands, 135 And fpreads to Heaven, in vain, her glafly hands ; Cold dews condenfe upon her pearly breaft, And the big tear rolls lucid down her veft. Far gleaming o'er the town tranfparent fanes Rear their white towers, and wave their golden vanes; 140 Long lines of luftres pour their trembling rays, And the bright vault returns the mingled blaze. 2. " Hence orient Nitre owes its fparkling birth, And with prifmatic cryftals gems the earth, Hence orient Nitre. 1. 143. Nitre is found in Bengal naturally cryftallizcd, and is fvvept by brooms from earths and ftones, and thence called fweep- ings of nitre. It has lately been found, in large quantities, in a natural ba- fon of calcareous earth at Molfetta, in Italy, both in thin ftrata between the calcareous beds, and in efflorefcences of various beautiful leafy and hairy forms. An account of this nitre-bed is given by Mr. Zimmerman, and abridged in Rozier's Journal de Phyfique, Fevrier, 1790. This acid appears to be pro- duced in all fituations where animal and vegetable matters are completely decompofed, and which are expofed to the action of the air, as on the walls of ftables and flaughter-houfes; the cryftals are prifms furrowed by longi- tudinal grooves. Dr. Prieftley difcovered, that nitrous air or gas, which he obtained by dif- folving metals in nitrous acid, would combine rapidly with vital air, and produce with it a true nitrous acid, forming red clouds during the combina- tion; the two airs occupy only the fpace before occupied by one of them, and, at the fame time, heat is given out from the new combination. This diminution of the bulk of a mixture of nitrous gas and vital air, Dr. Prieft- ley ingenioufty ufed as a teft of the purity of the latter; a difcovery of the greateft importance in the analyfis of airs. Mr. Cavendifli has fince demonftrated, that two parts of vital air, or oxy- gene, and one part of phlogiftic air, or azote, being long expofed to ele&ric ihocks, unite, and produce nitrous acid. Philof. Tranf. vols. LXXV. and LXXVITI. Azote is one of the moft abundant elements in nature, and, combined with calorique, or heat, it forms azotic gas, or phlogiftic air, and compofes two thirds of the atmofphere, and is one of the principal component parts of animal bodies, and, when united to vital air, or osygenc, produces the nitrous acid. Mr. Lavoifier found that 21} parts, by weight, oi' azote, and 43 ; parts of oxygene, produced 64 parts of nitrous gas ; and, by the further 46 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART I. O T er tottering domes in filmy foliage crawls, 145 Or frofts with branching plumes the mouldering walls. As woos Azotic Gas the virgin Air, And veils in crimfon clouds the yielding Fair ; Indignant Fire the treacherous courtfhip flies, Waves I\is light wing, and minglqs with the ikies. 150 "So Beauty's Goddcjs^ warm w ? ith new defire, Left, on her filver wheels, the GOD of Fire; Her faithlefs charms to fiercer MARS refign'd, Met with fond lips, with wanton arms intwin'd. Indignant VULCAN eyed the parting Fair, 155 And watch'd, with jealous ilep, the guilty pair; O'er his broad neck a wiry net he flung, Quick as he ftrode, the tinkling mefhes rung; Fine as the fpider's flimfy thread He wove The immortal toil to lime illicit love; 160 Steel were the knots, and fleel the twitted thong, Ring linkM in ring, indiffolubly flrong; On viewlefs hooks, along the fretted roof, He hung, unfeen, the inextricable woof. Quick flart the fprings, the webs pellucid fpread, 165 And lock the embracing Lovers on their bed ; Fierce with loud taunts vindi&ive VULCAN fprings, Tries all the bolts, and tightens all the firings, Shakes, with inceffant (bouts, the bright abodes, Claps his rude hands, and calls the feftive Gods. 170 . With fp reading palms the alarmed Goddefs tries To veil her beauties from celeftial eyes, Writhes her fair limbs, the {lender ringlets drains, And bids her Loves untie the obdurate chains ; Soft fwells her panting bofom, as ilie turns, 175 And her flufh'd cheek with brighter bin flies burns. Majeftic grief the Queen of Heaven avows, And chafte Minerva hides her helmed brows ; addition of 36 parts of oxygene, nitrous acid was produced. Traitc de Chi- mie. When two airs become united fo as to produce an unelaftic liquid, much caior;que, or heat, is, of ncceffity, expelled from the new combination, though, perhaps, nitrous acid, and oxygenated marine acid, adrcit more heat into their combinations than ether acids. CANTO II. ECONOMY OF VEGETATION. 47 Attendant Nymphs, with bafhful eyes afkance, Steal of intangled MARS a transient glance; Surrounding Gods the circling nectar quaff, ^ Gaze on the Fair, and envy as they laugh. 3. " Hence dufky Iron fleeps in dark abodes, And ferny foliage neflles in the nodes ; Till with wide lungs the panting bellows blow, 185 And waked by fire the glittering torrents flow ; Quick whirls the wheel, the ponderous hammer falls, Loud anvils ring amid the trembling walls, Strokes follow ftrokes, ~the fparkling ingot fliines, Flows the red flag, the lengthening bar refines ; 190 Cold waves, immerfed, the glowing mafs congeal, And turn to adamant the biffing Steel. Hence dufky Iron. 1. 183. The production of Iron from the decoTnpofi- tion of vegetable bodies, is perpetually prefented to Our view; the waters oozing from all moraffes are chalybeate, and depofit their ochre on being expofed to the air, the iron acquiring a calciform ftate from its union with oxygene, or vital air. When thin moraffes lie on beds of gravel, the latter are generally ftained by the filtration of fome of the chalybeate water through them. This formation of iron from vegetable recrements, is further evinced by the fern leaves, and other parts of vegetables, fo frequently found in the centre of the knobs or nodules of fome iron ores. In fome of thefe nodules there is a nucleus of whiter iron earth, fur- rounded by many concentric ftrata of darker and lighter iron earth alter- nately. In one, which now lies before me, the nucleus is a prifm of a tri- angular form, with blunted angles, and about half an inch high, and an inch and half broad ; on every fide of this are concentric ftrata of fimilar iron ^arth, alternately browner and lefs brown; each ilratum is about a tenth of an inch in thicknefs, and there are ten o them in number. To what known caufe can this exactly regular diftribution of fo many earthy ftiata of different colours, furrounding the nucleus, be afcribed? I don't know that any mineralogifts have attempted an explanation of this wonderful phe- nomenon. I fufpect it is owing to the polarity of the central nucleus. If iron-filings be regularly laid on paper, by means of a fmall fieve, and a magnet be placed underneath, the filings will tiifpcfe themfelves in con- centric curves, with vacant intervals between them. Now, if thefe iron- filings are conceived to be fulpended in a fluid, whofe ipecific gravity i* fimilar to their own, and a magnetic bar was introduced as an axis into this fluid, it is eafy to forefee that the iron-filings would difpofe themfelves into concentric fpheres, with intervals of the circumnatant fluid between them, exadly as is feen in- thefe nodules of iron earth. As all the lavas conlilt of one fourth of iron, (Kirwan's Mineral.) and almoft all other known bodies, whether of animal or vegetable origin, poiTefs more or left of this pro- perty, may not a diftribution of a great portion of the globe of the earth, into ftrata of greater or lefs regularity, be owing to the polarity of the whole ? And turn to adamant. 1. 193. The circumftancc* which render iron more * 48 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART!, " Lad MICHEL'S hands, with touch of potent charm, The polifti'd rods with powers magnetic arm; With points directed to the polar ftars, , 195 In one long line extend the temper'd bars; valuable to mankind than any other metal, are, I. Its property of being rendered hard to fo great a degree, and thus conftituting fuch excellent tools It was the difcovery of this property of iron, Mr. Locke thinks, that gave fuch pre-eminence to the European world over the American one. 2. Its power of being welded ; that is, when two pieces are made very hot, and applied together by hammering, they unite completely, unlefs any fcale of iron intervenes ; and to prevent this it is ufual for fmiths to dip the very hot bar in fand, a little of which fufes into fluid glafs with the fcale, and is fqueezed out from between the uniting parts by the force of hammering. 3. Its power of acquiring magnetifm. It is, however, to be wifhed, that gold or filver were difcovered in as great quantity as iron, fince thefe metals, being indeftruclible by expofure to air, water, fire, or any common acids, would fupply wholefome veffels for cookery, fo much to be defired, and fo difficult to obtain, and would form the moft light and durable coverings for houfes, as well as indeftru&ible fire- grates, ovens, and boiling veffels. See additional notes, No. XVIII. on Steel. Lajl Michc-rs lands. 1. 193. The difcovery of the magnet feems to have been in very early times ; it is mentioned by Plato, Lucretius, Pliny, and Galen, and is faid to have taken its name of magnes, from Magnefia, a fea- port of ancient Lybia. As every piece of iron which was made magnetical by the touch of a mag- net, became itfelf a magnet, many attempts were made to improve thele artificial magnets, but without much fuccefs, till Servingdon Savery, Efq. made them of bnrdentd fleel bars, which were fo powerful, that one of them, weighing three pounds averdupois, would lift another of the fame weight. Philof. Tranf. After this Dr. Knight made very fucccfsful experiments on this fubjedi, which, though he kept his method fecret, feems to have excited others to turn their attention to magnetifm. At this time the Rev. Air. Michel in- vented an equally efficacious and more expeditious way of making ftrong ar- tificial magnets, which he publifhed in the end of the year 1750, in which he explained his method of what he called " the double touch," and which, fincc Dr. Knight's method has been known, appears to be fomewhat dif- ferent from it. This method of rendering bars of hardened fteel magnetical, coniifts in holding vertically two or more magnetic bars nearly parallel to each other, with their oppofite poles very near each other, (but neverthelefs feparated to a fmall diftance,) thefe are to be fiided over a line of bars, laid horizontally, u few times backward and forward. See Michel on Magnetifm, alfo a de- tailed account in Chambers' Dictionary. What Mr. Michel propofed by this method was, to include a very fmall portion of the horizontal bars intended to be made magnetical, between the joint forces of two or more bars already magnetical, and, by Hiding them from end to end, every part of the line of bars became fucceffively included, and thus bars, poffeffed of a very fmall degree of magnetifm to begin with, would, in a few times Hiding backwards and forwards, make the other ones aiuch more magnetical than themfelves, which -are then to be taken uj* CANTO II. ECONOMY OF VEGETATION. 4? Then thrice and thrice with fteady eye he guides, And o'er the adhefive train the magnet flides ; The obedient Steel with living inftinft moves, And veers for ever to the pole it loves. 2OO " Hail, adamantine Steel! magnetic Lord! King of the prow, the plowfhare, and the fword ! True to the pole, by thee the pilot guides His fteady helm amid the ftruggling tides, Braves with broad fail the immeafurable fea, 2O Cleaves the dark air, and afks no ftar but Thee. By thee the plowfhare rends the matted plain, Inhumes in level rows the living grain; Intrulive forefls quit the cultured ground, And Ceres laughs with golden fillets crown'd. 210 O'er reftlefs realms when fcowling Difcord flings Her fnakes, and loud the din of battle rings ; Expiring Strength, and vanquifh'd Courage feel Thy arm refifHefs, adamantine Steel ! 4. " Hence in fine ftreams diffufive Acids flow, 215 Or wing'd with fire o'er Earth's fair bofom blow ; and ufed to touch the former, which are in fuccefilon to be laid down ho- rjzontally in a line. There is ftill a great field remains for future difcoveries in magnetifm, both in refpecT: to experiment and theory ; the latter coniifls of vague con- jectures, the more probable of which are, perhaps, thofe of Epinus, as they aflimilate it to electricity. One conjecture I fhall add, viz. that the polarity of magnetifm may be owing to the earth's rotatory motion. If heat, electricity, and magnetifm, ate fuppofed to be fluids of different gravities, heat being the heavieft of them, electricity the next heavy, and magnetifm the lighteft, it is evident, that by the quick revolution of the earth, the heat will be accumulated moft over the line, electricity next beneath this, and that the magnetifm will be detruded to the poles and axis of the earth, like the atmofpheres of common air and inflammable gas, as explained in the note on Canto I. 1. 123. Electricity and heat will both of them difplace magnetifm, and this fhews that they may gravitate on each other; and hence, when too great a quan- tity of the eledtric fluid becomes accumulated at the poles by defcending fnows, or other unknown caufes, it may have a tendency to rife towards the tropics by its centrifugal force, and produce the northern lights. See additional notes, No. I. Dijfitfive Acids f.oiu. 1. 415. The production of marine acid from de- on;pofmg vegetable and animal matters, with vital air, and of nitrous acid 1'ART. 1, H $o BOTANIC GARDEN. PART I. Tranfmute to glittering Flints her chalky lands, Or fink on Ocean's bed in countlefs Sands. Hence filvery Selenite her cryftal moulds, And foft Afbeftus fmooths his filky fold*; 220 His cubic forms phofphoric Fluor prints, Or rays in fpheres his amethyftine tints. Soft cobweb clouds tranfparent Onyx fpreads, And playful Agates weave their coloured threads ; Gay pi&ured Mochoes glow with landfcape-dyes, 225 And changeful Opals roll their lucid eyes ; Blue lambent light around the Sapphire plays, Bright Rubies biulh, and living Diamonds blaze. from azote and vital air, the former of which is united to its bads by means of the exhalations from vegetable and animal matters, conftitute an analogy which induces us to believe, that many other acids have either their bafes, or are united to vital air by means of fome part of decompofing vegetable and animal matters. The great quantities of flittt-fand, whether formed in mountains or in the fea, would appear to derive its acid from the new world, as it is found above the ftrata of lime-ftone and granite which conftitute the old world, and, a the earthy baCs of flint is probably calcareous, a great part of it feems to be produced by a conjunction of the new and old world. The recrements of air-breathing animals and vegetables probably afford the acid, and the (hells of marine animals the earthy bafis, while another part may have derived its calcareous part alfo from the decompofition of vegetable and animal bo- dies. The feme mode of reafomng feems applicable to the filiceous ftones under 'various names, as amethyft, onyx, agate, mocho, opal, &c. which do not leem to have undergone any procefs from volcanic 6 res, and as theft ftones only differ from flint by a greater or lefs admixture of argillaceous'and cal- careous earths. The different proportions of which, in each kind of ftone, may be feen in Mr. Kirwan's valuable Elements of Mineralogy. See addi- tional notes, No. XIX. Living diamonJt Llaze. \. 22$. Sir Ifaac Newton having obferved the great power of refracting light, which the diamond poffeffes above all other cryftaliized or vitreous matter, conjectured that it was an inflammable body in fome manner congealed. Infomuch that all the light is reflected which falls on any of its interior furfaces at a greater angle of incidence than 24 \ degrees; whereas an artificial gem of gkfs does not reflect any light from its hinder furface, unlefs that furface is inclined in an angle of 41 decrees. Hence, the diamond reflects half as much more light as a factitious gem in fimilar circumftances; to which muft be added its great tranfparency, and the excellent polHh it is capable of. The diamond had nevertheless been placed at the head of cryftals or precious ftones by the mineralogifts, till Bergman ranged it of late in the combuftible clafs of bodies, becaufe, by the focus of Villette's burning mirror, it was evaporated by a heat not much greater than will melt filver, and gave out light. Mr. Hoepfner, however, thinks the difperfkm of the diamond by this great heat, fhould be called a phofphorefcent evaporation of it, rather than a cornbuftio:) ;. and from iti CANTO II. ECONOMY OF VEGETATION. 51 " Thus, for attractive earth, inconftant JOVE, Maik'd in new fhapes, forfook his realms above. 230 Firfr, her fvveet eyes his Eagle-form beguiles, And HEBE feeds him with ambrolial fmiles; Next the chang'd God a Cygnet's down affhmes, And playful LED A fmooihs his glofly plumes ; Then glides a filver ferpent, treacherous gueft ! 235 And fair OLYMPIA folds him in her bread; Now lows a milk-white Bull on Afric's flrand, And crops with dancing head the daify'd land. With rofy wreathes EURO PA'S hand adorns His fringed forehead, and his pearly horns ; 240 Light on his back the fpoi live Damfel bounds, And pleafed he moves along the flowery grounds ; Bears with flow ftep his beauteous prize aloof, Dips in the lucid flood his ivory hoof; Then wets his velvet knees, and wading laves 245 His filky fides amid the dimpling waves. While her fond train with beckoning hands deplore, Strain their blue eyes, and ihriek along the fliore; Beneath her robe fhe draws her fnowy feet, And, half-reclining on her ermine feat, 250 Round his raifed neck her radiant arms (he throws, And refts her fair cheek on his curled brows; Her yellow trefles wave on wanton gales, , *' And bent in air her azure mantle fails. other analogies of cryftallization, hardnefs, tranfparency, and place of its na- tivity, wifhes again to replace it amongft the precious ftones. Obferv. fur. la Phyfique, par Rozier, Tom. XXXV. p. 448. See new edition of the tranf- lation of Cronftedt, by De Cofta. Inconfant Jove. I. 229. The purer air, or ether, in the ancient mytho- logy, was reprefented by Jupiter, and the inferior air by Juno; and the conjunction of thefc deities was faid to produce the vernal fhowers, and pro- create all things, as is further fpoken of in Canto III. 1. 204. It is now dif- covered, that pure air, or oxygene, uniting with variety of bafes, forms the various kinds of acids; as the vitriolic acid from pure air and fulphur; the nitrous acid from pure air and phlogiftic air, or azote; and carbonic acid, (or fixed air,) from pure air and charcoal. Some of thefe affinities were, perhaps, pourtrayed by the Magi of Egypt, who were probably learned in chemiftry, in their hieroglyphic pictures before the invention of letters, by the loves of Jupiter with terreflrial ladies. And thus phyfically as well as metaphyfically might be faid, " Jovis omnui plena." & BOTANIC GARDEN. PART I. > Onward He moves, applauding Cupids guide, 255 And fkim on mooting wing the ihining tide ; Emerging Tritons leave their coral caves, iSound their loud conchs, and fmooth the circling waves, Surround the timorous Beauty, as me fwims, And gaze enamour'd on her filver limbs. 260 Mow Europe's fliadowy iliores, with loud acclaim, Hail the fair fugitive, and fhout her name ; Soft echoes warhle, whifpering forefts nod, And confcious Nature owns the prefent God. Changed from the Bull, the rapturous God affumes 265 Immortal youth, with glow celeftial blooms, With lenient words her virgin fears difarms, And clafps the yielding Beauty in his arms ; Whence Kings and Heroes own illufhious birth, Guards of mankind, and demigods on earth. 270 VI. " Gnomes ! as you pafs'd beneath the labouring foil, The guards and guides of Nature's chemic toil, You faw, deep-fepulchred in dufky realms, Which Earth's rock-ribbed ponderous vault o'erwhelms, With felf-born fires the mafs fermenting glow, 275 ilame-wing'd fulphurs quit the earths below. I. f * Hence ductile Clays in wide expanfion fpread, Soft as the Cygnet's down, their mow-white bed; With yielding flakes fucceflive forms reveal, And change obedient to the whirling wheel. 280 Firft CHINA'S fons, with early art elate, Form'd the gay tea-pot, and the pictured plate ; With felf-born f 'res. 1. 275. After the accumulation of plains and moun- tains on tjhe calcareous rocks, or granite, which had been previously raifed by volcanic fires, 3 fecond fet of volcanic fires were produced by the fer- mentation of -this neiv mafs, which, after the falts, or acids, and iron, had been wafhed away in part by elutriation, diflipated the fulphurous parts, which were infoluble in water; whence argillaceous and filiceons earths were left in fome places; in others, bitumen became fublimcd to the upper part of the ftratum, producing coals of various degrees of purity. Hence duftile clays. 1. 277. See additional notes, No. XX. CANTO II. ECONOMY OF VEGETATION. 53 Saw with illumin'd brow and dazzled eyes In the red ftove vitrefcent colours rife ; Speck'd her tall beakers with enamePd ftars, 285 Her monfter-joffes, and gigantic jars ; Smear'd her huge dragons with metallic hues, With golden purples, and cobaltic blues; Bade on wide hills her porcelain caftles glare, And glazed Pagodas tremble in the air. 290 " ETRURIA ! next beneath thy magic hands Glides the quick wheel, the plaftic clay expands, Nerved with fine touch, thy fingers (as it turns) Mark the nice bounds of vafes, ewers, and urnsj Round each fair form in lines immortal trace 295 Uncopied Beauty, and ideal Grace. " Gnomes ! as you now diflecl: with hammers fine The granite-rock, the nodul'd flint calcine ; Grind with ftrong arm, the circling chertz betwixt, Your pure Ka-o-lins and Pe-tun-tfes mixt; 300 Saiv tv'itl} illumind broiu. 1. 283. No colour is diftinguifhable in the red- hot kiln but the red itfelf, till the workman introduces a fmall piece of dry wood, which, by producing a white flame, renders all the other cplours vi- fible in a moment. With golden purples. 1. 388. See additional notes, No. XXI, Etrurla ! next. \. 191. Etruria may, perhaps, vie with China itfelf in the antiquity of its arts. The times of its greateft fplendour were prior to the foundations of Rome, and the reign of one of its beft princes, Janus, was the oldeft epoch the Romans knew. The earlieft hiftorians fpeak of the Etrufcans as being then of high antiquity, moft probably a colony from Phoenicia, to which a Pelafgian colony acceded, and was united foon after Deucalion's flood. The peculiar character of their earthen vafes confifts in the admirable beauty, fimplicity, and diverfity of forms, which continue the beft models of tafte to the artifts of the prefent times; and in a fpecies of non-vitreous encauftic painting, which was reckoned, even in the time of Pliny, among the loft arts of antiquity, but which has lately been recovered by the ingenuity and induftry of Mr. Wedgwood. It is fuppofed that the principal manufactories were about Nola, at the foot of Vefuvius, for it is in that neighbourhood that the greateft quantities of antique vafes have been found; and it is faid that the general tafte of the inhabitants is appa- rently influenced by them, infomuch that ftrangers, coming to Naples, are, commonly ftruck with the diverfity and elegance, even of the moft ordinary vafes, for cammon ufes. See D'Hanjcarville's preliminary difcourfes to the magnificent colie&km of Etrufcan vafes, publifhed by Sir William Hamilton. 54 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART I. O'er each red faggar's burning cave prefide, The keen-eyed Fire-Nymphs blazing by your fide ; And pleafed on WEDGWOOD ray your partial fmile, A new Etruria decks Britannia's ifle. Charm'd by your touch, the flint liquefcent pours 305 Through finer fieves, and falls in whiter (liowers ; Charm'd by your touch, the kneaded clay refines, The bifcuit hardens, the.enamel fhines ; Each nicer mould a fofter feature drinks, The bold Cameo fpeaks, the foft Intaglio thinks. 310 " To call the pearly drops from Pity's eye, Or ftay Defpair's difanimating figh, Whether, O Friend of Art ! the gem you mould Rich with new tafte, with ancient virtue bold ; Form the'poor fetter'd Slave, on bended knee, 315 From Britain's fons imploring to be free ; Or with fair HOPE the brightening fcenes improve, And cheer the dreary waftes at Sydney-Cove ; Or bid Mortality rejoice and mourn O'er the fine forms on PORTLAND'S myftic urn. 32 '"' ~ # " Here, by fali'n columns and disjoin'd arcades, On mouldering ftones, beneath deciduous (hades, Sits HUMANKIND in hieroglyphic flate, Serious, and pondering on their changeful ftate; While with inverted torch, and fwimming eyes, 325 Sinks the fair (hade of Mortal Life, and dies. There the pale Ghoft through Death's wide portal bends His timid feet, the dufky fteep defcends ; Form tie foor fetter'd Slave. 1. 315. Alluding to two cameos of Mr. Wedgwood's manufacture; one of a Slave in chains, of which he diftributed many hundreds, to excite the humane to attend to and to aflift in the aboli- tion of the deteftable traffic in human creatures ; and the other a cameo of Hope attended by Peace, and Art, and Labour; which was made of clay from Botany-Bay; to which place he fent many of them, to fliew the inha- bitants what their materials would do, and to encourage their induftry. A print of this latter medallion is prefixed to Mr. Stockdale's edition of Phi- lips' Expedition to Botany-Bay, with ibme verfes which are inferted at the end of the additional notes. Portland's myjlic urn. 1. 330. See additional notes, N .* opied Srt>rn ty>t.ffiit/'ft 1 fvw to Botany .B Cop C A* TO II. ECONOMY OF VEGETATION. 55 With (miles afTuafive Love Divine invites, Guides on broad wing, with torch uplifted lights ; 330 Immortal Life^ her hand extending, courts The lingering form, his tottering ftep fupports; Leads on to Pluto's realms the dreary way, And gives him trembling to Elyfian day. Beneath, in facred robes the PRIESTESS drefs'd, 335' The coif clofe-hooded, and the fluttering veft, With pointing ringer guides the initiate youth, Unweaves the many-colour'd veil of Truth, Drives the profane from M^ftery's bolted door, And Silence guards the Eleufmian lore. 340 " Whether, O Friend of Art ! your gems derive Fine forms from Greece, and fabled Gods revive ; Or bid from modern life the Portrait breathe, And bind round Honour's brow the laurel wreath; Buoyant fliall fail, with Fame's hiftoric page, 345 Each fair medallion o'er the wrecks of age; Nor Time /hall mar ; nor Steel, nor Fire, nor Ruft Touch the hard polifti of the immortal buft. 2. " Hence fable COAL his mafTy couch extends, And ftars of gold the fparkling Pyrite blends ; 350 Hence dull-eyed Naphtha pours his pitchy ftreams, And Jet uncolour'd drinks the folar beams, Bright Amber {nines on his electric throne, And adds ethereal luftres to his own. fine forms from Greece. \. 342. Jn real ftones, or in pafte or foft coloured glafs, many pieces of exquiiite workman fhip were produced by the ancients. Baffo-relievos of various fizes, were made in coarfe brown earth of one colour; but of the improved kind of two or more colours, and of a true porcelain texture, none were made by the ancients, ncr attempted I believe by the moderns, before thofe of Mr. Wedgwood's manufactory. Hence fable Ccal. 1. 349. See additional notes, No. XXIII. on coal. Bright Amber JbJnes. 1. 353. Coal has probably all been fublimed more or lefs from the clay, with which it was at nrft formed in decompofing mo- raffes; the petroleum feems to have been feparated, and condenfed again in iuperior ftrata, and a ftill finer kind of oil, as naphtha, has probably had the fame origin. Some of thefe liquid oils have again loft their more volatile parts, and become cannel-coul, afphaltum, jet, and amber, according to the ja BOTANIC GARDEN. PART i, Led by the phofphor-light, with daring tread 355 Immortal FRANKLIN fought the fiery bed; Where, nurfed in night, incumbent Tempeft fhrouds His embryon Thunders in circumfluent clouds, Befieged with iron points their airy cell, And pierced the monPcers il umbering in the fliell. 360 " So, borne ori founding pinions to the Weft, When Tyrant-Power had built his eagle neft; While from his eyry ihriek'd the famifh'd brood, Clenched their {harp claws, and champ'd their beaks for blood, Immortal FRANKLIN watch'd the callow crew, 365 And ftabb'd the ftruggling Vampires, ere they flew. The patriot-flame with quick contagion ran, Hill lighted hillj and man electrifed man Her heroes flain, awhile COLUMBIA mourn'd* And, crown'd with laurels, LIBERTY return'd* 370 " The Warrior, LIBERTY, with bending fails, Helm'd his bold courfe to fair HIBERNIANS vales ; Firm as he fteps along the fhouting lands, Lo ! Truth and Virtue range their radiant bands; Sad Superftition wails her empire torn, 375 Art plies his oar, and Commerce pours her horn. " Long had the Giant-form, on GALLIA'S plains, Inglorious flept, unconfcious of his chains ; Round his large limbs were wound a thoufand filings By the weak hands of Confeflfors and Kings ; 380 O'er his clofed eyes a triple veil was bound, And fteely rivets lock'd him to the ground ; purity of the original foflil oil. Dr. Priefrley has fliewn, that effential oils, long expofed to the atmofphere, abforb both the vital and phlogiftic part of it; whence, it is probable, their becoming folid may in great meaiure depend, as well as by the exhalation of their more volatile parts. On diftillation Math volatile alcali all thefe foffil oils are (hewn to contain the acid of amber, which evinces the identity of their origin. If a piece of amber be rubbed it attracts ftraws and hairs, whence the difcovery of eleclricity, and whence its name, from electron, the Greek word for amber. Immortal Franklin. 1. 356. See note on Canto I. 1. 383. CANTO II. ECONOMY OF VEGETATION, 57 While ftern Baftile with iron cage inthralls His folded limbs, and hems in marble walls. Touch'd by the patriot-flame, he rent, amazed, 385 The flimfy bonds, and round and round him gazed ; Starts up from earth, above the admiring throng Lifts his ColofTal form,. and towers along; High o'er his foes his hundred arms He rears, Plowfhares his fwords, and pruning-hooks his fpears ; 390 Calls to the Good and Brave with voice, that rolls Like Heaven's own thunder round the echoing poles ; Gives to the winds his banner broad unfurl'd, And gathers in its (hade the living world .' VII. " Gnomes ! you then taught volcanic airs to force Through bubbling Lavas their reiiftlefs courfe, 396 O'er the broad walls of rifted Granite climb, And pierce the rent roof of incumbent Lime; While Jlcrn Bajllle. \. 383. f \ We defcended with great difficulty into the dungeons, which were made too low for our (landing upright ; and were fo dark, that we were obliged at noon-day to vifit them by the light of a can- dle. We faw the hooks of thofe chains by which the prifoners were fattened by their necks to the walls of their cells ; many of which, being below the level of the water, were in a conftant ftate of humidity, from which iffued a noxious vapour, which more than once extinguifhed the candles. Since the deftrudiion of the building, many fubterraneous cells have been difco- vered under a piece of ground, which feemed only a bank of folid earth, before the horrid fecrets of this prifon-houfe were difclofed. Some Ikele- tons were found in thefe recefles, with irons Hill fattened to their decayed bones," Letters from France, by H. M. Williams, p. 24. And pierce the rent roof. 1. 398. The granite rocks and the lime-ftone rocks have been cracked to very great depths at the time they were raifed up by fubterranean fires ; in thefe cracks are found moft of the metallic ores, except iron, and perhaps manganefe ; the former of which is generally found in horizontal ftrata, and the latter generally near the furface of the earth. Philofophers poflefiing fo convenient a teft for the difcovery of iron by the magnet, have long fmce found it in all vegetable and animal matters; and of late Mr. Scheele has difcovered the exiftence of manganefe in vege- table aflies. Scheele, 56 mem. Stock. 1774. Kirwan. Min. 353. Which, accounts for the production of it near the furface of the earth, and thence for its calciform appearance, or union with vital air. Bergman has like- wife Ihewn, that the lune-ftones which become bluifh, or dark coloured, when calcined, pofifcfs a mixture of manganefe, and are thence preferable, as a cement, to other kinds of lime. 2 Bergman, 229. Which impregnation with manganefe has probably been received from the decompolition of fuperin- cumbent vegetable matters. Thefe cracks, or perpendicular caverns, in the granite or lime-ftone, pafs PART I. I 59 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART I. Round fparry caves metallic luftres fling, And bear 'Phlogifton on their tepid wing. 400 " Hence glow, refulgent Tin ! thy cryftal grains, And tawny Copper {hoots her azure veins j Zink lines his fretted vault with fable ore, And dull Galena tafTellates the floor; On vermil beds in Idria's mighty caves 405 The living Silver rolls its ponderous waves j With gay refractions bright Platina fhines, And fluds with fquander'd ftars his dufky mines j to mnknown depths; and it is up thcfe channels that I have endeavoured t fhew, that the fteam rifes, which becomes afterwards condenfed, and pro* diiccs the warm fprings of this iflaricl, and other parts of the world. (See note on Fucus, vol. II.) And up thefe cracks I fuppofe certain vapours arife, which either alone, or by meeting with fomething defcending into them from above, have produced moft of the metals, and feveral of the materials in which they are bedded. Thus the ponderous earth, Barytes, of Derby- fhire, is found in thefe cracks, and is ftratified frequently with lead-ore, and frequently furrounds it. This ponderous earth has been found by t)r. Hoepfner in a granite in Switzerland, and may have thus been fublimed from immenfe depths by great heat, and have obtained its carbonic or vi- triolic acid from above. Annales de Chimie. There is alfo reafon to con- clude, that fomething from above is neceffary to the formation of many of the metals. At Hawkftone, in Shropfhire, the feat of Sir Richard Hill, there is an elevated rock of filiceous fand, which is coloured green with copper in many places high in the air; and I have in my poffeflion a fpeci- men of lead formed in the cavity of an iron nodule, and another of lead amid fpar from a crack of a coal-ftratum ; all which countenance the mo- dern production of thofe metals from defcending materials. To which fhould be added, that the highefl mountains of granite, which have, there- fore, probably never been covered with marine productions, on account of their early elevation, nor with vegetable or animal matters, on account of their- great coldnefs, contain no metallic ores, whilft the lower ones contain copper and tin in their cracks or veins, both in Saxony, Silefia, and Cornwall. Kirwan's Mineral, p. 374. The tranfmutation of one metal into another, though hitherto undifco- vertd by the alchymifts, does not appear impoffible; fuch tranfmutations have been fuppofed to exift in nature; thus lapis calaminaris may have been produced from the deitruction of lead-ore, as it is generally found on the top of the veins of lead, where it has been calcined, or united with air, and becaufe maffes of lead-ore are often found intirely inclofed in it. So lilver is found mixed in almoft all lead-ores, and fometimes in feparate filaments within the cavities of lead-ore, as I am informed by Mr. Michel, and is thence probably a partial tranfmutarion of the lead to filver, the rapid pro- grefs of modern chefniftry having {hewn the analogy between metallic cal- ces and acids, may lead to the power of tranfmuting their bafes; a difco- very much to be wifhed. CANTO II. ECONOMY OF VEGETATION. 59 Long threads of netted gold, and filvery darts, Inlay the Lazuli, and pierce the Quartz ; 410 Whence roof'd with filver beam'd PERU, of old, And haplefs MEXICO was paved with gold. " Heavens ! on my fight what fanguine colours blaze ! Spain's deathlefe fhame ! the crimes of modern days ! When Avarice, fhrouded in Religion's robe, 415 Sail'd to the Weft, and flaughter'd half the globe; While Superftition, ftalking by his fide, Mock'd the loud groan, and lap'd the bloody tide ; For facred truths announced her frenzied dreams, And turn'd to night the fun's meridian beams. 420 Hear, Oh BRITANNIA ! potent Queen of ifles, On whom fair Art, and meek Religion (miles, Now AF RIG'S coafts thy craftier fons invade, And Theft and Murder take the garb of Trade ! The Slave, in chains, on fupplicating knee, 425 Spreads his wide arms, and lifts his eyes to Thee ; With hunger pale, with wounds and toil opprefs'd, " Are we not Brethren?" forrow choaks the reft; Air ! bear to heaven upon thy azure flood Their innocent cries ! -Earth / cover not their blood ! 430 VIII. " When Heaven's dread juftice fmites in crimes o'er- grpwn The blood -nurfed Tyrant on his purple throne, Gnomes ! your bold forms unnumber'd arms outftretch, And urge the vengeance o'er the guilty wretch. Thus when CAMBYSES led his barbarous hofts 435 From Perlia's rocks to Egypt's trembling coafts, Defiled each hallowed fane, and facred wood, And, drunk with fury, fwell'd the Nile with blood ; Thus when Camlyfes. 1. 435, Cambyfes marched one army from Thebes, after having overturned the temples, ravaged the country, and deluged it. with blood, to fubdue Ethiopia: this army almoft perifhed by famine, hifo- nuch, that they repeatedly flew every tenth man to fupply the remainder with food. He fent another army to plunder the temple of Jupiter Am- mon, which perifhed, overwhelmed with fand. 60 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART I. Waved his proud banner o'er the Theban ftates, And pour'd deftrudtion through her hundred gates; 440 In dread divifions march'd the marflial'd bands, And fwarming armies blacken'd all the lands, By Memphis thefe to ETHIOP'S fultry plains, And thofe to HAMMON'S fand-incircled fanes. Slow as they pafs'd, the indignant temples frown'd, 445 Low curfes muttering from the vaulted ground ; Long ailes of Cypiefs waved their deepen'd glooms, And quivering fpeclres grinn'd amid the tombs, Prophetic whifpers breathed from SPHINX'S tongue, And MEMNON'S lyre with hollow murmurs rung; 450 Burfl from each pyramid expiring groans, And darker fliadows ftretch'd their lengthen'd cones. Day after day their dreadful rout They fteer, Lufl in the van, and Rapine in the rear. " Gnomes ! as they march'd, You hid the gather'd fruits, The bladed grafs, fweet grains, and mealy roots ; 456 Scared the tired quails, that journey'd o'er their heads, Retain'd the locufts in their earthy beds ; Bade on your fands no night-born dews diftil, Stay'd with vindictive hands the fcanty rill. 460 Loud o'er the camp the Fiend of Famine fhrieks, Calls all her brood, and champs her hundred beaks ; O'er ten fquare leagues her pennons broad expand, And twilight fwims upon the (Ruddering fand ; Perch'd on her crefl the Griffin Difcord clings, 465 And Giant Murder rides between her wings ; Blood from each clotted hair, and horny quill, And fhowers of tears in blended ftreams diftil ; Expiring groans. 1. 4JI. Mr. Savery, or Mr. Volney, in his travels through Egypt, has given a curious defcription of one of the pyramids, with the operoic method of clofmg them, and immuring the hody (as they fup- poied) for fix thoufand years. And has endeavoured irom thence to fhcw, that when a monarch died, feveral of his favourite courtiers were incloftd alive with the mummy in thefe great maffes of ftone-work; and had food and water conveyed to them, as long as they lived, proper apertures heirtg left for this purpofe, and for the admiffion cf air, and for the exclufion of any thing offensive. CANTO II. ECONOMY OF VEGETATION. 6r High-poifed in air her fpiry neck {he bends, Rolls her keen eye, her dragon-ckws extends, 470 Darts from above, and tears at each fell fwoop With iron fangs the decimated troop. " Now o'er their heads the whizzing whirlwinds breathe, And the live defert pants, and heaves beneath ; Tinged by the crimfon fun, vaft columns rife 475 Of eddying fands, and war amid the fkies, In red arcades the billowy plain fun ound, And whirling turrets ftalk along the ground. And whirling turrets. 1. 478. " At one o'clock we alighted among fome acacia trees, at Waadi el Halboub, having gone twenty-one miles. We were here at once furprifed and terrified by a fight furely one of the moil magni*- ficent in the world. In that vaft expanfe of defert, from W. to N. W. of us, we faw a number of prodigious pillars of fand, at different diftances, at times moving with great celerity, at others ftalking on with a majeftic flow- nefs; at intervals we thought they were coming in a very few minutes to overwhelm us; and fmall quantities of fand did actually more than once reach us. Again they would retreat fo as to be almoft out of fight, their tops reaching to the very clouds. There the tops often feparated from the bodies, and thefe, once disjoined, difperfed in the air, and did not appear more. Sometimes they were broken in the middle, as if ftruck with large cannon-fhot. About noon they began to .advance with confiderable fwift- nefs upon us, the wind being very ftrong at north. Eleven of them ranged along fide of us about the diftance of three miles. The greateft diameter of the largeft appeared to me, at that diftance, as if it would meafure ten feet. They retired from us with a wind at S. E. leaving an impreflion upon my mind to which I can give no name, though furely one ingredient in it was fear, with a confiderable deal of wonder and aftoniihment. It was in vain to think of flying; the fwifteft horfe, or fafteft failing fliip, could be of no ufe to carry us out of this danger; and the full perfuafion of this riveted me as if to the fpot where I flood. " The fame appearance of moving pillars of fand prefented themfelves to us this day in form and difpofition like thofe we had feen at Waad Hal- boub, only they feemed to be more in number and lefs in fize. They came feveral times in a direction clofe upon us, that is, I believe, within lefs than two miles. They began immediately after fun-rife like a thick wood, and almoft darkened the fun. His rays fhining through them for near an hour, gave them an appearance of pillars of fire. Our people now became defpe- rate; the Greeks fhrieked out, and faid it was the day of judgment} Ifmael pronounced it to be hell ; and the Turcorories, that the world was on fire." Bruce's Travels, vol. IV. p. 553 555. From this account it would appear, that the eddies of wind were owing to the long range of broken rocks, which bounded one fide of the fandy de- fert, and bent the currents of air, which ftruck againft their fides; and were thus like the eddies in a ftream of water which falls againft oblique obfta- cles. This explanation is probably the true one, as thele whirl-winds were not attended with rain or lightning like the tornadoes of the Weft-Indies. 62 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART I. Long ranks in vain their {hining blades extend, To Demon-Gods their knees unhallow'd bend, 480 Wheel in wide circle, form in hollow fquare, And now they front, and now they fly the war, Pierce the deaf temped with lamenting cries, Prefs their parch'd lips, and clofe their blood-fhot eyes. Gnomes ! o'er the wafte you led your myriad powers, 485 Climb'd on the whirls, and aim'd the flinty fhowers ! Onward refiftlefs rolls the infuriate furge, Clouds follow clouds, and mountains mountains urge ; Wave over wave the driving defert fwims, Burfts o'er their heads, inhumes their ftruggling limbs ; 490 Man mounts on man, on camels camels rum, Hofts march o'er hofts, and nations nations crufh, Wheeling in air the winged iflands fall, And one great earthy Ocean covers all ! Then ceafed the ftorm, Night bow'd his Ethiop brow 495 To earth, and liflen'd to the groans below, Grim HORROR fhook, awhile the living hill Heaved with convulfive throes, and all was ftill ! IX. " Gnomes ! whofe fine forms, impaflive as the air, Shrink with foft fympathy for human care ; 500 Who glide unfeen, on printlefs flippers borne, Beneath the waving grafs, and nodding corn ; Or lay your tiny limbs, when noon-tide warms, Where (riadowy cowilips ftretch their golden arms, So mark'd on orreries in lucid figns, 505 Star'd with bright points the mimic zodiac fhines ; Borne on fine wires amid the pictured fkies With ivory orbs the planets fet and rife : Round the dwarf earth the pearly moon is roll'd, And the fun twinkling whirls his rays of gold. 510 Call your bright myriads, march your mailed hods, With fpears and helmets glittering round the coafts ; So fnarU'd on orreries. 1. 505. The firft orrery was conflru&cd by a Mr. Rcwley, a mathematician born at Lichfield, and fo named from his patron, the Earl of Oirery. Johnfon's Didionary. CANTO II. ECONOMY OF VEGETATION. 63 Thick as the hairs, which rear the Lion's mane, Or fringe the Boar, that bays the hunter-train ; Watch, where proud Surges break their treacherous mounds, And fweep reiiftlefs o'er the cultur'd grounds; 516 Such as ere while, impell'd o'er Belgia's plain, Roll'd her rich ruins to the infatiate Main ; With piles and piers the ruffian Waves engage, And bid indignant Ocean ftay his rage. 520 " Where, girt with clouds, the rifted Mountain yawns, And chills with length of {hade the gelid lawns, Climb the rude fteeps, the granite-cliffs furround, Pierce with fteel points, with wooden wedges wound; Break into clays the foft volcanic flaggs, 5 2 5 Or melt with acid airs the marble craggs ; Crown the green fummits with adventurous flocks, And charm with novel flowers the wondering Rocks. So when proud Rome the Afric Warrior braved, And high on Alps his crimfon banner waved; 530 While Rocks on Rocks their beetling brows oppofe With piny forefts, and unfathom'd fnows ; Onward he march'd, to Latium's velvet ground, With fires and acids burft the obdurate bound, The granite-cliffs. 1. 533. On long expofure to air, the granites or pot- phories of this country exhibit a ferruginous cruft; the iron being calcined by the air, firft becomes vifible, and is then wafhed away from the external furface, which becomes white or grey, and thus, in time, feems to decom- jofe. The marbles feem to decompofe by lofmg their carbonic acid, as the outfide, which has been long expofed to the air, does not feem to effervefce fo haftily with acids as the parts more recently broken. The immenfe quan- tity of carbonic acid, which exifts in the many provinces of lime-ftonc, if it was extricated and decompofed, would afford charcoal enough for fuel for ages, or for the production of new vegetable or animal bodies. The vol- canic flaggs on Mount Vefuvius are faid, by Mr. Ferber, to be changed into clcy by means of the fulphur-acid, and even pots made of clay, and burnt, or vitrified, are faid by him to be again reducible to dudlile clay, by the volcanic fteams. Ferber 's Travels through Italy, p. 1 6 6. See additional notes, No. XXIV. Wooden -wedges luound. 1. 524. It is ufual, in feparating large mill-ftones from the filiceous fand rocks in fome parts of Derbyfhire, to bore horizon- tal holes under them in a circle, and fill thefe with pegs made of dry wood, which gradually fwell, by the moifture of the earth, and, in a day or two, lift up the mill-ftone without breaking it. With fres and acids. 1. 534. Hannibal was faid to erode his way over the Alps by fire and vinegar. The latter i fuppofed to allude to the vine- 64 BOTANIC GARDEN". PART!, Wide o'er the weeping Vales deftru&ion hurl'd, 535 And fhook the riling empire of the world. X. Go, gentle Gnomes ! refume your vernal toil, Seek my chill tribes, which fleep beneath the foil ; On grey-mofs banks, green meads, or furrow'd lands, Spread the dark mould, white lime, and crumbling fands ; Each burfting bud with healthier juices feed, 541 Emerging fcion, or awaken'd feed. So, in defcending ftreams, the filver Chyle Streaks with white clouds the golden floods of Bile ; Through each nice valve the mingling currents glide, 545 Join their tine rills, and fwell the fanguine tide; Each countlefs cell, and viewlefs fibre feek, Nerve the ftrong arm, and tinge the blufhing cheek. " Oh, watch, where bofom'd in the teeming earth, Green fwells the germ, impatient for its birth ; 550 Guard from rapacious worms its tender {hoots, And drive the mining beetle from its roots ; With ceafelefs efforts rend the obdurate clay, And give my vegetable babes to day ! Thus when an Angel-form, in light array'd, 555 Like HOWARD pierced the prifon's noifome {hade; Where chain'd to earth, with eyes to heaven upturn'd, The kneeling Saint in holy anguim. mourn'd; Ray'd from his lucid veft, and halo'd brow, O'er the dark roof celeftial luftres glow, 560 " PETER, arife!" with cheering voice He calls, And founds feraphic echo round the walls ; Locks, bolts, and chains his potent touch obey, And pleafed he leads the exulting Sage to day. gar and water which was the beverage of his army. In refpect to the for- mer it is not improbable, but where wood was to be had in great abundance, that fires made round lime-Hone precipices would calcine them to a confider- able depth ; the night-dews, or mountain-mifts would penetrate thefe cal- cined p'.:rts, and pulverize them by the force of the fleam which the gene- rated heat would produce, the winds would difperfe this lime-powder, and thus, by repeated fires, a precipice of lime-frone might be deftroyed, and a paffage opened. It fhould be added, that according to Ferber's obierva- tions, theie Alps confift of lime-Hone. Letters from Italy. CANTO II. ECONOMY OF VEGETATION. 6$ XL " You ! whofe fine fingers fill the organic cells 565 With virgin earth, of woods, and bones, and {hells; Mould with retra&ile glue their fpongy beds, And ftretch and flrengthen all their fibre-threads. .Late when the mafs obeys its changeful doom, And finks to earth, its cradle and its tomb, 570 Gnomes / witfr nice eye the flow folution watch, With foftering hand the parting atoms catch, Join in new forms, combine with life and fenfe, And guide and guard the tranfmigrating Ens. Mould w'ttl retractile glue. 1. 567. The condiment parts of animal fibred arc believed to be earth and gluten. Thefe do not feparate except by long putrefaction or by fire. The earth then effervefces with acids, and can only be converted into glafs by the greateft force of fire. The gluten has con- tinued united with the earth of the bones above aooo years iri Egyptian mummies, but by long expofure to air or moiflure, k diflolves, and leaves only the earth. Hence, bones long buried, when expofed to the air, abforb moifture, and crumble into powder. Phil. Tranf. No. 475. The retracli- bility or elafticity of the animal fibre depends on the gkten; and of thefe fibres are compofed the membranes, mufclcs, and bones. Haller. Phyfioh Tom. I. p. z. For the chemical decompofition of animal and vegetable bodies, fee the ingenious work of Lavoifier, Traite de Chimie, Tom. I. p. 132. who re- folves all their component parts into oxygene, hydrogene, carbone, and azote; the three former of which belong principally to vegetable, and the laft to animal matter. The tranfmigrating Ens. 1. 574. The perpetual circulation of matter, iri the growth and diffolution of vegetable and animal bodies, feems to have given Pythagoras his idea of the metempfy coils, or tranfmigration of fpirit, which was afterwards dreffed out, or ridiculed, in a variety of amufing fables, Other philofophers have fuppofed, that there are two different materials or eiTences, which fill the univerfe. One of thefe, which has the power of commencing or producing motion, is called fpirit; the other, which has the power of receiving and of communicating motion, but not of beginning it, is called matter. The former of thefe is fuppofed to be diffufed through all fpace, filling up the interfaces of the funs and planets, and coniHtuting the gravitations of the fidereal bodies, the attractions of chemiftry, with the fpi- rit of vegetation, and of animation. The latter occupies comparatively but fmall fpace, conitituting the folid parts of the funs and planets, and their at- mofphcres. Hence thefe philofophers have fuppofed, that both matter and fpirit are equally immortal and unperifhable; and that, on the diffolution of vegetable or animal organization, the matter returns to the general mafs of matter, and the fpirit to the general mafs t>f fpirit, to enter again into new combinations, according to the original idea of Pythagoras. The fmall apparent quantity of matter that exjfts in the univerfe, com- pared to that of fpirit, and the fhoft time in which the recrements of ani- mal or vegetable bodies become again vivified in the forms of vegetable mucor or microfcopic infers, feems to have given rife to another curious fa- ble of antiquity; that Jupiter threw down a large handful of fouls upon the earth, and left them to fcramble for the few bodies which were to be had. TART I. K 66 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART I. " So when on Lebanon's fequefter'd height 575 The fair ADONIS left the realms of light, Bow'd his bright locks, and, fated from his birth To change eternal, mingled with the earth ; With darker horror (hook the confcious wood, Groan'd the fad gales, and rivers bluih'd with blood ; 580 On cyprefs-boughs the Loves their quivers himg, Their arrows fcatter'd, and their bows unftrung ; And Beauty's Goddefs, bending o'er his bier, Breathed the foft figh, and pour'd the tender tear. Admiring Proferpine through dulky glades 505 Led the fair phantom to Elyfian {hades, Clad with new form, with finer fenfe combined, And lit with purer flame the ethereal mind. Erewhile, emerging from infernal night, The bright Affurgent rifes into light, 590 Leaves the drear chambers of the infatiate tomb, And (nines and charms with renovated bloom. While wondering Loves the burfting grave furround, And edge with meeting wings the yawning ground, Stretch their fair necks, and leaning o'er the brink, 595 View the pale regions of the dead, and ihrink; Long with broad eyes ecftatic Beauty ftands, Heaves her white bofom, fpreads her waxen hands ; Adonis. 1. 576. The very ancient ftory of the beautiful Adonis paflrng one half of the year with Venus, and the other with Proferpine, alternately, has had variety of interpretations. Some have fuppofed that it allegorized the fummer and winter folftice ; but this feems too obvious a fa6l to have needed an hieroglyphic emblem. Others have believed it to reprefent the corn, which was fuppofed to fleep in the earth during the winter months, and to rife out of it in fummer. This does not accord with the climate of Egypt, where the harveft foon follows the feed-time. It feems more probably to have been a ftory explaining fome hieroglyphic figures reprefenting the decompofition and refufcitation of animal matter; a fublime and interefting fubjecl:, and which feems to have given origin to the dodtrine of tfanfmigradon, which had probably its birth alfo from the 1 hieroglyphic treafures of Egypt.' It is remarkable that the cyprefs groves, in the ancient Greek writers, as in Theocritus, were dedicated to Venus, and afterwards became funeral emblems. Which was probably occafiotied by the Cyprefs being an accompaniment of Venus in the annual proceffions, in which fhe was fuppofed to lament over the funeral of Adonis; a cere- mony which obtained over all the eaftern world from great antiquity, and is fuppofed to be referred to by Ezekiel, who accufes the idolatrous woman* of weeping for Thammuz, CANTO II. ECONOMY OF VEGETATION. 67 Then with loud ftiriek the panting Youth alarms, " My Life ! my Love !" and fprings into his arms.'* 600 The Goddefs ceafed, the delegated throng O'er the wide plains delighted rufh along; In dufky fquadrons, and in fhining groups, Hofts follow hofts, and troops fucceed to troops ; Scarce bears the bending grafs the moving freight, 605 And nodding florets bow beneath their weight. So when light clouds on airy pinions fail, Flit the foft fhadows o'er the waving vale ; Shade follows {hade, as laughing Zephyrs drive, And all the chequer'd landfcape feems alive. 610 drive. 1. 609. Thefe lines were originally written thus, Shade follows fhade by laughing Zephyrs drove, And all the chequer'd landfcape feems to move; but were altered on account of the fuppofed falfe grammar in ufing the word drove for driven, according to the opinion of Dr.Lowth: at the fame time it may fee obferved, I. That this is, in many cafes, only an ellipfis of the letter at the end of the word, as froze for frozen, wove for woven, fpoke for fpoken, and that then the participle accidentally becomes fimilaf to the paft tenfe: 3. That the language feems gradually tending to omit the letter n in other kind of words, for the fake of euphony ; as houfen is become houfes, eyne eyes, thine thy, &c. and, in common converfation, the words forgot, fpoke, froze, rode, are frequently ufed for forgotten, fpoken, frozen,' ridden. 3. It does not appear that any confufion would follow the indif- criminate ufe of the fame word for the paft tenfe and the participle paffivc, fince the auxiliary verb have, or the preceding noun or pronoun, always clearly diftinguilb.es them: and, laftly, rhime-poetrjr muft lofe the vfe of many elegant words without this licenfe. ARGUMENT tiF TIfE THIRD CANTO. ADDRESS to the Nymphs. I. Steam rifes from the ocean, floats in clouds, defcends in rain and dew, or is condenfed on hills, produces fprings, and ri- vers, and returns to the fca. So the blood circulates through the body and returns to the heart, n. II. I. Tides, 57. a, Echinus, nautilus, pinna, cancer. Grotto of a mermaid, 65. 3. Oil ftills the waves. Coral rocks. Ship-worm, or Teredo. Maelflrome, a whirlpool on the coaft of Norway, 85. III. Rivers from beneath the fnows on the Alps. The Tiber, 103. IV. Overflowing of the Nile from African Monfoons, 129. V. I. Giefar, 9. boiling fountaip in Iceland, deftroyed by inundation, and confequent earth- quake, 145. a. Warm medicinal fprings. Buxton. Duke and Duchefs of Devonlhire, I rj. VI. Combination of vital air and inflammable gas produces water. Which is another fource of fprings and rivers. Allegorical loves of Jupiter and Juno productive of vernal fhowers, 201. VII. Aquatic Tafte, Diftant murmur of the fea by night. Sea-horfe. Nereid finging, a6l. VIII. The Nymphs of the river Derwent lament the death of Mrs. French, 297. IX. Inland navigation. Monument for Mr. Brindley, 341. X. Pumps explained. Child fucking. Mothers exhorted to nurfe their children. Cherub fleeping, 365. XI. Engines for extinguishing fire. Story of two lovers perifhing in the flames, 397. XII. Charities of Mifs Jones, 447. XIII. Mar fb.es drained. Hercules conquers Achelous. The horn of plenty, 483. XIV. Showers. Dews. Floating lands with water. Ladteal fyftem in animals Caravan drinking, 529. Departure of the Nymphs like water- fpiders; like northern nations fkaiting on the ice, 569. THE BOTANIC GARDEN. ECONOMY OF VEGETATION, CANTO III. AGAIN the Goddefs fpeaks ! glad Echo fwells The tuneful tones along her fhadowy dells, Her wrinkling founts with foft vibration fhakes, Curls her deep wells, and rimples all her lakes, Thrills each wide ftream, Britannia's ifle that laves, Her headlong cataradls, and circumfluent waves. Thick as- the dews, which deck the morning flowers, Or rain-drops twinkling in the fun-bright Ihowers, Fair Nymphs, emerging in pellucid bands, Rife, as fhe turns, and whiten all the lands, jo I. " ^Your buoyant troops on dimpling ocean tread, Wafting the moift air from his oozy bed, Aquatic Nymphs ! you lead with viewlefs march The winged Vapours up the aerial arch, On each broad cloud a thoufand fails expand, 15 And fleer the fhadowy treafure o'er the land ; *Tbe winged -vapours. 1. 14. See additional notes, No. XXV. on evapora- tion. ? On each broad cloud. \. 15. The clouds confift of condenfed vapcur, the particles of which are too fmall feparately to overcome the tenacity of the air, and which, therefore, do not defcend. They are in fuch fmall fpheres as to repel each other; that is, they are applied to each other by fuch very fmall furfaces, that the attraction of the particles of each drop to its own fentre, is greater than its attraction to the furface of the drop in its vicinity; 70 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART I. Through vernal fides the gathering drops diffufe, Plunge in foft rains, or fink in filver dews. Your lucid bands condenfe with fingers chill The blue mift hovering round the gelid hill; 20 every one has obferved with what difficulty fmall fpherules of quickfilver can lie made to unite, owing to the fame caufe; and it is common to fee, onr riding through {hallow water on a clear day, numbers of very fmall fpheres of water, as they are thrown from the horfes feet, run along the furface for many yards before they again unite with it. In many cafes thefe fpherules of water, which compofe clouds, are kept from uniting by a fur- plus of electric fluid, and fall, in violent fhowers, as foon as that is with- drawn from them, as in thunder ftorms. See note on Canto I. 1. 554. If, in this ftate, a cloud becomes frozen, it is torn to pieces in its defcent, by the fri6tion of the air, and falls in white flakes of fnow. Or thefe flakes are rounded by being rubbed together by the winds, and by having their angles thawed off by the warmer air beneath as they defcencl; and part of the water produced by thefe angles, thus dilfolved, is abforbed into the body of the hail-ftone, as may be feen by holding a lump of fnow over a candle, and there beccmes frozen into ice, by the quantity of cold which the hail- ftone poflefles beneath the freezing point, or which is produced by its quick evaporation in falling; and thus hail-ftones are often found of greater or lefs denfity, according as they confift of a greater portion of fnow or ice. If hail-ftones confided of the large drops of fhowers frozen in their defcent, they would confift of pure tranfparent ice. As hail is only produced in fummer, and is always attended with ftorms, fome philofophers have believed, that th'e fudden departure of electricity from a cloud may effect fomething yet unknown in this phenomenon ; but it may happen in fummer independent of electricity, becaufe aqueous vapour- is then railed higher in the atmofphere, whence it has further to fall, and there is warmer air below for it to fall through. Orfn-L Inftkierdeivs. I. 18. During the coldnefs of the night the moifture before diilblved in the air is gradually precipitated, and, as it fuMides, ad- heres to the bodies it falls upon. Where the attraction of the body to the particles of water is greater than the attractions of thofe particles to each other, it becomes fpread upon their furface, or Hides down them in actual contact, as on the broad parts of the blades of moift grafs. Where the at- traction of the furface to the water is lefs than the attraction of the particles of water to each other, the dew {lands in drops, as on the points and edges of grafs or gcrfe, where the furface prefented to the drop being fmall, it at- tracts it fo little as but juft to fupport it without much changing its globu* lar form. Where there is no attraction between the vegetable furface and the dew drops, as on cabbage leaves, the drop does not come into contact with the leaf, but hangs over it repelled, and retains its natural form, com- pofed of the attraction and prefigure of its own parts, and thence looks like <qiiickfUver, reflecting light from both its furfaces. Nor is this owing to any oilinefs of the leaf, but (Imply to the polifh of its furface, as a light needle may be laid en water in the fame manner without touching it; for as the attractive powers of polifhed furfaces are greater when in actual con- tact, fo the repulfive power is greater before contact. The blue ni'ije. \. 2O. Mifts are clouds refting on the ground; the}' gene- rally come on at the beginning of ni^lit, and cither. fill i:he moift valHes, or hang on the funurats of hiils, according to the degree of moifture prcviouCy III. ECONOMY OF VEGETATION. ft In clay-form'd beds the trickling ftreams collect:, Strain through white fands, through pebbly veins dire& ; Or point in rifted rocks their dubious way, And in each bubbling fountain rife to day* " Nymphs I you then guide, attendant from their fource, The affociate rills along their imuous courfe j 26 Float in bright fquadrons by the willowy brink, Or circling flow in limpid eddies fink ; Call from her cryftal cave the Naiad- Nymph, Who hides her fine form in the paffing lymph, 30 And, as below {he braids her hyaline hair, Eyes her ibft fmiles reflected in the air ; Or fport in groups with River-Boys, that lave Their filken limbs amid the dafliing wave ; Pluck the pale primrofe bending from its edge, 35 Or tittering dance amid the whifpeiing fedge. diflblved, and the edu&ion of heat>from them. The air over rivers, during the warmth of the day, fufpends much moiilure ; and, as the changeful fur- face of rivers occafions them to cool fooner than the land, at the approach of evening, mifts are moft frequently feen to begin over rivers, and to fpread themfelves over moift grounds, and fill the vallies, while the mifts on the tops of mountains are more properly clouds, condenfed by the coldnefs o their fituation. On afcending up the fide of a hill from a mifty valley, I have obferved a beautiful coloured halo round the moon, when a certain thickfiefs of miit was over me, which ceafed to be vifible as foon as I emerged out of it; and well remember admiring, with other fpe&ators, the fnadow. of the three fpires of the cathedral church at Lichfield, the moon rifing behind it, appa- rently broken off, and lying diftincily over our heads, as if horizontally on the furface of the mift, which arofe about as high as the roof of the church. There are fome curious remarks on fhadows, or reflections feen on the fur- face of mifts from high mountains, in Ulloa's Voyages. The dry mift o fummer 1783, was probably occafioned by volcanic eruption, as mentioned in note on Chunda, vol. II. and, therefore, more like the atmofphere o fmoke, which hangs, on {till days, over great cities. There is a dry mift, or rather a diminifhed tranfparence of the air, which, according to Mr. Sauffure, accompanies fair weather, while great tranfpa-* rence of air indicates -rain. Thus when large rivers, two miles broad, fuch as at Liverpool, appear narrow, it is faid to prognofticate rain, and when wide, fair weather. This want of tranfparence of the air, in dry weather, may be owing to new combinations or decompofitions of the vapours diffolved in it, but wants further inveftigation. Effais fur L'Hygrometrie, p. 357. Round the gelid hill. ib. See additional notes, No. XXVI. on the origin of fprings. J* BOTANIC GARDEN. FAIT I, " Onward you pafs, the pine-capt hills divide, Or feed the golden harvefts on their fide ; The wide-ribb'd arch with hurrying torrents fill, Shove the flow barge, or whirl the foaming mill. 40 Or lead with beckoning hand the fparkling train Of refluent water to its parent main, And pleafed revifit in their fea-mofs vales Blue Nereid-forms array'd in fhining fcales, Shapes, whofe broad oar the torpid wave impels'* 45 And Tritons bellowing through their twifted ihells. " So from the heart the Sanguine Stream diftils O'er Beauty's radiant {hrine in vermil rills, Feeds each fine nerve, each {lender hair pervades, The fkin's bright (how with living purple fhades^ 50 Each dimpling cheek with warmer bluihes dyes, Laughs on the lips, and lightens in the eyes. - Erewhile abforb'd, the vagrant globules fwim From each fair feature, and proportion'd limb, Join'd in one trunk with deeper tint return - 55 To the warm concave of the vital urn. TT. i. " Aquatic Maids! you fway the mighty realms Of fcale and (hell, which Ocean overwhelms ; As Night's pale Queen her rifing orb reveals, And climbs the zenith with refulgent wheels, 60 Carr'd on the foam your glimmering legion rides, Your little tridents heave the dafhing tides, Car Set on tie foam. 1. 6 1. The phenomena of the tides have been well in- VcPagated, and fatisfadlorily explained, by Sir Ifaac Newton and Dr. Halley, from the reciprocal gravitations of the earth, moon, and fun. As the earth and moon move round a centre of motion near the earth's furface, at the fame time that they are proceeding in their annual orbit round the fun, it follows, that the water on the fide of the earth neareft this centre of mo- tion, between the earth and moon, will be more attracted by the moon, and the waters on the oppolite fide of the earth will be lefs attracted by the moon, than the central parts of the earth. Atld to this, that the centri- fugal force of the water on the fide of the earth furtheft from the centre of the motion, round which the earth and moon move, (which, as was laid be- fore, is near the furface of the earth,) is greater than that on the oppofite. fide of the earth. From both thefe caufes it is eafy to comprehend, that the water will rife on two fides of the earth, viz. on that neareft to the CANTO III. ECONOMY OF VEGETATION. 7$ Urge on the founding (bores their cryftal courfe, Reftrain their fury, or direct their force. 2. " Nymphs! you adorn, in glofly volutes roll'dj 6$ The gaudy conch with azure, green, and gold. moon, and its oppofite fide, and that it will be flattened, in confequence, at the quadratures, and thus produce two tides in every lunar day, which con- fifts of about twenty-four hours and forty-eight minutes. Thefe tides will be alfo affe&ed by the folar attraction when it coincides with the lunar one, or oppofes it, as at new and full moon, and will alfo be much influenced by the oppofing ihores in every part of the earth. Now, as the moon, in moving round the centre of gravity between itfelf and the earth, defcribes a much larger orbit than the earth defcribes round the fame centre, it follows, that the centrifugal motion of the fide of the moon oppofite to the earth muft be much greater than the centrifugal mo- tion of the fide of the earth oppofite to the moon, round the fame centre. And, fecondly, as the attraction of the earth exerted on the moon's furface next to the earth, is much greater than the attraction of the moon exerted on Hie earth's furface, the tides on the lunar fea (if fuch there be) fhould be much greater than thofe of our ocean. Add to this, that as the fame face of the moon always is turned to the earth, the lunar tides muft be permanent, and if the folid parts of the moon be fpherical, muft always cover the phafis next to us. But as there are evidently hills, and vales, and volcanos, on this fide of the moon, the coniequence is, that the moon has no ocean, or that it is frozen, Tie gaudy conch. 1. 66. The fpiral form of many fhells feem to have af- forded a more frugal manner of covering the long tail of the fifh with calca- reous armour; fince a fingle thin partition between the adjoining circles of the fifli was fufficient to defend both furfaces, and thus much cretaceous mat- ter is faved; and it is probable, that from this fpiral form they are better enabled to feel the vibrations of the element in which they exift. See note on Canto IV. 1. 162. This cretaceous matter is formed by a mucous fecretion from the fkin of the fifh, as is feen in crab-fifh, and others which annually caft their fhells, and is at firft a mucous covering (like that of a hen's egg, when it is laid a day or two too foon) and which gradually hardens. This may allb be feen in common {hell fnails; if a part of their fhell be bro- ken, it becomes repaired in a fimilar manner with mucus, which, by degrees, hat dens into fhell. It is probable the calculi, or ftones found in other animals, may have a fimilar origin, as they are formed on mucous membranes, as thofe of the kidney and bladder, chalk-ftones in the gout, and gall-ftones ; and are pro- bably owing to the inflammation of the membrane where they are produced, and vary according to the degree of inflammation of the membrane which forms them, and the kind of mucus which it naturally produces. Thus the fheily matter of different fhell-fifh differs, from the coarfer kinds, which form the fhells of crabs, to the finer kinds, which produce the mother-pearl. The beautiful colours of fome fhells originate from the thinnefs of the la* minai of which they confift, rather than to any colouring matter, as is feen in mother-pearl, which reflects different colours according to the obliquity of the light which falls on it. The beautiful prifmatic colours feen on the La- bradore ftone, are owing to a fimilar caufe, viz. the thinnefs of the lamiuas of which it coufiils, and has probably been formed from mother-pearl fhell PART i. L 74 BOTANIC GARDEN. PA RT I, You round Echinus ray his arrowy mail, Give the keel'cl Nautilus his oar and fail ; Firm to his rock with filver cords fufpend The anchor'd Pinna, and his Cancer-friend ; 70 With worm-like beard his toothlefs lips array, And teach the unwieldy Sturgeon to betray. Ambufh'd in weeds, or fepulchred in fands, In dread repofe He waits the fcaly bands, Waves in red fpires the living lures, and draws 75 The unwary plunderers to his circling jaws, Eyes with grim joy the twinkling fhoals befet, And clafps the quick inextricable net. You chafe the warrior Shark, and cumberous Whale, And guard the Mermaid in her briny vale ; 80 Feed the live petals of her infect-flowers, Her {hell-wrack gardens, and her fea-fan bowers; With ores and gems adorn her coral cell, And drop a pearl in every gaping fhell. It is curious that fome of the mo A common foflll fliells are not now 1 known in their recent ftate, as the cornua ammonis; and, on the contrary, many fliells which are very plentiful in their recent ftate, as limpets, fea- ears, volutes, cowries, are very rarely found foffil. Da Cofta's Conchology, p. 163. Were all the ammonias deftroyed when the continents were raifed? Or do fome genera of animals perifh by the increafmg power of their ene- mies ? Or do they ftill refide at inacceflible depths in the fea? Or do fome animals change their form gradually, and become new genera? Echinus. Nautilus. 1. 67, 68. See additional notes, No. XXVII. Pinna. Cancer. 1. 70. See additional notes, No. XXVII. "With iuorm-like beard. 1. 71. See additional notes, No. XXVIII. Feed the live petals. 1. 8l. There is a fea-infect, defcribed by M. Huges* whofe claws, or tentacles, being difpofed in regular circles, and tinged with variety of bright lively colours, reprefent the petals of fome mod elegantly fringed and radiated flowers, as the carnation, marigold, and anemone. Philof. Tranf. Abridg. vol. IX. p. no. The Abbe Dicquemarre has fur- ther elucidated the hiftory of the actinia, and obferved their manner of taking their prey by inclofing it in thefe beautiful rays like a net; Phil. Tranf. vol. LXIII. and LXV. and LXVIL And drop a pearl. 1. 84. Many are the opinions both of ancient and mo- dern writers concerning the production of pearls. Mr. Reaumur thinks they are formed like the hard concretions in many land animals, as ftones of the bladder, gall-ftones, and bezoar, and hence concludes them to be a <lifeafe of the fifh; but there feems to be a ftricler analogy between thefe and the calcareous productions found in crab-fifh, called crab's eyes, which are formed near the ftomach of the animal, and conftitute a refervoir of cal- careous matter againil the renovation of the fhell, at which time they are CANTO III. ECONOMY OF VEGETATION. 75 3. " Your myriad trains o'er ftagnant oceans tow, 85 Harnefs'd with goffamer, the loitering prow ; Or with fine films, fufpended o'er the deep, pf oil effufive lull the waves to ileep. You ftay the flying bark, conceal'd heneath, Where living rocks of worm-built coral breathe ; _ 9 Meet fell TEREDO, as he mines the keel With beaked head, and break his lips of fteel ; Turn the broad helm, the fluttering canvas urge From MAELSTROME'S fierce innavigable furge. -'Mid the lorn ifles of Norway's ftormy main, 95 As fweeps o'er many a league his eddying train, Vaft watery walls in rapid circles fpin, And deep-ingulph'd the Demon dwells within ; Springs o'er the fear-froze crew with harpy-claws, Down his deep den the whirling veflel draws ; IQO Churns with his bloody mouth the dread repaft, The booming waters murmuring o'er the maft. III. " Where with chill frown enormous Alps alarms A thoufand realms, horizon'd in his arms ; While cloudlefs funs meridian glories filed 105 From {kies of filver round his hoary head, re-diflblved, and deposited for that purpofe. As the internal part of the fhell of the pearl, oyfter, or mufcle, confifts of mother-pearl, which is a fimi- lar material to the pearl, and, as the animal has annually occafion to enlarge his Ihell, there is reafon to fufpecl the loofe pearls are fmiilar refervoirs of the pearly matter for that purpofe. Or with fne flats. 1. 87. See additional notes, No. XXIX. Where living tods. 1. 90. The immenfe and dangerous rocks built hy the fvvarms of coral infecls, which rife almoft perpendicularly in the foutherrf ocean, like walls, are defcribed in Cook's Voyages; a point of one of thefe rocks broke off, and fluck in the hole which it had made in the bottom of one of his Ihips, which would otherwife have perifhed by the admiflion of water. The numerous lime-ftone rocks, which confift of a congeries of the cells of thefe animals, and which conftitute a great part of the folid earth, fhew their prodigious multiplication in all ages of the world. Specimens of thefe rocks are to be feen in the lime-works at Linfel, near Newport, in Shropfhire, in Coal-brook Dale, and in many parts of the Peak of Derby- fhire. The infect has been well defcribed by M. Peyfonnel, Ellis, and others. Phil. Tranf. vol. XLVII. L. LII. and LVII. Meet fell Teredo. 1. 91. See additional notes, No. XXX. Turn the broad helm. 1. 93. See additional notes, No. XXXI. 76 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART I. Tall rocks of ice refra'cl: tJmcoloured rays, And Froft fits throned amid the lambent blaze; Nymphs ! your thin forms pervade his glittering piles, His roofs of chryftal, and his glafly ailes; HO Where in cold caves imprifoned Naiads fleep, Or chain'd on mofTy couches wake and weep ; Where round dark crags indignant Waters bend Through rifted ice, in ivory veins defcend, Seek through unfathom'd fnows their devious track, 115 Heave the vaft fpars, the ribbed granites crack, Rufh into day, in foamy torrents fhine, And fwell the imperial Danube or the Rhine. Where round dark crags. 1. 113. See additional notes, No. XXXII. Heave the waft fpars. 1. 1 1 6. Water, in defcending down elevated fltua-i tions, if the outlet for it below is not fufficient for its emiffion, adts with a force equal to the height of the column, as is feen in an experimental ma- chine called the philosophical bellows, in which a few pints of water arc made to raife many hundred pounds. To this caufe is to be afcribed many large promontories of ice being occafionally thrown down from the glaciers; rocks have likewife been thrown from the fides of mountains by the fame caufe, and large portions of earth have been removed many hundred yards from their fituations at the foot of mountains. On infpedting the locomo- tion of about thirty acres of earth, with a fmall houfe, near Bilder's Bridge, in Shropfhire, about twenty years ago, from the foot of a mountain towards the river, I well remember, it bore all the marks of having been thus lifted, up, pufhed away, and, as it were, crumpled into ridges, by a column of water contained in the mountain. From water being thus confined in high columns, between the ftrata of mountainous countries, it has often happened, when wejls or perfora- tions have been made into the earth, that fprings have arifen much above the furface of the new well. When the new bridge was building at Dublin, Mr. G. Semple found a fpring in the bed of the river where he meant to lay the foundation of a pierre, which, by fixing iron pipes intp it, he raifed many feet. Treatife on Building in Water, by G. Semple. From having obferved a valley north-weft bf St. Alkmond's well, near Derby, at the head of which that fpring of water once probably exifted, and by its current ^formed the valley, (but which, in after times, found its way out in its pre- fent fituatipn,) I fufpeft that St. Alkmond's well might, by building round it, be raifed high enough to fupply many ftreets in Derby with fpring-water, which are now only fupplied with river-water. See an account of an arti- ficial fpring of water, Phil. Tranf. vol. JLXXV. p. I. In making a well at Sheer nefs the water rofe 300 feet above its fource in the well. Phil. Tranf. vol. LXXIV. And at Hartford, in Connecticut, there is a well which was dug feventy feet deep before water was found ; then, in boring an auger-hole through a rock, the water rofe fo faft as to make it difficult to keep it dry by pumps, till they could blow the hole larger by gun-powder, which was no fooner accomplifhed than it filled, and run over, and has been a brook for near a century. Travels through Ame- rica. Lond. 1789. Lane. CANTO III. ECONOMY OF VEGETATION. 77 Or feed the murmuring TIBER, as he laves His realms inglorious with diminifh'd waves, 120 Hears his lorn Forum found with Eunuch-flrains, Sees dancing flaves infult his martial plains ; Parts with chill ftream the dim religious bower, Time-mouldered baftion, and difmantled tower; By alter'd fanes and namelefs villas glides, j 25 And claffic domes, that tremble on his fides ; Sighs o'er each broken urn, and yawning tomb, And mourns the fall of 1,1 BERT y and IV, " Sailing in air, when dark Afonfoon infhrouds His tropic mountains in a night of clouds; 130 Or drawn by whirlwinds from the Line returns, And fhowers o'er Afric all his thoufand urns; High o'er his head the beams of SiRius glow, And, Dog of Nile, AN u BIS, barks below. Nymphs ! you from cliff to cliff attendant guide, 135 In headlong cataracts the impetuous tide ; Or lead o'er waftes of Abyjflinian fands The bright expanfe to EGYPT'S fhower-lefs lands. Dark Monfoon injbrouds. 1. 129. When from any peculiar fituations of land, in refpecl: to fea, the tropic becomes more heated, when the fun is vertical over it, than the line, the periodical winds, called monfoons, are produced, and thefe are attended by rainy feafons; for as the air at the tro- pic is now more heated than at the line, it afcends by decreafe of its fpecific gravity, and floods of air rufh in both from the fouth-weft and north-eaft, and thefe being one warmer than the other, the rain is precipitated by their mixture, as obferved by Dr. Hutton. See additional notes, No. XXV. All late travellers have afcribed the rife of the Nile to the monfoons which de- luge Nubia and Abyfiinia with rain. The whirling of the afcending air was even feen by Mr. Bruce in Abyffinia: he fays, " Every morning a fmall cloud began to whirl round, and prefently after the whole heavens became covered with clouds." By this vortex of afcending air the N.. E. winds and the S. W. winds, which flow in to fupply the place of the afcending column, be- came mixed more rapidly, and depofited their rain in greater abundance. Mr. Volney obferves, that the time of the rifing of the Nile commences about the I9th of June; and that Abyffinia and the adjacent parts of Africa arc deluged with rain in May, June, and July, and produce a mafs of water which is three months in draining off. The Abbe Le Pluche obferves, that as Sirius, or the dog-ftar, rofe at the time of the commencement of the flood, its rifing was watched by the aftronomers, and notice given of the approach of inundation, by hanging the figure of Anubis, which was that of a man with a dog's head, upon all their temples. Hiftoire de Ciel. Egypt 's ftoiver-lefs lands, 1. 138. There feem to be two fituations which ?S BOTANIC GARDEN. PART!. Her long canals the facred waters fill, And edge with lilver every peopled hill; 140 Gigantic SPHINX in circling waves admire, And MEMNON bending o'er his broken lyre; O'er furrow 'd glebes and green favannas fweep, And towns and temples laugh amid the deep. V. i. " High in the frozen North where HECLA glows, And melts in torrents his coeval fnows; 146 O'er iiles and oceans fheds a fangujne light, Or {hoots red flars amid the ebon night ; When, at his bafe intomb'd, with bellowing found FeiiGiESAR roar'd, and, ftruggling, /hook the ground; 150 Pour'd from red noftrils, with her fcalding breath, A boiling deluge o'er the blafted heath ; jnay be conceived to be exempted from ram falling upon them ; one where the conftant trade-winds meet beneath the line, for here two regions of warm air are mixed together, and thence do not feem to have any caufe to preci- pitate their vapour; and the other is, where the winds are brought from col- der climates and become warmer by their contacl with the earth of a warmer one. Thus Lower Egypt is a flat country warmed by the fun more than the higher lands on one fide of it, and than the Mediterranean. on the other; and hence the winds which blow over it acquire greater warmth, which ever xvay they come, than they poffefied before, and in confequence have a ten- dency to acquire and not to part with their vapour, like the north-caft winds of this country. There is faid to be a narrow fpot upon the coaft of Peru, \vhere rain feldom occurs; at the fame time, according to Ulloa, on the mountainous regions of the Andes, beyond, there is almoft perpetual rain, for the wind blows uniformly upon this hot part of the coaft of Peru, but no caufe of devaporation occurs till it begins to afcend the mountainous Andes, and then its own expanfion produces cold fufficient to condenfe its vapour. Fell Giefar roar'd. 1. 150. The boiling column of water at Giefar in Ice- land, was nineteen feet in diameter, end fcmetimes rofe to the height of ninety-two feet. On cooling, it depofited a filiceous matter, or chalcedony, forming a bafon round its bale. The heat of this water before it rofe out of the earth could not be afcertained, as water lofes all its heat above ^1^ (as foon as it is at liberty to expand) by the exhalation of a part; but the flinty bafon which is depofited from it fhews that water, with great degrees of heat, will diilblve filiceous matter. Van Troil's Letters on Iceland. Since the above account, in the year 1780, this part of Iceland has been de- ftroyed by an earthquake, or covered with lava, which was probably effected by the force of aqueous fteam, a greater quantity of water falling on the fubterraneous fires than could efcape by the ancient outlets, and generating an increafed quantity of vapour. For the difpcrfion of contagious vapours from volcanos, fee an account of the Hdrmattan, in the notes on Chunda, vol. II, CANTO III. ECONOMY OF VEGETATION. 79 And, wide in air, in mifty volumes hurl'd Contagious atoms o'er the alarmed world ; Nymphs ! your bold myriads broke the infernal fpell, 155 And crudi'd the Sorcerefs in her flinty cell. 2. " Where with foft fires in unextinguifh'd urns, Cauldron'd in rock, innocuous Lava burns ; On the bright lake your gelid hands diftil In pearly (howers the pariimonious rill; 160 And, as aloft the curling vapours rife Through the cleft roof, ambitious for the fkies, In vaulted hills condenfe the tepid fleams, And pour to Health the medicated fti earns. So in green vales amid her mountains bleak 165 BUXTONIA fmiles, the Goddefs-Nymph of Peak; Deep in warm waves, and pebbly baths (he dwells, And calls HYGEIA to her fainted wells. " Hither in fportive bands bright DEVON leads Graces and Loves from Chatfworth's flowery meads. 170 Charm'd round the Nymph, they climb the rifted rocks; And fteep in mountain-mift their golden locks; On venturous ftep her fparry caves explore, And light with radiant eyes her realms of ore: Oft by her bubbling founts, and fhadowy domes, 175 In gay undrefs the fairy legion roams, Their dripping palms in playful malice fill, Or tafte with ruby lip the fparkling rill ; Croud round her baths, and, bending o'er the fide, Unclafp'd their fandals, and their zones untied, 180 Dip with gay fear the fhuddering toot undrefs'd, And quick retrat it to the fringed veft; Buxtonia fmiles. I. 166. Some arguments are mentioned in the note on Fucus, vol. II. to (hew that the warm fprings of this country do not arife from the decompofrtion of pyrites near the furface of the earth, but that they are produced by fteam rifing up the fiflures of the mountains from great depths, owing to water falling on fubterraheous fires, and that this fteam is condenfed between the ftrata of the incumbent mountains, and col- lected into fprings. For further proofs on this fubjedl the reader is referred to a letter from Dr. Darwin in Mr. Pilkington's View of Derbyfhire, vol. I. p. 2j6. So BOTANIC GARDEN. PART I. Or cleave with brandiuYd arms the lucid ftream, And fob, their blue eyes twinkling in the fleam. High o'er the chequer'd vault with tranfient glow 185 Bright hi (Ire's dart, as dafh the waves below ; And Echo's fweet refponfive voice prolongs The dulcet tumult of their filver tongues. O'er their fiulh'd cheeks uncurling trefles flow, And dew-drops glitter on their necks of fnow; 190 Round each fair Nymph her dropping mantle clings, And Loves emerging {hake their fhowery wings. ' Here oft her LORD furveys the rude domain, Fair arts of Greece triumphant in his train ; Lo ! as he fteps, the column'd pile afcends, ig$ The blue roof clofes, or the crefcent bends ; New woods afpiring clothe their hills with green, Smooth flope the lawns, the grey rock peeps between ; Relenting Nature gives her hand to Tafte, And Health and Beauty crown the laughing wafle. 200 And fob) ilelr blue eyes. 1. 184. The bath at Buxton being of 82 degrees bf heat, is called a warm bath, and is fo compared with common fpring- water, which poffeffes but 48 degrees of heat, but is neverthelefs a cold bath compared to the heat of the body, which is 98. On going into this bath there is therefore always a chill perceived at the firil immeriion ; but after having been in it a minute, the chill ceafes, and a fenfation of warmth fuc- cceds, though the body continues to be immerfed in the water. The caufe of this curious phenomenon is to be looked for in the laws of animal fenfa- tion, and not from any properties of heat. When a perfon goes from clear day-light into an obfcure room, for a while it appears gloomy, which gloom, however, in a little time ceafes, and the deficiency of light becomes no lon- ger perceived. This is not folely owing to the enlargement of the iris of the eye, fmce that is performed in an inftant, but to this law of fenfation, that when a lefs ftimulus is applied (within certain bounds) the fenfibility in- creafes. Thus, at going into a bath as much colder than the body as that of Buxton, the diminution of .heat on the fkin is at firft perceived; but in about a minute the fenfibility to heat, increafes and the nerves of the fldn are equally excited by the leffened ftimulus. The fenfation of warmth at emerging from a cold bath, and the pain called the hot-ach, after the hands have been im- merfed in fnow, depend on the fame principle, viz. the increafed fenfibility of the ikin after having been previoufly expofed to a ftimulus lefs than ufual. Here oft her Lord. 1. 193. Alluding to the magnificent and beautiful cref- cent, and fuperb (tables lately erected at Buxton, for the accommodation of the company, by the Duke of Devonfhire; and to the plantations with which he has decorated the furrounding mountains. CAi*ToIII. ECONOMY OF VEGETATION. 8i VI. " Nymphs ! your bright fquadrons watch with chemic eyes The cohkelaftic vapours, as they rife ; With playful force aired them as they pafs, .And to pure AIR betroth the flaming GAS. Round their tranflucent forms at once they fling 20$ Their rapturous arms, with iilver bofoms cling j In fleecy clouds their fluttering wings extend, Or from the (kies in lucid fliowers defcend ; Whence rills and rivers owe their fecret birth. And Ocean's hundred arms infold the earth. 210 " So, robed by Beauty's Queen, with (bfter charms SATURNIA woo'd the Thunderer to her arms; O'er her fair limbs a veil of light (he fpread, And bound a ftarry diadem on her head ; Long braids of pearl her golden trefles grac'd, 215 And the charm'd CESTUS fparkled round her waift. Raifed o'er the woof, by Beauty's hand inwrought, 'Breathes the foft Sigh, and glows the enamour'd Thought; Vows on light wings fucceed, and quiver'd Wiles, Affbafive Accents, and fedu6r.ive Smiles. 220 And to pure air. 1. 204. Until very lately water was efteemed a fimple clement; nor are all the moft celebrated chemifts of Europe yet converts to the new opinion of its decompofition. Mr. Lavoifier, and others of the French fchool, have moft ingenioufly endeavoured to fhew, that water con- Ms -of pure air, called by them oxygene, and of inflammable air, called hy- drogene, with as much of the matter of heat, or calorique, as is necefiary to preferve them in the form of gas. Gas is diftinguifhed from fteam by its preferving its elafticity under the preffure of the atmofphere, and in the greateft degrees of cold yet known. The hiftory of the progrefs of this great difcovery is detailed in the Memoirs of the Royal Academy for 1781, and the experimental proofs of it are delivered in Lavoifier's Elements of Chemiilry. The refults of which are, that water confifts of eighty-five, parts, by weight, of oxygene, and fifteen parts, by weight, of hydrogene, with a fuflicient quantity of calorique. Not only numerous chemical phe- nomena, but many atmofphe'rical and vegetable fadts receive clear and beau- tiful elucidation from this important analyfis. In the atmofphere, inflam- mable air is probably perpetually uniting with vital air, and producing moifture, which defcends in dews arid fhdwers ; while the growth of vege- tables, by the afiiftance of light, is perpetually again decompofmg the water they imbibe from the earth, and while they retain the inflammable air for the formation of oils, wax, honey, refin, &c. they give up the vital air t replenifn the utmofphcre* PART 1. M 82 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART L Slow rolls the Cyprian car in purple pride, And, ileer'd by LOVE, afcends admiring Ide; Climbs the green flopes, the nodding woods pervades, Burns round the rocks, or gleams amid the fhades. Glad ZEPHYR leads the van, and waves above 225 The barbed darts, and blazing torch of Love ; Reverts his fmiling face, and paufmg flings Soft fhowers of rofes from aurelian wings. Delighted Fawns, in wreathes of flowers array 'd, With tiptoe Wood -Boys beat the chequer'd glade; 250 Alarmed Naiads, rifing into air$ Lift o'er their filver urns their leafy hair; Each to her oak the baftiful Dryads fhrink, And azure eyes are feen at every chink. LOVE culls a flaming {haft of broadeft wing, 235 And refts the fork upon the quivering firing; Points his arch eye aloft, with ringers ftrong Draws to his curled ear the filken thong; Loud twangs the fteel, the golden arrow flies, Trails a long line of luftre through the ikies ; 240 " 'Tis done!" he fhouts, " the mighty Monarch feels!" And with loud laughter fhakes the fjlver wheels ; Bends o'er the car, and whirling, as it moves, His loofenM bowftring, drives the rifing doves. Pierced on his throne the ftarting Thunderer turns, 245 Melts with foft fighs, with kindling rapture burns; Clafps her fair hand, and eyes in fond amaze The bright Intruder with enamour'd gaze. " And leaves my Goddefs, like a blooming bride, " The fanes of Argos for the rocks of Ide? 250 " Her gorgeous palaces, and amaranth bowers, " For clifF-top'd mountains, and aerial towers?" He faid; and, leading from her ivory feat The blufhing beauty to his lone retreat, And JlteSd by Love. 1. 222. The younger Love, or Cupid, the fon of Venus, owes his exiftence and his attributes to much later times than the Eros, or Divine Love, mentioned in Canto I. fmce the former is no where mentioned by Homer, though fo many apt opportunities of introducing him eccur in the works of that immortal bard. Bacon. CANTO III. ECONOMY OF VEGETATION. 83 CurtainM with night the couch imperial fhroucls, 255 And refts the crimfon cushions upon clouds. Earth feels the grateful influence from above, Sighs the foft Air, and Ocean murmurs love; Ethereal Warmth expands his brooding wing, And in (till ihowers defcends the genial Spring, 260 VII. " Nymphs of aquatic Tafte ! whofe placid fmilc Breathes fweet enchantment o'er BRITANNIA'S iflej Whofe fportive touch in ihowers refplendent flings Her lucid cataracts, and her bubbling fprings ; Through peopled vales the liquid filver guides, 265 And fwells in bright expanfe her freighted tides. You with nice ear, in tiptoe trains, pervade Dim walks of morn or evening's filent {hade; Join the lone Nightingale, her woods among, And roll your rills fymphonious to her fong; 270 Through fount- full dells, and wave- worn valleys move, And tune their echoing waterfalls to love; Or catch, attentive to the diftant roar, The paufmg murmurs of the dafhing fhore ; Or, as aloud {lie pours her liquid flrain, 275 Purfue the NEREID on the twilight main. Her playful Sea-horfe woos her foft commands, Turns his quick ears, his webbed claws expands, And in fill flowers. 1. 260. The allegorical interpretation of the very an- cient mythology, which fuppofes Jupiter to reprefent the fuperior part of the atmofphere or ether, and Juno the inferior air, and that the con- jundion of thefe two produces vernal fhowers, as alluded to in Virgil's Georgics, is fo analogous to the prefent important difcovery of the produc- tion of water from pure air, or oxygene, and inflammable air, or hydrogene, (which, from its greater levity, probably refides over the former,) that one fliould be tempted to believe, that the very ancient chemifts of Egypt had difcovered the compofition of water, and thus reprefented it in their hiero- glyphic figures before the invention of letters. In the pafTage of Virgil, Jupiter is called ether, and defcends in prolific fhowers on the bofom of Juno, whence the fpring fucceeds, and all nature rejoices. Turn pater omnipotens fcecundis imbribus Ether Conjugis in gremium laetse defcendit, et omnes Magnus alit, magno commixtus corpore, fcetus. Virg. Georg. Lib. II. 1, 315. Her playful Sea-borfe. 1. 277. Defcribed from an antique gem. 84 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART I. His watery way with waving volutes wins, Or liftening librates on unmoving fins. 2 So The Nymph emerging mounts her fcaly feat, Hangs o'er his glofly fide,s her filver feet, With fnow-white hands her arching veil detains, Gives to his flimy lips the flacken'd reins, Lifts to the ftar of Eve her eye ferene, 285 And chaunts the birth of Beauty's radiant Queen. O'er her fair brow her pearly comb unfurls Her beryl locks, and parts the waving curls, Each tangled braid with gliflening teeth unbinds, And with the floating treafure mulks the winds. 290 Thrill'd by the dulcet accents, as fhe fings, The rippling wave in widening circles rings Night's (hadowy forms along the margin gleam With pointed ears, or dance upon the ftream ; The Moon tranfported flays her bright career, 295 maddening Stars flioot headlong from the fphere. VIII. " Nymphs ! whofe fair eyes with vivid luftres glow For human weal, and melt at human woe; Late as you floated on your filver fhells, Sorrowing and flow by DERWENT'S willowy dells; 300 Where by tall groves his foamy flood he fteers Through ponderous arches o'er impetuous wears, By DERBY'S fhadowy towers reflective fweeps, And gothic grandeur chills his dulky deeps ; You pearl'd with Pity's drops his velvet iides, 305 Sigh'd in his gales, and murmur'd in his tides, Waved o'er his fringed brink a deeper gloom, And bow'd his alders o'er MILCENA'S tomb. " Oft with fweet voice She led her infant-train, Printing with graceful ftep his fpangled plain, 3^O Explored his twinkling fwarms, that fwim or fly, And mark'd his florets with botanic eye. OV Mihenas tomb. 1. 308. In memory of Mrs. French, a lady who, to many other elegant acccmplifhments, added a proficiency in botany and na- tural hiilory. CANTO III. ECONOMY OF VEGETATION. 85 " Sweet bud of Spring ! how frail thy tranfient bloom, " Fine film," & e cr ed > " f Nature's faireft loom ! tf Soon Beauty fades upon its damafk throne!'' 315 Unconfcious of the worm, that mined her own ! ' Pale are thofe lips, where foft careffes hung, Wan the warm cheek, and mute the tender tongue, Cold refts that feeling heart on DERWENT'S fhore, And thofe love-lighted eye-balls roll no more ! 320 " Here her fad Confort, dealing through the gloom Of murmuring cloyfters, gazes on her tomb ; Hangs in mute anguiih o'er the fcutcheon'd hearfe, Or graves with trembling ftyle the votive verfe. " Sexton ! oh, lay beneath this facred fhrine, 325 " When Time's cold hand (hall clofe my aching eyes, " Oh, gently lay this wearied earth of mine, " Where wrap'd in night my loved MILCENA lies. " So (hall with purer joy my fpirit move " When the laft trumpet thrills the caves of Death, 330 f Catch the firft whifpers of my waking love, " And drink with holy kifs her kindling breath, '* The fpotlefs Fair, with bluih ethereal warm, -,*.* ' " Shall hail with fweeter fmile returning day, " Rife from her marble bed a brighter form, 333 " And win on buoyant ftep her airy way. " Shall bend approved, where beckoning hofts invite, " On clouds of iilver, her adoring knee, " Approach with Seraphim the throne of light, " And Beauty plead with angel-tongue for Me !" 340 IX. " Your virgin trains on BR IN D LEY'S cradle fmiled, And nurfed with fairy-love the unletter'd child, On Brindhy's cradle fmiled. 1. 341. The life of Mr. Brindley, tvhofe great abilities in the conftrudion of canal navigation were called forth by the pa- tronage of the Duke of Bridgewater, rnay be read in Dr. Kippis's Biogra- 85 BOTANIC GARDEN". PART I. Spread round his pillow all your fecret fpells, Pierced all your fprings, and open'd all your wells. As now on grafs, with gloffy folds reveal'd, 345 Glides the bright ferpent, now in flowers conceal'd ; Far fhine the fcales, that gild his finuous back, And lucid undulations mark his track ; So with ftrong arm immortal BRINDLEY leads His long canals, and parts the velvet meads j 350 Winding in lucid lines, the watery mafs Mines the firm rock, or loads the deep morafs, With riling locks a thoufand hills alarms, Flings o'er a thoufand ftreams its filver arms, Feeds the long vale, the nodding woodland laves, 355 And Plenty, Arts, and Commerce freight the waves. - Nymphs! who erewhile round BRINDLEY'S early bier On mow-white bofoms fhower'd the incefiant tear, Adorn his tomb ! oh, raife the marble buft, Proclaim his honours, and prote6t his duft ! 360 With urns inverted, round the facred fhrine Their ozier wreaths let weeping Naiads twine; While on the top MECHANIC GENIUS ftands, Counts the fleet waves, and balances the lands. X. " Nymphs / you firfl taught to pierce the fecret caves Of humid earth, and lift her ponderous waves; 366 phia Eritannica ; the excellence of his genius is vifible in every part of this ifland. He died at Turnhurft, in Staffordfhire, in 1772, and ought to have a monument in the cathedral church at Licbfield. Lift ler ponderous ivaves. 1. 366. The invention of the pump is of very ancient date, being afcribed to one Ctel'ebes, an Athenian, whence it was called by the Latins machina Ctefebiana; but it was long before it was known that the afcent of the piilon lifted the fuperincumbent column of the atmofphere, and that then the preflurc of the furrounding air, on the furface of the well belo\v, forced the water up into the vacuum, and that, on that account, in the common lifting pump, the water would rife only about thirty-five feet, as the weight of fuch a column of water was, in general, an equipoife to the furrounding atmofphere. The foamy appearance of water, when the preffure of the air over it is diminifhed, is owing to the expanfion and efcape of the air previoufiy diffolved by it, or exifting in its pores. When a child firft fucks, it only preffes or champs the teat, as oblerved by the great Harvey, but afterwards it learns to make an incipient vacuum in its mouth, and acis, by removing the preffure of the atmoiphere from the nipple, like a pump. CANTO III. ECONOMY OF VEGETATION. 87 Bade with quick ftroke the fliding piftou bear The viewlefs columns of incumbent air ; Prefs'd by the incumbent air the floods below, Through opening valves in foaming torrents flow, 370 Foot after foot with leffen'd impulfe move, And riling feek the vacancy above. So when the Mother, bending o'er his charms, Clafps her fair nurfeling in delighted arms; Throws the thin kerchief from her neck of fnow, 37$ And half unveils the pearly orbs below; With fparkling eye the blamelefs Plunderer owns Her foft embraces, and endearing tones, . Seeks the falubrious fount with opening lips, Spreads his inquiring hands, and fmiles, and fips. 380 " Connubial Fair f whom no fond tranfport warms To lull your infant in maternal arms ; Who, blefs'd in vain with tumid bofoms, hear His tender wailings with unfeeling ear; The foothing kifs and milky rill deny, 385 To the fweet pouting lip, and gliftening eye I- Ah ! what avails the cradle's damalk roof, The eider bolfter, and embroider'd woof !-* Oft hears the gilded couch unpiry'd plains, And many a tear the taflel'd cufhion flains ! 390 No voice fo fweet attunes his cares to reft, So foft no pillow as his Mother's breaft ! Thus charrn'd to fweet repofe, when twilight hours Shed theii foft influence on celeftial bowers, The Cherub, Innocence, with fmile divine 395 Shuts his white wings, arid fleeps on Beauty's fhrine. XL " From dome to dome when flames infuriate climb, Sweep the long (rreet, invert the tower fublime ; Gild the tall vanes amid the aftonim'd night, And reddening heaven returns the fanguine light; 400 Ah! ivhat avails. 1. 387. From" an elegant little poem of Mr. Jetning- ham's, entitled II Latte, exhorting ladies to mufc their own children. 88 BOTANIC GARDEN". PART!, While with vaft ftrides and briftling hair aloof Pale Danger glides along the falling roof; And Giant Terror, howling in amaze, JVtoves his. dark limbs acrofs the lurid blaze. Nymphs ! you fir ft taught the gelid wave to rife, 405; Hmi'd in refplendent arches to the ikies ; In iron cells condenfed the airy fpring, And imp'd the torrent with unfailing wing; ; ; On the fierce flames the fliower impetuous falls, And fudden darknefs fhrouds the fliatter'd walls; 410 Steam, fmoke, and duft, in blended volumes roll, And Night and Silence repoflefs the Pole. Where we're ye, Nymphs ! in thofe difafterous hours, Which wrap'd in flames AUGUSTA'S (inking towers? Why did ye linger in your wells and groves, 415 When fad WOODMASON mourn'd her infant loves? When thy fair Daughters with unheeded fcreams, Ill-fated MOLESWORTH ! call'd the loitering dreams ! ( The trembling Nymph, on bloodlefs ringers hung, Eyes from the tottering wall the diftant throng, 420 With ceafelefs (hrieks her fleeping friends alarms, Drops with finged hair into her lover's arms. HurTd hi refp'cndext arckes. 1. 406. The addition of an air-cell to ma- cKines for railing water to extinguifh fire, was firft introduced by Mr. Ncwfham, of London, and is now applied to fimilar engines for wafhing wall-trees in gardens, and to all kinds of forcing pumps, and might be ap- plied, with advantage, to lifting pumps, where the water is brought from a great diftahce horizontally. Another kind of machine was invented by one Greyl, in which a vellel cf water was every way difperfed by the ex- plofion of gun-powder lodging in the centre of it, and lighted by an adapted match ; from this idea Air. Godfrey propoied a water-bomb of fimilar con- ftruclion. Dr. Hales, to prevent the Ipreading of fire, propofed to cover the floors and flairs of the adjoining houfes with earth: Mr. Hartley propofed to prevent houfes from taking fire, by covering the cieling with thin iron plates; and Lord Mahon, by a bed of coarfe moitar, or plaifter, between the cieling and floor above it. May not this age of chemical fci- ence difcover fome method of injeding or foaking timber with lime-water, and afterwards with vitriolic acid, and thus fill its pores with alabafter? ftr of penetrating it with filiceous matter, by proceffes fimilar to thofe of Bergman and Achard ? See Cronftedt's Mineral, ad edit. vol. I. p. 222. Woodmafin. Moltfivortb. 1. 416, 418. The hiftories of thefe unfortu- nate families may be fecn in the Annual Regifter, or in the Gentleman's Magazine. CANTO III. ECONOMY OF VkGETATIOtf. 89 The illumin'd Mother feeks with footfteps fleet, Where hangs the fafe balcony o'er the ftreet ; Wrap'd in her fheet her youngeft hope fufpends* 425 And panting lowers it to her tiptoe friends ; Again (lie hurries on Affection's wings, And now a third, and now a fourth, fhe hrings ; Safe all her babes, (he ftnooths her horrent brow, And burfts through bickering flames, unfcorch'd, below. So, by her Son arraigned, with feet uniliod 431 O'er burning bars indignant Emma trod. " E'en on the day when Youth with Beauty wed, The flames furprifed them in their nuptial bed; Seen at the opening fafh with bofoin bare, With wringing hands, and dark clifhevel'd hair, The blufhing Bride, with wild diforder'd charms, Round her fond lover winds her ivory arms; Beat, as they clafp, their throbbing hearts with fear, And many a kifs is mix'd with many a tear; 440 Ah me ! in vain the labouring engines pour Round their pale limbs the ineffectual fhower ! Then crafh'd the floor, while fhrinking crouds retire* And Love and Virtue funk amid the fire ! With piercing fcreams afflicted Grangers mourn, 445 And their white allies mingle in their urn* XIL " Pellucid Forms ! whofe cryftal bofoms fhow The fhine of welfare, or the fhade of woe; Who with foft lips falute returning Spring, And hail the Zephyr quivering on his wing ; 450 Or watch, untired, the wintery clouds, and fhare With dreaming eyes my vegetable care ; Go, (hove the dim mift from the mountain's brow, Chafe the white fog, which floods the vale below; Melt the thick fnows, that linger on the lands, And catch the hail-ftoncs in your little hands j Shove the dim mjjl. 1. 453. See note on 1. 30 of this Canto. Catch the liail-Jlones, 1. 456. See note on 1. ij of this Canto. PART I. N 90 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART I. Guard the coy bloflbm from the pelting (hovver, And dim the rimy fpangles from the bower 3 From each chill leaf the lilvery drops repel, And clofe the timorous floret's golden bell. 460 " So mould young Sympathy^ in female fornij Climb the tall rock, fpe&atrefs of the ftorm ; Life's finking wrecks with fecret fighs -deplore, And bleed for others' woes, Herfelf on more; From each chill leaf. 1. 459. The upper fide of the leaf is the organ of vegetable refpiration, as explained in the additional notes, No. XXXVII. hence the leaf is liable to injury from much moifture on this furface, and is deftroyed by being fmeared with oil, in thefe refpects refembling the lungs of animals, or the fpiracula of infects. To prevent thefe injuries, fome leaves repel the dew-drops from their upper furfaces, as thofe of cabbages; other vegetables clofe the upper furfaces of their leaves together in the night, or in wet weather, as the fenfitive plant; others only hang their leaves downwards, fo as to fhoot the wet from them, as kidney-beans, and many trees. See note on L 1 8 of this Canto. Golden bell, 1. 460. There are mufcles placed about the foot-ftalks of the leaves or leaflets of many plants, for the purpofe of clofing their upper fur- faces together, or of bending them down fb as to fhoot off the fhowers or dew-drops, as mentioned in the preceding note, The claws of the petals, or of the divifions of the calyx of many flowers, are furnifhed in a fimilar manner with mufcles, which are exerted to open or clofe the corol and calyx of the flower, as in tragopogon, anemone; This action of opening and clofing the leaves or flowers, does not appear to be produced fimply by irritation on the mufcles themfelves, but by the connection of thofe mufcles with a fenfitive fehibrium, or brain, exifting in each individual bud or flower. 111. Becaufe many flowers clofe from the defect of ftimulus, not by the ex- cefs of it, as by darknefs, which is the abfence of the ftimulus of light; or by cold, which is the abfence of the ftimulus of heat. Now, the defect of heat, or the abfence of focd, or of drink, affects our feiifations, which had been previoufly accuftomed to a greater quantity of them; but a mufcle can* not be faid to be ftimulated into action by a defect of ftimulus. 2d. Becaufe the mufcles around the foot-ftalks of the fubdivifions of the leaves of the fenfitive plant are exerted when any injury is offered to the other extremity of the leaf, and fome of the ftamens of the flowers of the clafs Syngenefia, contract themfelves when others are irritated. See note on Chondrilla, vol. II. o this work. From this circumftance, the contraction of the mufdesof vegetables feems to depend on a difagreeable fenfation in fome diftant part, and nor on the irritation of the mufcles themfelves. Thus, when a particle of duft ftimu* lates the ball of the eye, the eye-lids are inftantly clofed, and when too niuch light pains the retina, the mufcles of the iris contract its aperture, and this not by any connection or confent of the nerves of thofe parts, but as an effort to prevent or to remove a difagreeable fenfation, which evinces that vegetables are endued with fenfation, or that each bud has a common fenforium, and is furnifhed with a brain, or a central place, where its nerves are conne&ed* CANTO III. ECONOMY OF VEGETATION. 91 To friendlefs Virtue, gafping on the ftrand, 465 Bare her warm heart, her virgin arms expand, Charm with kind looks, with tender accents cheer, And pour the fweet condolatory tear; Grief's curelefs wounds with lenient balms afTwage, Or prop with firmer ftafF the fteps of Age; 470 The lifted arm of mute Defpair arreft, And fnatch the dagger pointed at his breaft; Or lull to flumber Envy's haggard mien, And rob her quiver'd ihafts with hand unfeen. Sound, Nymphs of HELICON ! the trump of Fame, 475 And teach Hibernian echoes JONES'S name; Bind round her polifh'd brow the civic bay, And drag the fair Philanthropift to day. So from fecluded fprings, and fecret caves, Her Liffy pours his bright meandering waves, 480 Cools the pnrch'd vale, the fultry mead divides, And towns and temples ftar his fhadowy fides. XIII. " Call your light legions, tread the fwampy heath, fierce with (harp fpades the tremulous peat beneath ; With colters bright the rufhy fward bife6l, 485 And in new veins the gulhing rills direct; So flowers {hall rife in purple light array'd, And bloffbm'd orchards ftretch their filver {hade; Admiring glebes their amber ears unfold^ And Labour fleep amid the waving gold. 490 <4 Thus when young HERCULES, with firm difdain, Braved the foft fmiles of Pleafure's harlot train ; To. valiant toils his forceful limbs affign'd, And gave to Virtue all his. mighty mind; Fierce ACHELOUS rufh'd from mountain-caves, 495 O'er fad Etolia pour'd his wafteful waves, Jones** name. 1. 476. A young lady who devotes a great part of an am- ple fortune to well-chofen acts of fecret charity. Fierce Aihelous. 1. 495. The river Achelous deluged Etolia, by one of its branches or arms, which, in the ancient languages, are called horns, and pro- duced famine throughout a great trad of country: this was reprefented in 92 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART I. O'er lowing vales and bleating paftures roll'd, Swept her red vineyards, and her glebes of gold, Mined all her towns, uptore her rooted woods, And Famine danced upon the (hilling floods. 500 The youthful Hero feized his curled creft, And dauYd with lifted club the watery Peft ; With waving arm the billowy tumult quell'd, And to his gourfe the bellowing Fiend repell'd. " Then to a Snake the finny Demon turn'd, 505 His lengthened form with (bales of (liver burn'd; Lafh'd with refiftlefs fweep his dragon-train, And (hot meandering o'er the affrighted plain. The Hero-God, with giant fingers clafp'd Firm round his neck, the biffing monfter grafpM ; 510 With (tarting eyes, wide throat, and gaping teeth, Curl his redundant folds, and writhe in death. " And now a Bull, amid the flying throng The grifly Demon foam'd, and roar'd along ; Witii filv.er hoofs the flowery meadows fpurn'd, 515. Roll'd his red eye, his threatening antlers turn'd ; Dragg'd down to earth the Warrior's vi&or-hands, Prefs'd his deep dewlap on the imprinted fands ; Then with quick bound his bended knee he rix'd High on his neck, the branching horns betwixt, 520 StrainM his ftrong arms, his finewy ihoulders bent, And from his curled brow the twitted terror rent, Pleafed Fawns and Nymphs with dancing flep applaud, And hang their chaplets round the refting God ; Link their foft hands, and rear, with paufing toil, 525 The golden trophy on the furrow'd foil; hieroglyphic emblems, hy the winding courfe of a ferpent, and the roar- ing of a hull with large horns. Hercules, cr the emblem of ftrength, llrangled the ferpent, and tore off one horn from the bull; that is, he itop- ped, and turned the courfe of one arm of the river, and reftcred plenty to the country. Whence the ajiciept emblem of the horn of plenty. Di&. par M. Danet. own to earth. 1. 517. Defciibed from an antique gem. CANTO III. ECONOMY OF VEGETATION. 95 Fill with ripe fruits, with wreathed flowers adorn, And give to Plenty her prolific horn. XIV. " On Spring's fair lip, cerulean Sifter* / pour From airy urns the fun-illumin'd fhower, 530 Feed with the dulcet drops my tender broods, Mellifluous flowers, and aromatic buds; Hang from each bending grafs and horrent thorn, The tremulous pearl, that glitters to the morn; Or where cold dews their fecret channels lave r 535 And Earth's dark chambers hide the ftagnant wave, Oh pierce, ye Nymphs ! her marble veins, and lead Her gufhing fountains to the thlrfty mea.d; Wide o'er the fhining vales, and trickling hills Spread the bright treafure in a thoufand rills. So mail my peopled, realms of Leaf and Flower Exult, inebriate with the genial ftiower; Dip their long trefles from the mofiy brink, With tufted roots the glaffy currents drink ; Spread the bright treafure. 1, 540. The pratftice of flooding lands, long in ufe in China, has been but lately introduced into this country. Befides the fupplying water to the herbage in dryer feafons, it feems to defend it from froft in the early part of the year, and thus doubly advances the vegetation. The waters which rife from fprings paffing through marl or limeftone, arc replete with calcareous earth, and when thrown over morafles, they de- pofit this earth, and jncruft or confolidate the morafs, This kind of earth is depoiited in great quantity from the fprings at Matlock bath, and fup- plies the foft porous limeftone, of which the houfes and walls are there conftructed ; and has formed the whole bank, for near a mile, on that fide of the Derwent on which they ftand. The water of many fprings contains much azotic gas, or phlogiftic air, befides carbonic gas, or fixed air, as that of Buxton and Bath; this being fet at liberty, may more readily contribute to the production of nitre, by means of the putrefcent matters which it is expofed to by being fpreacj upon the furface of the land, in the fame manner as frequently turning over heaps of manure facilitates the nitrous procefs, by imprifoning atmofpheric air in the interftices of the putrefcent materials. Water, arifing by land- floods, brings along with it much of the moft foluble parts of the manure from the higher lands to the lower ones. River-water, in its clear ftate, and thofe fprings which are called foft, are lefs beneficial for the pur> pofe of watering lands, as they contain lefs earthy or faline matter; and water, from diflolving fnow from its flow folution, brings but little earth along with it, as may be feen by the comparative ckurnefs of the water of- fhow-floods. 94 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART I, Shade your cool manfions from meridian beams, 545 And view their waving honours in your ftreams. " Thus where the veins their confluent branches bend, And milky eddies with the purple blend; The Cnyle's white trunk, diverging from its fource, Seeks through the vital mafs its {tuning courfe ; 550 O'er each red cell, and tiffued membrane fpreads, In living net- work, all its branching threads ; IVIaze within maze its tortuous path purfues, Winds into glands, inextricable clues ; Steals through the ftomach's velvet fides, and Tips 555 The filver furges with a thoufand lips ; Fills each fine pore, pervades each {lender hair, And drinks falubrious dew-drops from the air. " Thus when to kneel in Mecca's awful gloom, Qr prefs with pious kifs MEDINA'S tomb, 560 League after league, through many a lingering day, Steer the fwart Caravans their fultry way; O'er fandy waftes on gafping camels toil, Or print with pilgrim-fteps the burning foil ; If from lone rocks a fparkling rill defcend, 565 O'er the green brink the kneeling nations bend, Bathe the parch'd lip, and cool the feverifh tongue, And the clear lake reflects the mingled throng." The Goddcfs paufed, the liftening bands awhile Still feem to hear, and dwell upon her finilc ; 570 Then with foft murmur fweep in lucid trains Down the green flopes, and o'er the pebbly plains, To each bright ftream on filver fandals glide, Reflective fountain, and tumultuous tide. So (hoot the Spider-broods at breezy dawn, 575 Their glittering net-work o'er the autumnal lawn ; From blade to blade connect with cordage fine The unbending grafs, and live along the line ; CANTO III. ECONOMY OF VEGETATION. 9$ Or bathe unwet their oily forms, and dwell With feet repulfive on the dimpling well. 580 So when the North congeals his watery mafs, Piles high his fnows, and floors his feas with glafs ; While many a Month, unknown to warmer rays, Marks its flow chronicle by lunar days ; Stout youths and ruddy damfels, fportive train, 585 Leave the white foil, and rufh upon the main ; From ifle to ifle the moon-bright fquadrons ftray, And win in eafy curves their graceful way ; On ftep alternate borne, with balance nice, Hang o'er the gliding fteel, and hifs along the ice. 590 ARGUMENT FO UR TH CANTO. ADDRESS to the Sylphs. I. Trade-winds. MonfoOn?. N. E. and ft, W. winds. Land and fea breezes. Irregular winds, 9. II. Production of vital air from oxygene and lighc. The marriage of Cupid and Pfyche, 25. III. I. Syroc. Simoom. Tornado, 63. 2. Fog. Contagion. Story of Thyrils and Aegle. Love and Death, 79. IV. I. Barometer. Air-pump, 127. 2. Air-balloon of Mongulfier. Death of Rozier. Icarus, 143. V. Difcoveries of Dr. Prieftley. Evolutions and combinations of pure air. Rape of Proferpine, 165. VI. Sea-balloons, or houfes conftructed to move Under the fea. Death of Mr. Day; of Mr. Spalding; of Captain Fierce and his Daughters, 195. VII. Sylphs of mufic. Cecilia finging. Cupid, with a lyre, riding upon a lion, 233. VIII. Deftruclion of Senacherib's army by a peftilential wind. Shadow of Death, 263. IX. I. Wiih to pof- fefs the fecret of changing the courfe of the winds, 305. 2. Monfter de- vouring air fubdued by Mr. Kirwan, 321. X. I. Seeds fufpended in their pods. Stars difcovered by Mr. Herfchel. Deftruclion and refufcitation of all things, 351. 2. Seeds within feeds, and bulbs within bulbs. Picture on the retina of the eye. Concentric ftrata of the earth. The great feed, 381. 3. The root, pith, lobes, plume, calyx, corol, fap, blood, leaves refpire and abforb light. The Crocodile in its egg, 409. XI. Opening of the flower. The petals, ftyle, anthers, prolific duft, honey-cup. Tranfmutation of the lilk-worm, 441. XII. I, Leaf-buds changed into flower-buds by wounding the bark, or ftrangulating a part of the branch. Cintra, 465. 2. Ingrafting. Aaron's rod pullulates, 495. XIII. I. Infecls on trees. Humming-bird alarmed by the fpidcr-like appearance of Cyprepedia, 509. 2. Difeafes of vegetables. Scratch on unnealed glafs, 529. XIV. I. Tender flowers- Amaryllis, fritillary, erythrina, mimofa, cerea, 541. 2. Vines. Oranges. Diana's trees. Kew garden. The royal family, 559. XV. Offering to Hygeia, 6oj. Departure of the Goddefs, 647. THE BOTANIC GARDEN. ECONOMY OP VEGETATION, CANTO IV. -TJlS when at noon in Hybla's fragrant bowers CACALIA opens all her honey'd flowers; Contending fwarms on bending branches cling, And nations hover on aurelian wing; So round the Goddefs, ere flie fpeaks, on high ^ Impatient Sylphs in gaudy circlets fly; Quivering in air their painted plumes expand, And coloured fhadows dance upon the land. I. " Sylphs ! your light troops the tropic Winds confine, And guide thqir dreaming arrows to the Line; IO While in warm floods ecliptic Breezes rife, And fink with wings benumb'd in colder ikies. Cacalia opens. 1. 2. The importance of the ne&arium, or honey-gland, in the vegetable economy, is feen from the very complicated apparatus which nature has formed in fome flowers, for the prefervation of their honey from infeds, as in the aconites or monkfhoods; in other plants, inftead of a great apparatus for its proteion, a greater fecretion of it is produced, that thence a part may be fpared to the depredation of infeds. The cacalia fuaveolens produces fo much honey, that, on fome days, it may be fmelt at a great dif- tance from the plant, I remember once counting on one of thefe plants, befides bees of various kinds without number, above two hundred painted butterflies, which gave it the beautiful appearance of being covered with additional flowers. rofic winds. L 9. See additional notes, No* XXXIII. PART I. Q 98 BOTANIC GARDEN- PAUT L You bid Monfoons on Indian feas refide, And veer, as moves the fun, their airy tide ; While fouthern Gales o'er weftern oceans roll, 15 And Eurus fleals his ice-winds from the Pole. Your playful trains, on fultry iflands born, Turn on fantaftic toe at eve and morn ; With foft fufurrant voice alternate fweep Earth's green pavilions and encircling deep. 2O Or in itinerant cohorts, borne fublime On tides of ether, float from clime to clime ; O'er waving Autumn bend your airy ring* Or waft the fragrant bofom of the Spring. II. " When Morn, efcorted by the dancing Hours, 25 O'er the bright plains her dewy luftre fhowers ; Till from her fable chariot Eve ferene Drops the dark curtain o'er the brilliant fcene; You form with chemic hands the airy furge, Mix with broad vans, with fliadowy tridents urge. 30 Sylphs ! from each fun-bright leaf, that twinkling (hakes O'er Earth's green lap, or /hoots amid her lakes, Your playful bands with fimpering lips invite, And wed the enamour'd OXYGENE to LIGHT. The enamour d Oxygens. 1. 34. The common air of the atmofphere ap- pears, by the anaiyfis of Dr. Prieftley, and other philosophers, to confift of about three parts of an elaftic fluid, unfit for refpiration or combuftion, called azote by the French fchool, and about one fourth of pure vita} air, fit for the fupport of animal life and of combuftion, called oxygene. The princi- pal fource of the azote is probably from the decompofition of all vegetable and animal matters by putrefaction and combuftion : the principal fource of vital air, or oxygene, is, perhaps, from the decompofition of water in the organs of vegetables, by -means of the fun's light. The difficulty of injecting vegetable vefiels feems to mew, that their perfpirative pores are much lefs than thofe of animals, and that the water which conftitutes their perfpira- tion is fo divided at the time of its exclufion, that, by means of the fun's light, it becomes decompofed ; the inflammable air, or hydrogens, which is one of its conftituent parts, being retained to form the oil, refin, wax, honey, &c. of the vegetable economy; and the other part, which, united with light or heat, becomes vital air, "or oxygene gas, rifes into the atmofphere, and replenifties it with the food of life. Dr. Prieftley has evinced, by very ingenious experiments, that the blood gives out phlogifton, and receives vital air, or oxygene gas, by the lungs. And Dr. Crawford has ihewn, that the blood acquires heat from this vital, air in refpiration. There is, however, lliil a fomething more fubtil than CANTO IV. ECONOMY OF VEGETATION. 99 Round their white necks with fingers interwove, 35 Cling the fond Pair with unabating love ; Hand link'd in hand on buoyant ftep they rife, And foar and gliften in unclouded fkies. Whence in bright floods the Vital Air expands, And with concentric fpheres involves the lands ; 4 Pervades the fwarming feas, and heaving earths, Where teeming Nature broods her myriad births ; Fills the fine lungs of all that breathe or bud, Warms the new heart, and dyes the gufhing blood ; With Life's firft fpark infpires the organic frame, 45 And, as it waftes, renews the fubtile flame. " So pure, fo foft, with fweet attraction (hone Fair PSYCHE, kneeling at the ethereal throne; Won with coy fmiles the admiring court of Jove, And warm'd the bofom of unconquerM Love. 5 Beneath a moving fhade of fruits and flowers Onward they march to Hymen's facred bowers ; With lifted torch he lights the feftive train, Sublime, and leads them in his golden chain ; Joins the fond pair, indulgent to their vows, 55 And hides with myftic veil their blufhing brows. Round their fair forms their mingling arms they fling, Meet with warm lip, and clafp with ruftling wing. -Hence plaftic Nature, as Oblivion whelms Her fading forms, re-peoples all her realms ; 60 heat, which muft be obtained in refpiration from the vital air; a fomething which life cannot exift a few minutes without, which feems neceflary to the vegetable as well as to the animal world, and which, as no organized veflels can confine it, requires perpetually to be renewed. See note on Canto 1. 1. 401, and additional notes, No. XXXIV. Fair Pfycbe. 1. 48. Defcribed from an ancient gem, on a fine onyx, in poffeflion of the Duke of Maryborough, of which there is a beautiful print in Bryant's Mythol. vol. II. p. 393. And from another ancient gem of Cupid and Pfyche embracing, of which there is a print in Spence's Poly- metis, p. 82. Re-peoples all her realms. 1. 60. Quas mare navigerum et terras frugiferentes Concelebras ; per te quoniam genus omne animantum Concipitur, vifitque exortum lumina foils. . Lucrct* ioo BOTANIC GARDEN. PART!. Soft Joys difport on purple plumes unfurl'd, And Love and Beauty rule the willing world. III. I. " Sylphs / your bold myriads on the withering heath Stay the fell SYROC'S fuffocative breath; Arreft SIMOOM in his realms of fand, 65 The poifoned javelin balanced in his hand ; Fierce on blue ft reams he rides the tainted air, Points his keen eye, and waves his whiftling hair ; Arrejl Simoom. 1. 65. " At eleven o'clock, while we were, with great pleafure, contemplating the rugged tops of Chiggre, where we expected to folace ourfelves with plenty of good water, Idris cried out, with a loud voice, * fall upon your faces, for here is the fimoom!' I faw from the S. E. a haze come in colour like the purple part of a rainbow, but not fo comprefled or thick ; it did not occupy twenty yards in breadth, and was about twelve feet high from the giound. It was a kind of a blufh upon the air, and it moved very rapidly, for I fcarce could turn to fall upon the ground, with my head to the northward, when I felt the heat of its current plainly upon my face. We all lay flat upon the ground, as if dead, till Idris told us it was blown over. The meteor, or purple haze which I faw, was indeed paifed, but the light air that ftill blew, was of heat to threaten fuffocation. For my part, 1 found diftinctly in my breaft, that I had im-i bibed a part of it ; nor was I free of an afthmatic fenfation till I had been ibme months in Italy." Bruce's Travels, vol. IV. p. 557. It is difficult to account for the narrow track of this peflilential wind, which is faid not to exceed twenty yards, and for its fmall elevation of twelve feet. A whirlwind will pafs forwards, and throw down an avenue of trees, by its quick revolution, as it pafles; but nothing like a whirlwind is defcribed as happening in thefe narrow ftreams of air, and whirlwinds af- oend to greater heights. There feems but one known manner in which this channel of air could be effected, and that is by electricity. The volcanic origin of thefe winds is mentioned in the note on Chunda, in vol. II. of this work: it muft here be added, that Profeffor Vairo, at Na- ples, found, that during the eruption of Vefuvius, perpendicular iron bars were electric; and others have obierved fufFocating damps to attend thefe cri'.pHons. Ferber's Travels in Italy, p. 133. And, laftly, that a current of air attends the paffage of electric matter, as is feen in prefenting an elec- trized point to the flame of a candle. In Mr. Bruce's account of this fi- rnoom, it was in its courfe over a quite dry defert of fand, (and which was, in confequence, unable to conduct an electric ftream into the earth beneath it,) to fome moift rocks at but a few miles diftance, and thence would ap- pear to be a ftream of electricity from a volcano, attended with noxious air; and as the bodies of Mr. Bruce and his attendants were infulated on the land, they would not be fenfible of their increafed electricity, as it paffed over them; to which it may be added, that a fulphurous or fufFocating fen- fation is faid to accompany flafhes of lightning, and even ftrong fparks of artificial electricity. In the above account of the limoorn, a great rednefs in the air is faid to be a certain fign of its approach, which may be occa- Coned by the eruption of flame from a diftant volcano in thefe extenfwc and impenetrable dcferts of fand. See note on 1. 29 a of this Canto. CAWTO IV. ECONOMY OF VEGETATION. 101 While, as he turns, the undulating foil Rolls in red waves, and billowy deferts boil. 70 You feize TORNADO by his locks of mift, Burft his clenfe clouds, his wheeling fpires untwift ; Wide o'er the Weft, when borne on headlong gales, Dark as meridian night, the Monfter fails, Howls high in air, and {hakes his curled brow, 75 Lafhing with ferpent-train the waves below, Whirls his black arm, the forked lightning flings, And fhowers a deluge from his demon-wings, 2. " Sylphs ! with light (hafts you pierce the drowfy Foo, That lingering (lumbers on the fedge-wove bog, 80 With webbed feet o'er midnight meadows creeps, Or flings his hairy limbs on ftagnant deeps. You meet Contagion iffuing from afar, And daih the baleful conqueror from his car ; When, Gueft of Death ! from charnel vauhs he fteals, 85 And bathes in human gore his armed wheels. " Thus when the Plague, upborne on Belgian air, Look'd through the mift, and (hook his clotted hair ; O'er (hrinking nations fteer'd malignant clouds, And rain'd deftru&ion on the gafping crouds. 90 The beauteous J&GLE felt the venom'd dart, Slow roll'd her eye, and feebly throbb'd her heart ; Each fervid figh feem'd ihorter than the la ft, And ftarting Friendlhip fhunn'd her, as (he pafs'd. tornado. 1. 71. See additional notes, No. XXXIJI. On jlagnant deeps. 1. 82. All contagious miafmata originate ejther from animal bodies, as thofe of the fmall-pox, or from putrid moraffes; thefe latter produce agues in the colder climates, and malignant fevers in the warmer ones. The volcanic vapours which caufe epidemic coughs, are to be ranked amongft poifons, rather than amongft the miafmata, which produce contagious difeafes. The beauteous j&vle. 1. pi. When the plague raged in Holland, in 1636, a young girl was feized with it, had three carbuncles, and was removed to a garden, where her lover, who was betrothed to her, attended her as a nurfe, and flept with her as his wife. He remained uninfedted, and Ihe re- covered, and was married to him. The ilory is related by Vine. Fabricius, in the Mifc. Cur. Ann. II. Obf. 188. loa BOTANIC GARDEN. PART 1. With weak unfleady ftep the fainting Maid 95 Seeks the cold garden's folitary fhade, Sinks on the pillowy mofs her drooping head, And prints with lifelefs limbs her leafy bed. On wings of Love her plighted Swain purfues, Shades her from winds, and (helters her from dews, joo Extends on tapering poles the canvas roof, Spreads o'er the ftraw-wove matt, the flaxen woof, Sweet buds and bloffoms on her bolfler ftrows, And binds his kerchief round her aching brows ; Sooths with foft kifs, with tender accents charms, 105 And clafps the bright infection in his arms, "With pale and languid fmiles the grateful Fair Applauds his virtues, and rewards his care ; Mourns with wet cheek her fair companions fled On timorous ftep, or number'd with the dead; 1 10 Calls to her bofom all its fcatter'd rays, And pours on THYRSIS the collected blaze ; Braves the chill night, careffing and carefs'd, And folds her Hero-lover to her breaft. Lefs bold, LEANDER at the dufky hour 115 Eyed, as he fwam, the far love-lighted tower ; Breafted with ftruggling arms the tofiing wave, And funk benighted in the watery grave. Lefs bold, TOBIAS claim'd the nuptial bed Where feven fond Lovers by a Fiend had bled ; 120 And drove, inftrucled by his Angel-Guide, The enamour'd Demon from the fatal bride. Sylphs ! while your winnowing pinions fann'd the air, And (hed gay vifions o'er the fleeping pair; Love round their couch efTufed his rofy breath, 125 And with his keener arrows conquer'd Death. IV. i. " You cliarm'd, indulgent Sylphs / their learned toil, And crown'd with fame your TORRICELL and BOYLE; Torricell and Boyle. 1. 128. The preflure of the atmofphere was difcovered by Torricelli, a difciple of Galileo, who had previoufly found that the air had weight. Dr. Hook, and M. du Hamel, afcrihe the invention of the air- pump to Mr. Boyle, who, however, confeffes he had fome hints concerning CANTO IV. ECONOMY OF VEGETATION. io| Taught with fvveet fmiles, refponfive to their prayer, The fpring and preflure of the viewlefs air. 130 How up exhaufted tubes bright currents flow Of liquid lilver from the lake below, Weigh the long column of the incumbent {kies, And with the changeful moment fall and rife. How, as in brazen pumps the piftons move, 13$ The membrane-valve fuftains the weight above ; Stroke follows ftroke, the gelid vapour falls, And mifty dew-drops dim the cryftal walls; Rare and more rare expands the fluid thin. And Silence dwells with Vacancy within. 140 So in the mighty Void with grim delight Primeval Silence reign'd with ancient Night. 2. " Sylphs ! your foft voices, whifpering from the Ikies, Bade from low earth the bold MONGOLFIER rife; its construction from de Guerick. The vacancy at the fummit of the bare* meter is termed the Torricellian vacuum, and the exhaufted receiver of an air-pump, the Boylean vacuum, in honour of thefe two philofophets. The mift and defcending dew which appear at firft exhaufting the receiver of an air-pump, are explained in the Phil. Tranf. vol. LXXVIII. from the cold produced by the expanfion of air. For a thermometer placed in the receiver, finks fome degrees, and in a very little time ; as foon as a fufficient quantity of heat can be acquired from the furrounding bodies, the dew be- comes again taken up. See additional notes, No. VII. Mr. Sauffure ob- ferved, on placing his hygrometer in a receiver of an air-pump, that though, on beginning to exhauft it, the air became mifty, and parted with its moifture, yet the hair of his hygrometer contracted, and the inftrument pointed to greater drynefs. This unexpe&ed occurrence is explained by M. Monge, (Annales de Chimie, Tom. V.) to depend on the want of the ufual preffure of the atmofphere, to force the aqueous particles into the pores of the hair; and M. Sauffure fuppofes, that his velicular vapour requires more time to be re-diffolved, than is neceffary to dry the hair of his thermometer. Effais fur 1'Hygrom. p. 226. But I fufpecl there is a lefs hypothetical way of under- Handing it: when a colder body is brought into warm and moift air, (as a bottle of fpring-water, for inftance,) a fteam is quickly collected on its fur- face: the contrary occurs when a warmer body is brought into cold and damp air ; it continues free from dew fo long "as it continues warm ; for it warms the atmofphere around it, and renders it capable of receiving, inftead of parting with moifture. The moment the air becomes rarefied in the re- ceiver of the air-pump, it becomes colder, as appeaiS by the thermometer, and depofits its vapour ; but the hair of Mr. Sauflure's hygrometer is now warmer than the air in which it is immerfed, and, in confequence, becomes dryer than before, by warming the air which immediately iurrounds it, a part of its moifture evaporating along with its heat. J64 BOTANIC GARDEN 1 . PAJRT L Outftretch'd his buoyant ball with airy fpring, 145 And bore the Sage on levity of wing ; Where were ye, Sylphs ! when on the ethereal main Young ROSIERE launched, and calPd your aid in vain? Fair mounts the light balloon, by Zephyr driven, Parts the thin clouds, and fails along the heaven ; 150 Higher and yet higher the expanding bubble flies, Lights with quick flafh, and burfts amid the fkies. Headlong He rufhes through the affrighted Air With limbs diftorted, and difhevel'd hair, Whirls round and round, the flying croud alarms, 155 And Death receives him in his fable arms ! Betrothed Beauty, bending o'er his bier, Breathes the loud fob, and fheds the incefTant tear; Purfues the fad proceflion, as it moves Through winding avenues and waving groves; 160 Hears the flow dirge amid the echoing ailes, And mingles with her fighs difcordant fmiles. Then with quick flep advancing through the gloom, " I come !" (he cries, and leaps into his tomb. " Oh, ftay ! I follow thee to realms above! 165 " Oh, wait a moment for thy dying love ! " Thus, thus I clafp thee to my burfting heart ! " Clofe o'er us, holy Earth ! We will not part!"* So erft with melting wax and loofen'd firings Sunk haplefs ICARUS on unfaithful wings; 170 His fcatter'd plumage danced upon the wave^ And fonowing Mermaids deck'd his watery grave; Young Rojicre launctid. 1. 148. M. Pilatre du Rofiere, with a M. Re- main, rofe in a balloon from Boulogne, in June, 1785, and after having been about a mile high for about half an hour, the balloon took fire, and the two adventurers were dafhed to pieces on their fall to the ground. Mr. Rofiere was a philofopher of great talents and adivity, joined with fuch urbanity and elegance of manners, as conciliated the affedions of his ac- quaintance, and rendered his misfortune univerfally lamented. Annual Re- gifter for 1784 and 1785, p. 329. * Mifs Sufan Dyer was engaged, in a few days, to marry M. Rofiere, who had promifed to quit fuch dangerous experiments in future: {he was fpedatrefs of this fad accident, lingered fome months, and died from excefs of grief. The Rev. Mr. Collier, Dean of Trinity College, in Cambridge, was well acquainted with this amiable young lady, and fuggefted the intro- duction of her melancholy hiftory in this place. CANTO IV. ECONOMY OF VEGETATIONS 105 O'er his pale corfe their pearly fea-fiowers (hed$ And ftrew'd with crirnfon mofs his marble bed ; S.ruck in -their coral towers the paufing bell, 175 And wide in ocean toll'd his echoing knelL V. " Sylphs ! you, retiring to fequefter'd bowers* Where oft your PRIESTLEY woos your airy powers^ And wide in octatt. 1. 176. Denfer bodies propagate vibration or found better than rarer ones; if two ftones be {truck together under the water, they may be heard a mile or two by any one whofe head is immerfed at that dif- tance, according to an experiment of Dr. Franklin. If the ear be applied to one end of a long beam of timber, the ftroke of a pin at the other end be- comes fenfible; if a poker be fufpended in the middle of a garter, each end of Which is prefled againft the ear, the leaft percuflions on the poker give great founds. And, I am informed, by laying the ear on the ground, the tread of a horfe may be difcerned at a great diftance in the night. The organs of hearing belonging to fiih, are for this reafon much lefs complicated than of quadrupeds, as the fluid they are immerfed in fb much better con- veys its vibrations. And, it is probable, that fome fhell-fifh which have twifted (hells, like the cochlea, and femicircular canals of the ears of men and quadrupeds, may have no appropriated organ for perceiving the vibrations of the element they live in, but may, by their fpiral form, be, in a manner, all ear. Where oft your PrieJIley. 1. 178. The fame of Dr. Prieftley is known iri every part of the earth where fcience has penetrated. His various difcove-< ries refpe&ing the analyfis of the atmofphere, and the production of a variety of new airs or gaffes, can only .be clearly underftood by reading his Experi- ments on Airs, (3 vols. odtavo. Johnfon. Lond.) The following are amongft his many difcoveries. i. The difcovery of nitrous and dephlogiilicated airs, a. The exhibition of the acids and alkalies in the form of air. 3. Afcer-* taining the purity of refpirable air by nitrous air. 4. The reiteration of vitiated air by vegetation. 5. The influence of light to enable vegetables to yield pure air. 6. The converfion, by means of light, of animal and ve- getable fubftances, that would otherwise become putrid and offenfive, into nourifhment of vegetables. 7. The ufe of refpiration by the blood parting with phlogifton, and imbibing dephlogifticated air. The experiments here alluded to are, I. Concerning the production of nitrous gas from diffolving iron, and many other metals in nitrous acid, which, though firft difcovered by Dr. Hales, (Static. Eff. vol. I. p. 224,) was fully inveftigated, and applied to the important purpofe of diftinguifh- ing the purity of atmofpheric air by Dr. Prieftley. When about two mea- fures of common air, and one of nitrous gas, are mixed together, a red effer- vefcence takes place, and the two airs occupy about one-fourth lefs fpacc than was previoufiy occupied by the common air alone. 2. Concerning the green fubftance which grows at the bottom of refer- voirs of water, which Dr. Prieftley difcovered to yield much pure air when the fun fhone on it. His method of collecting this air is by placing over the green fubftance, which he believes to be a vegetable of the genus con- ferva, an inverted bell-glafs previoufiy filled with water, which iubfides a^ the air arifes; it has fincg been found that all vegetables give up pure ak PARTI. P 106 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART L On noifelefs ftep or quivering pinion glide, As fits the Sage with Science by his fide ; 180 To his charm'd eye in gay undrefs appear, Or pour your fecrets on his raptured ear. How nitrous Gas from iron ingots driven Drinks with red lips the pureft breath of heaven ; How, while Conferva, from its tender hair, 185 Gives in bright bubbles empyrean air, The cryftal floods phlogiftic ores calcine, And the pure ETHER marries with the MINE. " So in Sicilia's ever-blooming fhade, When playful PROSERPINE from CERES flray'd, io,cr Led with unwary flep her virgin trains O'er Etna's fteeps, and Enna's golden plains ; Pluck'd with fair hand the filver-blofTom'd bower, ' And purpled mead, herfelf a fairer flower; Sudden, unfeen amid the twilight glade, 195 Ruih'd gloomy Dis, and feized the trembling maid. Her flatting damfels fprung from mofTy feats, Dropp'd from their gauzy laps the gather'd fweets, Ciung round the flruggling Nymph, with piercing cries, Purfued the chariot, and invok'd the fkies; 200 from their leaves, when the fun fhines upon them, but not in the night, v.'hich may be owing to the fleep of the plant. 3. The third refers to the great quantity of pure air contained in the cal- ces of metals The calces were long known to weigh much more than the metallic bodies before calcination, infBmuch that 100 pounds of lead will produce na pounds of minium; the ore of manganefe, which is always found near the furface of the earth, is replete with pure air, which is now ufed for the purpofe of bleaching. Other metals, when expofed to the atmofphere, aftra& che pure air from it, and become calces by its combina- tion, as zink, lead, iron; and increafe in weight in proportion to the air which they imbibe. When playful Proferpine. 1. 190. The fable of Proferpine's being feized by Pluto as fhe was gathering flowers, is explained by Lord Bacon to fignify the .combination or marriage of ethereal fpirit with earthly materials. Ba- con's Works, vol. V. p. 470. edit. 4to. Lond. 1778. This allufion is ftill more curioufly exa, from the late difcovery of pure air being given up from vegetables, and that then, in its unmixed ftate, it more readily combines' with metallic or inflammable bodies. From thefe fables, which were pro- bably taken from ancient hieroglyphics, there is frequently reafon to believe, that the Egyptians poffefled much chemical knowledge, which, for want of alphabetical writing, perifhed with their philofophers. CANTO IV. ECONOMY OF VEGETATION. 107 Pleafed as he grafps her in his iron arms, Frights with foft tighs, with tender words alarms, The wheels defcending roll'd in fmoky rings, Infernal Cupids flapp'd their demon wings ; Earth with deep yawn received the Fair, amaz'd, 205 And far in Night celeftial Beauty blaz'd. VI. " Led by the Sage, lo ! Britain's fons fhall guide Huge Sea-Balloons beneath the tofling tide; The diving caftles, roof 'd with fpheric glafs % Ribb'd with ftrong oak, and barr'd with bolts of brafs, 2IO Buoy'd with pure air {hall endlefs tracks purfue, And PRIESTLEY'S hand the vital flood renew. Then fhall BRITANNIA rule the wealthy realms, Which Ocean's wide infatiate wave o'erwhelmsj Confine in netted bowers his fcaly flocks, 215 Part his blue plains, and people all his rocks. Deep, in warm waves beneath the Line that roll, Beneath the fhadowy ice-ifles of the Pole, Onward, through bright meandering vales, afar, Obedient Sharks fhall trail her "fceptred car, 22.O With harnefs'd necks the pearly flood diiturb, Stretch the filk rein, and champ the filver curb; Led by tie Sage. 1. 207. Dr. Prieftley's difcovery of the production of pure air from fuch variety of fubftances will probably foon be applied to the improvement of the diving-bell, as the fubftances which contain vital air in immenfe quantities are of little value, as manganefe and minium. See additional notes, No. XXXIII. In every hundred weight of minium there is combined about twelve pounds of pure air; now, as fixty pounds of water are about a cubic foot, and as air is eight hundred times lighter than water, five hundred weight of minium will produce eight hundred cubic feet of air, or about fix thoufand gallons. Now, as this is at leaft thrice as pure as atmofpheric air, a gallon of it may be fuppofed to ferve for three minutes refpiration for one man. At prefent the air can not be fet at liberty from minium, by vitriolic acid, without the application of fome heat ; this is, however, very likely foon to be difcovered, and will then enable adventurers to journey beneath the ocean in large inverted fhips, or diving balloons. Mr. Boyle relates, that Cornelius Drebelle contrived not only a veiTel to be rowed under water, but alfo a liquor to be carried in that veffel which would fupply the want of frefh air. The veflel was made by order of James I. and carried twelve rowers befides paflengers. It was tried in the river Thames, and one of the perfens who was in that fubmarine voyagej told the particulars of the experiments to a perfon who related them to Mr. Boyle. Annual Regifter for 1774, p. 348. *o8 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART I. Pleafed round her triumph wondering Tritons play, And Sea-maids hail her on the water v way. Oft fhall (he weep beneath the cryftal waves 225 O'er fhipwreck'd lovers weltering in their graves; Mingling in death the Brave and Good behold With flaves to glory, and with (laves to gold; Shrin'd in the deep fliall DAY and SPALDING mourn, Each in his treacherous bell, fepulchral urn !- 230 Oft o'er thy lovely daughters, haplefs PIERCE ! Her fighs fhali breathe, her forrows dew their hearfe. With brow upturn'd to Heaven, " JVe will not part /" He cried, and clafp'd them to his aching heart. Dafli'd in dread conflict on the rocky grounds, 23$ Crafh the (hock'd mafts, the (Daggering wreck rebounds ; Through gaping feams the rufhing deluge fwims, Chills their pale bofoms, bathes their fhuddering limbs, Climbs their white flioulders, buoys their ffcreaming hair, And the laft fea-flirieli bellows in the air. 240 Day and SpaMixg mourn. 1. 229. Mr. Day perifhed in a diving-bell, or diving-boat, of his own conftru&ion, at Plymouth, in June, 1774, in which he was to have continued, for a wager, twelve hours, one hundred feet deep in water, and probably perifhed from his not poffeffing all the hydroflatic knowledge that was neceffary. See note on Ulva, vol. II. of this work. See Annual Regifter for 1774, p. 245. Mr. Spalding was profeffionally ingenious in the art of conftructing and managing the diving-bell, and had practifed the bufinefs many years with fuccefs. He went down, accompanied by one of his young men, twice, to view the wreck of the Imperial Eafl-Indiaman, at the Kifh bank, in Ireland. On defcending the third time, in June, 1783, they remained about an hour under water, and had two barrels of air fent down to them; but, on the fig- rals from below not being again repeated, after a. certain time, they were drawn up by their afliftants, and both found dead in the bell. Annual Re- gifter for 1783, p. 206. Thefe two unhappy events may, for a time, check the ardor of adventurers in traverfing the bottom of the ocean; but, it is probable, in another half century it may be fafer to travel under the ocean than over it, fince Dr. Prieflley's difcovery of procuring pure air in fuch great abundance from the calces of metals. Haplefs Pierce! 1. 231. The Halfewell, Eafl-Indiaman, outward bound, \vas wrecked off Seacomb, in the Ifle of Purbec, on the 6th of January, 1 786, when Capt. Pierce, the commander, with two young ladies, his daugh- ters, and the greateft part of the crew and pafTengers, perifhed in the fea. Some of the officer^, and about feventy feamen, efcaped with great difficulty on the rocks; but Capt. Pierce, finding it was impoflible to fave the lives of the young ladies, refufed to quit the Ihip, and perifhed with them. CANTO IV. ECONOMY OF VEGETATION. iof Each with loud fobs her tender fire carefs'd, And gafping ftrainM him clofer to her breaft ! Srretch'd on one bier they fleep beneath the brine, And their white bones with ivory arms intwine ! VII. '" Sylphs of nice ear ! with beating wings you guide The fine vibrations of the aerial tide; 246 Join in fweet cadences the meafured words, Or ftretch and modulate the trembling cords. You ftrung to melody the Grecian lyre, Breathed the rapt fong, and fan'd the thought of fire, 250 Or brought in combinations, deep and clear, Immortal harmony to HANDEL'S ear. - You with foft breath attune the vernal gale, When breezy evening broods the liftening vale; Or wake the loud tumultuous founds, that dwell 255 In Echo's many-toned diurnal {hell. You melt in dulcet chords, when Zephyr rings The Eolian Harp, and mingle all its firings ; Or trill in air the foft fymphonious chime, When rapt CECILIA lifts her eye fublime, 260 Swell, as flic breathes, her bofom's rifing fnow, O'er her white teeth in tuneful accents flow, Through her fair lips on whifpering pinions move, And form the tender fighs, that kindle love ! (t So playful Love on Ida's flowery fides 265 With ribbon-rein the indignant Lion guides j Pleafed on his brinded back the lyre he rings, And {hakes delirious rapture from the firings ; Slow as the paufing Monarch ftalks along, Sheaths his retractile claws, and drinks the fong; 270 Soft Nymphs on timid flep the triumph view, And liftening Fawns with beating hoofs purfue ; With pointed ears the alarmed foreft ftarts, And Love and Mufic foften favage hearts. Indignant Lion guides. 1. 266. Defcribed from an ancient gem, exprcfllvc of the combined power of love and mufic, in th,e Mufeum Florent. fio BOTANIC GARDEN. PART!. VIII. " Sylphs ! your bold hofts, when Heaven with juftice dread 275 Calls the red tempeft round the guilty head, Fierce at his nod affume vindictive forms, And launch from airy cars the vollied ftorms. From Amur's vales when proud SENACHERIB trod, Pour'd his fwoln heart, defied the living GOD, 280 Urg'd with incefTant fhouts his glittering powers, And JUDAH fhook through all her maffy towers; Round her fad altars prefs'd the proftrate crowd, Hofts beat their breafts, and fuppliant chieftains bow'd; Loud fhrieks of matrons thrill'd the troubled air, 285 And trembling virgins rent their fcatter'd hair; High in the midft the kneeling King adored, Spread the blafpheming fcroll before the Lord, Raifed his pale hands, and breathed his paufing fighs, And fixed on Heaven his dim imploring eyes, 290 44 Oh! MIGHTY GOD! amidfl thy Seraph -throng " Who fit' ft fublime, the Judge of Right and Wrong; " Thine the wide earth, bright fun, and ftarry zone, *' That twinkling journey round thy golden throne; " Thine is the cryflal fource of life and light, 295 " And thine the realms of Death's eternal night. " Oh ! bend thine ear, thy gracious eye incline, " Lo ! Amur's King blafphemes thy holy fhrine, " Infults our offerings, and derides our vows, *- Oh! ftrike the diadem from his impious brows, 300 " Tear from his murderous hand the bloody rod, " And teach the trembling nations, Thou art GOD !" Sylphs ! in what uread array with pennons broad Onward ye floated o'er the ethereal road, Call'd each dank fteam the reeking inarm, exhales, 305 Contagious vapours, and volcanic gales, Volcanic gales. 1. 306. The peflilcntial winds of the eaft are clefcribed by various authors under various denominations, as harmattan, famiel, famiurn, fyrocca, kamfm, feravanfum. M. de Beauchamp defcribes a remarkable ibuth wind in the deferts about Bagdad, called feravanfum, or poifcn wind; it burns the face, impedes refpiration, imps the trees of their leaves, and is laid to pafs on in a*ftraight line, and often kills people in fix hours. P. Cotte fur la Meteorol. Analytical Review for February, 1790. M. Voi- CANTO IV. ECONOMY OF VEGETATION. in Gave the foft Soath with poifonous breath to blow, And roll'd the dreadful whirlwind on the foe ! Hark ! o'er the camp the venom'd ternpeft fmgs, Man falls on Man, on buckler buckler rings ; (( 310 Groan anfwers groan, to anguidi anguifh yields, And DEATH'S loud accents {hake the tented fields! High rears the Fiend his grinning jaws, and wide Spans the pale nations with coloffal ftride, Waves his broad falchion with uplifted hand, 315 And his vaft fhadow darkens all the land. IX, i. " Ethereal Cohorts! EfTences of Air! Make the green children of the Spring your care ! Oh, Sylphs f difclofe in this inquiring age One golden fecret to fome favour'd fage; 320 Grant the charm'd talifman, the chain, that binds, Or guides the changeful pinions of the winds ! ncy fays, the hot wind, or ramfin, feems to blow at the feafon when the fonds of the deferts are the hotteft ; the air is then filled with an extremely fubtle duft. Vol. I. p. 61. Thefe winds blow in all directions from the de- ferts; in Egypt the moft violent proceed from the S. S. W; at Mecca, from the E. at Surat, from the N. at Baffora, from the N. W. at Bagdad, from the W. and in Syria, from the S. E. On the fouth of Syria, he adds, where the Jordan flows, is a country of volcanos ; and it is obferved, that the earthquakes in Syria happen after their ramy feafon, which is alfo conformable to a fimilar obfervation made by Dr Shaw, in Barbary. Travels in Egypt, vol. I. p. 303. Thefe winds feem all to be of volcanic origin, as before mentioned, with this difference, that the fimoom is attended with a ftream of eledtric matter; they feem to be in confequence of earthquakes caufed by the monfoon floods, which fall on volcanic fires in Syria, at the fame time that they inundate the Nile. One golden fecret. 1. 320. The fuddennefs of the change of the wind from N. E. to S. W. feems to mew that it depends on fome minute chemical caufe, which, if it was difcovered, might probably, like other chemical caufes, be governed by human agency, fuch as blowing up rocks by gun-powder, or extracting the lightning from the clouds. If this could be accomplifhed, it would be the moil happy difcovery that ever has happened in thefe northern latitudes, fince in this country the N. E. winds bring froft, and the S W. ones are attended with warmth and moifture ; if the inferior currents of air could be kept perpetually from the S. W. fupplied by new productions of air,, at the line, or by fuperior currents flowing in a contrary direction, the ve- getation of this country would be doubled, as in the moiit vallifs of Africa, which know no froft; the number of its inhabitants would be increafed, arid their lives prolonged; as great abundance of the aged and infirm of mankind, as well as many birds and animals, are deflroyed by fevere continued froft* in this climate. 11* BOTANIC GARDEN. PART 1, No more (hall hoary Boreas, iffuing forth With Eurus, lead the tempefts of the North ; Rime the pale Dawn, or veil'd in flaky fliowers 325 Chill the fvveet bofoms of the fmiling Hours* By whifpering Aufter waked fhall Zephyr rife, Meet with foft kifs, and mingle in the flues, Fan the gay floret, bend the yellow ear, And rock the uncurtain'd cradle of the year; 330 Autumn and Spring in lively union blend, And from the Ikies the golden Age defcend. a. " Caftled on ice, beneath the circling Bear, A vaft CAMELION drinks and vomits air; O'er twelve degrees his ribs gigantic bend, 335 And many a league his gafping jaws extend; Half-fifti, beneath, his fcaly volutes fpread, And vegetable plumage crefts his head ; Huge fields of air his wrinkled fkin receives, From panting gills, wide lungs, and waving leaves; 343 Then with dread throes fubiides his bloated form, His fhriek the thunder, and his figh the ftorm* Oft high in heaven the biffing Demon wins His towering courfe, upborne on winnowing fins ; Steers with expanded eye and gaping mouth, 345 His mafs enormous to the affrighted South ; Spreads o'er the (huddering Line his fhadowy limbs, And Froft and Famine follow as he fwims. Sylphs ! round his cloud-built couch your bands array, And mould the Monfter to your gentle fway; 350 Charm with foft tones, with tender touches check, Bend to your golden yoke his willing neck, With filver curb his yielding teeth reftrain, And give to KIRWAN'S hand the filken rein. A -oajl Cametion. 1. 334. See additional notes, No. XXXIII, on the de ftrudlion and re-produdion of the atmofphere. To Kiriuans band. \. 354. Mr. Kirwan has publiihed a valuable treatife n the temperature of climates, as a ftep towards inveftigating the theory of the winds, and has fince written fome ingenious papers on this fubje<5l, in the Tranfadtions of the Royal Irifh Society. CANTO IV. ECONOMY OF VEGETATION. 213 Pieafed ihall the Sage, the dragon-wings between, 355 Bend o'er difcordant climes his eye ferene, With Lapland breezes cool Arabian vales, And call to Hindoftan antar&ic gales, Adorn with wreathed ears Kampichatca's brows, And fcatter rofes on Zealandic fnows, 360 Earth's wondering Zones the genial feafons {hare, And nations hail him " Monarch of the Air" X. i. " Sylphs ! as you hover on ethereal wing) Brood the green children of parturient Spring ! Where in their burfting cells my Embryons reft, 365 I charge you, guard the vegetable neft ; Count with nice eye the myriad Seeds, that fwell Each vaulted womb of hufk, or pod, or (hell; Feed with fweet juices, clothe with downy hair, Or hang, informed, their little orbs in air. 370 " So, late defcry'd by HERSCHEL'S piercing fight, Hang the bright fquadrons of the twinkling Night j Ten thoufand marfhal'd ftars, a filver zone, Effufe their blended luftres round her throne ; Suns call to funs, in lucid clouds confpire, 375 And light exterior fkies with golden fire; The myriad feeds. 1. 367. Nature would feefn to have been wonderfully prodigal in the feeds of vegetables, and the fpawn of fifh ; almoft any one plant, if all its feeds fhould grow to maturity, would, in a few years, alone people the terreftrial globe. Mr. Ray afferts that 1012 feeds of tobacco weighed only one grain, and that from one tobacco plant the feeds thus cal- culated amounted to 360,000. The feeds of the ferns are by him fuppofed to exceed a million on a leaf. As the works of nature are governed by ge- neral laws, this exuberant re-produ6lion prevents the accidental extinction of the fpecies, at the fame time that they ferve for food for the higher orders of animation. Every feed poffeffes a refervoir of nutriment defighed for the growth of the future plant ; this confifts of ftarch, mucilage, or oil, within the coat of the feed, or of fugar and fub-acid pulp in the fruit, which belongs to it. For the prefervation of the immature feed, nature has ufed many ingeni- ous methods; fome are wrapped in down, as the feeds of the rofe, bean, and cotton-plant ; others are fufpended in a large air-veffel, as thofe of the blad- der-fena, ftaphylsea, and pea. And light exterior. 1. 376. I fufpecl this line is- from Dwight's Conqueft of Canaan, a poem written by a very yeung man, and which contains much fine verification. TART I. Q 1 14 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART I. Refiftlefs rolls the illimitable fphere, And one great circle forms the unmeafured year. Roll on, ye Stars ! exult in youthful prime, Mark with bright curves the printlefs fteps of Time j 380 Near and more near your beamy cars approach, And leflening orbs on leflening orbs encroach ; Flowers of the fky ! ye too to age muft yield , Frail as your filken filters of the fiejd ! Star after ftar from Heaven's high arch {hall ruih, 385 Suns fink on funs, and fyftems lyftems crufh, Headlong, extinct, to one dark centre fall, And Death, and Night, and Chaos mingle all ! Till o'er the wreck, emerging from the ftorm, Immortal NATURE lifts her changeful form, 390 Mounts from her funeral pyre on wings of flame, And foars and fhines, another and the fame. 2. " Lo ! on each &eed within its {lender rind Life's golden threads in endlefs circles wind ; Maze within maze the lucid webs are roll'd, 395 And, as they burft, the living flame unfold. Near and more near. 1. 381. From tlie vacant fpaces in feme parts of the heavens, and the cofrefpondent clufters of ftars in their vicinity, Mr. Her- fchel concludes that the nebulae, or conftellations of fixed ftars, are approach- ing each other, and muft finally coalefce in one mafs. Phil. Tranf. vol. LXXV. Till o'er the ivreck. 1. 389. The ftory of the phenix rifing from its own alhes, with a twinkling ftar upon its head, feems to have been an ancient hieroglyphic emblem of the deftrudlion and refufcitation of all things. There is a figure of the great Platonic year, with a phenix on his hand, on the reverfe of a medal of Adrian. Spence's Polym. p. 189. Maze ivithin maze. 1. 395. The elegant appearance, on diffedHon, of the young tulip in the bulb, was firft obferved by Mariotte, and is mentioned in the note on tulipa, in vol. II. and was afterwards noticed by Du Hamel. Acad. Scien. Lewenhoeck affures us, that in the bud of a currant-tree he could not only difcover the ligneous part, but even the berries themfelves, appearing like fmall grapes. Chamb. Di6l. art. Bud. Mr. Baker fays he differed a feed of trembling grafs in which a perfedt plant appeared, with its root fending forth two branches, from each of which feveral leaves, or blades of grafs, proceeded, Microfc. vol. I. p. 252. Mr. Bonnet faw four generations of fucceffive plants in the bulb of a hyacinth. Bonnet Corps Organ, vol. I. p. 103. Haller's Phyfiol. vol. I. p. 91. In the terminal bud of a horfe-chefnut the new flower may be feen by the naked eye, co- vered with a mucilaginous down, and the fame in the bulb of a narciffus, CAKTO IV. ECONOMY OF VEGETATION. Ji$ The pulpy acorn, ere it fwells, contains The Oak's vaft branches in its milky veins : Each ravel'd bud, fine film, and fibre-line Traced with nice pencil on the fmall defign. 400 The young Narciffiis, in its bulb comprefs'd, Cradles a fecond neftling on its breaft ; In whofe fine arms a younger embryon lies, Folds its thin leaves, and-fhuts its floret-eyes; Grain within grain fucceflive harvefts dwell, 405 And boundlefs forefts flumber in a {Hell. So yon grey precipice, and ivy'd towers, Long winding meads, and intermingled bowers, Green files of poplars, o'er the lake that bow, And glimmering wheel, which rolls and foams below, 410 In one bright point with nice diftinction lie Plann'd on the moving tablet of the eye. So, fold on fold, Earth's wavy plains extend, And, fphere in fphere, its hidden ftrata bend ; Incumbent Spring her beamy plumes expands 415 O'er refllefs oceans, and impatient lands, With genial luftres warms the mighty ball, And the GREAT SEED evolves, difclofmg All; LIFE buds or breathes from Indus to the Poles, And the vaft furface kindles as it rolls ! 420 as I this morning obferved in feveral of them fent me by Mifs , for that purpofe. Sept. 16. Mr. Ferber fpeaks of the pleafure he received in obferving in the buds of hepatica and pedicularis hirfuta, yet lying hid in the earth, and in the germs of the fbrub daphne mezereon, and at the bafe of ofmunda limaria, a perfect plant of the future year, difcernible in all its parts a year before it comes forth; and in the feeds of nymphea nelumbo, the leaves of the plant were feen fo diftindly that the author found out by them what plant the feeds belonged to. The fame of the feeds of the tulip-tree, or liriodendron tulipiferum. Amsen. Acad. vol. VI. And the great feed. 1. 418. Alluding to the TT^OTOV <yoi>, or firft great egg of the ancient philofophy; it had a ferpent wrapped round it, emblematical of divine wifdom; an image of it was afterwards preferved, and worfhipped in the temple of Diofcuri, and fuppofed to reprefent the egg of Leda. See a print of it in Bryant's Mythology. It was faid to have been broken by the horns of the celeftial bull; that is, it was hatched by the warmth of the fpring. See note on Canto I. 1. 413. And the vajf furface. 1. 420. L'Organization, le fentiment, le movement fpontane, la vie, n'cxiftent qu'a la furface de la terre, et dans le lieux ex- pofes a la Imniere. Traite de Chymie par M. Lavoifier, Tom. I. p. aoj. n6 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART I. 3. " Come, ye foft Sylphs ! who fport on Latian land, Come, fweet-lip'd Zephyr, and Favonius bland ! Teach the fine Seed, inftinl with life, to (hoot On Earth's cold bofom its defcending root ; With Pith elaftic ftretch its rifing ftem, 425 Part the twin Lobes, expand the throbbing Gem ; Clafp in your airy arms the afpiring Plume, Fan with your balmy breath its kindling bloom, Each widening fcale and burfting film unfold, Swell the green cup, and tint the flower with gold; 430 While in bright veins the filvery Sap afcends, And refluent blood in milky eddies bends ; While, fpread in air, the leaves refpiring play, Or drink the golden quinteflence of day. Teach the fne feed. 1. 423. The feeds, in their natural ftate, fall on the furface of the earth, and, having abforbed fome moifture, the root fhoots itfelf downwards into the earth, and the plume rifes in air. Thus each en- deavouring to feek its proper pabulum, directed by a vegetable irritability fimilar to that of the la&eal fyftem, and to the lungs in animals. The pith feems to puih up or elongate the bud by its elafticity, like the pith in the callow quills of birds. This medulla Linnaeus believes to confift, of a bundle of fibres, which, diverging, breaks through the bark, yet gela- tinous, producing the buds. The lobes are refervoirs of prepared nutriment for the young feed, which is abforbed by its pjacental veffels, and converted into fugar, till it has pene- trated with its roots far enough into the earth to extract fufficient moifture, and has acquired leaves to convert it into nourifhment. In fome plants thefc lobes rife from the earth, and fupply the place of leaves, as in kidney-beans, cucumbers; and hence feem to ferve both as a placenta to the foetus, and lungs to the young plant. During the procefs of germination, the ftarch. cf the feed is converted into fugar, as is feen in the procefs of malting barley for the purpofe of brewing. And is, on this account, very fimilar to the digeftion of food in the ftomachs of animals, which converts all their ali- ment into a chyle, which confifts of mucilage, oil, and fugar: the placenta- tion of buds will be fpoken of hereafter. The filvery fap. 1. 431. See additional notes, No. XXXV. And refluent blood. 1. 432. See additional notes, No. XXXVI. The leaves refpiring play. 1. 433. See additional notes, No. XXXVII. Or drink the golden. 1. 434. Linnxus, having obferved the great influence of light on vegetation, imagined that the leaves of plants inhaled electric matter from the light with their upper furface. (Syftem of Vegetables tranflated, p. 8.) The effecl of light on plants occafions the adions of the vegetable mufcles of their leaf-ftalks, which turn the upper fide of the leaf to the light, and which open their calyxes and corols, according to the experiments of Abbe Teflier, who expofed variety of plants, in a cavern, to different quantities of light. Hift. de L'Academie Royal. Ann, 1783. The fleep or vigilance of plants feem? owing to the prefence or abfence of this ftimulus. See note on Mimofa, Part II. CANTO IV. ECONOMY OF VEGETATION. 117- So from his fhell on Delta's fhower-lefs ifle 435 Burfts into life the Monfter of the Nile ; Firft in tranflucent lymph with cohweb-threads The Brain's fine floating tiffue fwells, and fpreads ; Nerve after nerve the gliftening fpine defcends, The red Heart dances, the Aorta bends ; 440 Through each new gland the purple current glides, New Veins meandering drink the refluent tides j Edge o'er edge expands the hardening fcale, And fheaths his flimy fkin in filver mail, c Erewhile, emerging from the brooding fand, 445 With Tyger-paw He prints the brinelefs ftrand, High on the flood with fpeckled bofom fwims, Helm'd with broad tail, and oar'd with giant limbs; Rolls his fierce eye-balls, clafps his iron claws, And champs with gnafhing teeth his mafly jaws; 450 Old Nilus fighs along his cane-crown'd fhores, And fwarthy Memphis trembles and adores. XL " Come, ye foft Sylphs ! who fan the Paphian groves, And bear on fportive wings the callow Loves ; Call with fweet whifper, in each gale that blows, 455 The flumbering Snow-drop from her long repofe ; Charm the pale Primrofe from her clay-cold bed, Unveil the bafhful Violet's tremulous head ; While from her bud the playful Tulip breaks, And young Carnations peep with blufhing cheeks; 460 Bid the clofed Corel from nocturnal cold Curtain'd with filk the virgin Stigma fold, Shake into viewlefs air the morning dews, And wave in light its iridefcent hues. So {"hall from high the burfting Anther truft 465 To the mild breezes the prolific duft ; Or bow his waxen head wich graceful pride, Watch the firft blufhes of his waking bride, Give to her hand the honey'd cup, or' ftp Celeftial ne&ar from her fweeter lip ; 470 Honey d cup. \. 469. The neclary, or honey-gland, fuppli'es food to the vegetable males and females, which, like moth* and butterflies, 'live on the ii8 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART I. Hang in foft raptures o'er the yielding Fair, Love out his hour, and leave his life in air. So in his iilken fepulchre the Worm, Warm'd with new life, unfolds his larva-form; Erewhile aloft in wanton circles moves, 475 And woos on Hymen-wings his velvet loves. XII. i. "If prouder branches with exuberance rude Point their green gems, their barren ilioots protrude; Wound them, ye Sylphs f with little knives, or bind A wiry ringlet round the fwelling rind ; 480 honey thus produced for them, till they have propagated their fpecies, and deposited their eggs, and then die; as explained in additional note, No. XXXIX. The tops of the ftamens, or anthers, are covered with wax, to protect the prolific duft from the injury of fliowers and dews, to which it is impervious. Love out his hour. 1. 472. The vegetable paflion of love is agreeably feen in the flower of the parnaflia, in which the males alternately approach and recede from the female, and in the flower of nigella, or devil in the bufli, in which the tall females bend down to their dwarf hufbands. But I was this morning furprifed to obferve, amongft Sir Brooke Boothby's valua- ble collection of plants at Afhbourn, the manifefl adultery of feveral females of the plant Collinfonia, who had bent themfelves into contact with the males of other flowers of the fame plant in their vicinity, neglectful of their own. Sept. 16. See additional notes, No. XXXVIII. Unfolds his larva-form. 1. 474. The flower burfts forth from its larva, the herb, naked and perfect like a butterfly from its chryfalis; winged with its corol; wing-fheathed by its calyx; confifting alone of the organs of repro- duction. The males, or ftamens, have their anthers replete with a prolific powder, coptaining the vivifying fovilla ; in the females, or piftils, exifts the ovary, terminated by the tubular ftigma. When the anthers burft and fhed their bags of duft, the male fovilla is received by the prolific lymph of the ftigma, and produces the feed or egg, which is nourlflied in the ovary. Syf- tem of Vegetables, tranflated from Linnaeus by the Lichfield Society, p. 10. Wound them, ye Sylphs. 1. 479. Mr. Whitmill advifed to bind fome of the moft vigorous flioots with ftrong wire, and even fome of the large roots; and Mr. Warner cuts what he calls a wild worm about the body of the tree, or fcores the bark quite to the wood, like a fcrew, with a fharp knife. Bradley on Gardening, vol. II. p. 155. Mr. Fitzgerald produced flowers and fruit on wall-trees by cutting off a part of the bark. Phil. Tranf. Ann. 1761. M. Buffon produced the fame effect by a ftraight bandage put round a branch, Act. Paris, Ann. 1738, and concludes that an ingrafted branch bears better from its veflels being comprefied by the callus. A complete cylinder of the bark, about an inch in height, was cut off from the branch of a pear-tree, againft a wall, in Mr. Howard's garden, at Lichfield, about five years ago; the circumcifed part is now not above half the diameter of the branch above and below it, yet this branch has been full of fruit every year fince, when the ether branches of the tree bore only CANTO IV. ECONOMY OF VEGETATION. Bifeft with chiflel fine the root below, Or bend to earth the inhofpitable bough. So fhall each Germ with new prolific power Delay the leaf-bud, and expand the flower ; fparingly. I lately obferved that the leaves of this wounded branch were fmaller and paler, and the fruit lefs in fize, and ripened fooner than on the other parts of the tree. Another branch has the bark taken off not quite ail round, with much the fame effect. The theory of this curious vegetable fact has been efteemed difficult, but receives great light from the foregoing account of the individuality of budsi A flower-bud dies, when it has perfected its feed, like an annual plant, and hence requires no place on the bark for new roots to pafs downwards; but, on the contrary, leaf-buds, as they advance into fhoots, form new buds in the axilla of every leaf, which new buds require new roots to pafs down the bark, and thus thicken as well as elongate the branch: now, if a wire or firing be tied round the bark, many of thefe new roots cannot defcend, and thence more of the buds will be converted into flower-buds. It is cuftomary to debark oak-trees in the fpring, which are intended ttf be felled in the enfuing autumn, becaufe the bark comes off eafier at this feafon, and the fap-\vood, or alburnum, is believed to become harder and more durable, if the tree remains till the end of fummer. The trees, thus ftripped of their bark, put forth fhoots as ufual, with acorns, on the 6th, yth, and 8th joint, like vines; but in the branches I examined, the joints of the debarked trees were much fhorter than thofe of other oak-trees; the acorns were more numerous; and no new buds were produced above the joints which bore acorns. From hence it appears that the branches of debarked oak-trees produce fewer leaf-buds, and more flower-buds, which laft circum- ftance, I fuppofe, muft depend on their being fooner or later debarked in the vernal months. And, fecondly, that the new buds of debarked oak-trees continue to obtain moifture from the alburnum, after the feafon of the afcent of fap in other vegetables ceafes; which, in this unnatural {late of the de- barked tree, may act as capillary tubes, like the alburnum of the fmall de- barked cylinder of a pear-tree above-mentioned ; or may continue to act as placental veffels, as happens to the animal embrydn in cafes of fuperfetation; when the foetus continues a month or two in the womb beyond its ufual time, of which fome inftances have been recorded, the placenta continues to fupply, perhaps, the double office both of nutrition and of refpiration. Or bend to earth. 1. 482. Mr. Hitt, in his treatife on fruit-trees, obferves, that if a vigorous branch of a Wall-tree be bent to the horizon, or beneath it, it lofes its vigour, and becomes a bearing branch. The theory of this I fuppofe to depend on the difficulty with which the leaf-fhoots can protrude the roots neceflary for their new progeny of buds upwards, along the bended branch, to the earth, contrary to their natural habits or powers, whence more flower-lhoots are produced, which do not require new roots to pafs along the bark of the bended branch, but which let their offspring, the feeds, fall upon the earth, and feek roots for themfelves. With ne<w prolific poive r. 1.483. About Midfummer the new buds arc formed, but it is believed by fome of the Linnasan fchool, that thefe buds may, in their early ftate, be either converted into flower-buds or leaf-buds, according to the vigour of the vegetating branch. Thus, if the upper part of a branch be cut away, the buds near the extremity of the remaining ftem, 120 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART!. Clofed in the Style the tender Pith (hall end, 485 The lengthening Wood in circling Stamens bend ; The fmoother Rind its foft embroidery fpread In vaulted Petals o'er the gorgeous bed ; The wrinkled bark, in filmy mazes roll'd, Form the green Calyx, fold including fold ; 490 Each widening Bra fie expand its foliage hard, And hem the bright pavillion, Floral Guard. So the cold rill from CINTRA'S fteepy fides, Headlong, abrupt, in barren channels glides ; Round the rent cliffs the bark- bound Suber fpreads, 495 And lazy monks recline on corky beds ; Till, led by art, the wondering water moves Through vine-hung avenues, and citron groves; Green Hopes the velvet round its filver fource, And flowers, and fruits, and foliage mark its courfe, 500 At breezy eve, along the irriguous plain The fair Beckfordia leads her virgin train; Seeks the cool grot, the fhadowy rocks among, And tunes the mountain-echoes to her fong; Or prints with graceful fteps the margin green, 505 And brighter glories gild the enchanted fcene. having a greater proportional fupply of nutriment, or pofiefling a greater fa- cility of fhooting their roots, or abforbent veflels, down the bark, will be- come leaf-buds, which might otherwife have been flower-buds, and the con- trary; as explained in note on 1. 479 of this Canto. Clofed in the Style. 1. 485. " I conceive the medulla of a plant to confifl of a bundle of nervous fibres, and that the propelling vital power feparates their uppermoft extremities. Thefe, diverging, penetrate the bark, which is now gelatinous, and become multiplied in the new gem, or leaf-bud. *i'he afcending veffels of the bark being thus divided by the nervous fibres, which perforate it, and the afcent of its fluids being thus impeded, the bark is extended into a leaf. But the flower is produced, when the protrufion of the medulla is greater than the retention of the including cortical part; Whence the fubftance of the bark is expanded in the calyx; that of the rin.l (or interior bark), in the corol; that of the wood, in the ftamens; that of the medulla, in the piftil. Vegetation thus terminates in the production of new life, the ultimate medullary and cortical fibres being collected in the feeds." Linnsii Syflema Veget. p. 6. edit. J4. Cintra. 1. 493. A village on the fide of the rock of Lifbon: around the fummit are abundance of cork trees, and Ibme excavations, which a few monks inhabit, and fleep on beds or benches of cork; near the village Mr. Beckford has an elegant feat. CANTO IV. ECONOMY OF VEGETATION iai 2. " Where cruder juices fwell the leafy vein^ Stint the young germ, the tender bloflbm ftain i On each lopp'd fhoot a fofter fcion bind, Pith prefs'd to pith, and rind applied to rindj 5X0 So fhall the trunk with loftier creft afcend, And wide in air its happier arms extend ; Nurfe the new buds, admire the leaves unknown* And bluihing bend with fruitage not its own. " Thus when in holy triumph Aaron trod* 5! j And offer'd on the fhrine his myftic rodj Firfl a new bark its filken tiffue weaves* New buds emerging widen into leaves ; Fair fruits protrude, enafcent flowers expand* And blufh and tremble round the living wand. XIII. i. "Sylphs! on each Oak-bud wound the wormy galls With pigmy fpears, or crufti the venom'd balls ; Fright the green Locuft from his foamy bed, Unweave the Caterpillar's gluey thread; Chafe the fierce Earwig, fcare the bloated Toad, 525 Arreft the Snail upon his flimy road ; Arm with (harp thorns the Sweet-briar's tender wood, And dafti the Cynips from her damafk bud j Nurfe the netu buds. 1. 513. Mr. Fairchild bucided a paffion-tree, whofe leaves were fpotted with yellow, into one which bears long fruit. The budd did not take; neverthelefs, in a fortnight, yellow fpots began to fhew them- felves about three feet above the inoculation, and in a fhort time afterwards yellow fpots appeared on a fhoot which came out of the ground from an- other part of the plant. Bradley, vol. II. p. 129. Thefe fadts are the more curious, fince, from experiments of ingrafting red currants on black, (ib* vol. II.) the fruit does not acquire any change of flavour, and, by many other experiments, neither colour, nor any other change, is produced in the fruit ingrafted on other flocks. There is an apple defcribed in Bradley's work, which is faid to have one fide of it a fweet fruit, which boils foft, and the other fide a four fruit, which boils hard, which Mr. Bradley, jp long ago as the year 1721, inge- nioufly afcribes to the farina of one of thefe apples impregnating the other, which would feem the more probable if we confider that each divifion of an apple is a feparate womb, and may, therefore, have a feparate impregna- tion, like puppies of different kinds in one litter. The fame is faid to have occurred in oranges and lemons, and grapes of different colours, PART I. R is* BOTANIC GARDEN. PA*T t Steep in ambrofial dews the Woodbine's bells, And drive the Night-moth from her honey 'd cells. 530 So where the Humming-bird in Chili's bowers On murmuring pinions robs the pendent flowers ; Seeks, where fine pores their dulcet balm diftil, And fucks the treafure with probofcis-bill ; Fair CYPREPEDIA, with fuccefsful guile, 53$ Knits her fmooth brow, extinguimes her fmile; A Spider's bloated paunch and jointed arms Hide her fine form, and mafk her blufhing charms j In ambufli fly the mimic warrior lies, And on quick wing the panting plunderer flies. 546 2. " Shield the young Harveft from devouring blight, The Smut's dark poifon, and the Mildew white; Thf'ir dulcet balm JiftiL 1 533. See additional notes, No. XXXIX. fair Cyprepedla, 1. 535. The cyprepedium from South-America is {"up* Jsofed to be of larger fize, and brighter colours, than that from North-Ame- rica, from which this print is taken ; it has a large globular nectary, about the fize of a pigeon's egg, of a flefhy colour, and an incilion, or depreflion, on its upper part, much refembling the body of the large American fpider: this globular ne5tary is attached to divergent (lender petals, not unlike the legs of the fame animal. This fpider is called by Linnasus arenea avicularia, with a convex orbicular thorax, the centre tranfverfely excavated; he adds, that it catches fmall birds as well as infects, and has the venomous bite of a ferpent. Syftem. Natur. Tom. I. p. 1034. M. Lonvilliers de Poincy, (Hi- ftoire Nat. des Antilles, Cap. xiv. art. III.) calls it phalange, and defcribes the body to be the fize of a pigeon's egg, with a hollow on its back like a navel, and mentions its catching the humming-bird in its ftrong nets. The fimilitude of this flower 'to this great fpider, feems to be a vegetable contrivance to prevent the humming-bird from plundering its honey. About Matlock, in Derbyfhire, the fly-ophris is produced, the nectary of which fb much refembles the fmall wall-bee, perhaps the apis ichneumonea, that it may be eafily miftaken for it at a fmall diftance. It is probable that by this means it may often efcape being plundered. See note on lonicera, in the next poem. A bird of our own country, called a willow-wren (motacilla) runs up the ftem of the crown-imperial (frittillaria coronalis) and lips the pendulous drops within its petals. This fpecies of motacilla is called by Ray regulus non criftatus. White's Hilt, of Selborne. Shield the young harveji. 1. 541. Linnaeus enumerates but four difeafes of plants; Eryfyche, the white mucor, or mould, with feflile tawny heads, with which the leaves are fprinkled, as is frequent on the hop, humulus, ma- ple, acer, &c. Rubigo, the ferrugineous powder fprinkled under the leaves, frequent in lady's mantle, alchemilla, &c. Clavus, when the feeds grow out into larger horns, black without, as ili rye. This is called Ergot by the French writers, t CANTO IV. ECONOMY OF VEGETATION. 123 Deep-rooted Mould, and Ergot's horn uncouth, And break the Canker's defolating tooth. Firft in one point the fettering wound confined 545 Mines unperceived beneath the fhrivePd rind ; Then climbs the branches with increafing ftrength, Spreads as they fpread, and lengthens with their length. Thus the flight wound, ingraved on glafs unneal'd, Runs in white lines along the lucid field 550 Crack follows crack, to laws elaftic juft, And the frail fabric fhivers into duft. Uftulago, when the fruit, inftead of feed, produces a black powder, as in barley, oats, &c. To which, perhaps, the honey-dew ought to have been added, and the canker; in the former of which the nourifhing fluid of the plant feems to be exfuded by a retrograde motion of the cutaneous lympha- tics, as in the fweating ficknefs of the laft century. The latter is a phage- denic ulcer of the bark, very deftructive to young apple-trees, and which, in cherry-trees, is attended with a depofition of gum arabic, which often ter- minates in the death of the tree. Ergot's horn. 1. 543. There is a difeafe frequently aflfe&s the rye in France, and fometimes in England in moift feafons, which is called Ergot, or horn-feed ; the grain becomes confiderably elongated, and is either ftraight or crooked, containing black meal along with the white, and appears to be pierced by infefts, which were probably the caufe of the difeafe. Mr. Du Hamel afcribes it to this caufe, and compares it to galls on oak-leaves. By the ufe of this bad grain amongft the poor, difeafes have been produced, at- tended with great debility, and mortification of the extremities, both in France and England. Did:. Raifon. art. Siegle. Phil. Tranf. On glafs tinneal'd. 1. 549. The glafs-makers occafionally make what they call proofs, which are cooled haftily, whereas the other glafs veflels are re- moved from warmer ovens to cooler ones, and fuffered to cool by flow de- grees, which is called annealing, or healing them. If an unnealed glafs be Scratched by even a grain of fand falling into it, it will feem to confi- der of it for fome time, or even a day, and will then crack into a thou- fand pieces. The fame happens to a fmooth furfaced lead-ore in Derbyfhire ; the work- men, having cleared a large face of it, fcratch it with picks, and, in a few hours, many tons of it crack to pieces, and fall, with a kind of exploiion. Whitehurft's Theory of the Earth. Glafs dropped into cold water, called Prince Rupert's drops, explode, when a fmall part of their tails are broken off", more fuddenly indeed, but proba- bly from the fame caufe. Are the internal particles of thefe elaftic bodies kept fo far from each other by the external cruft, that they are nearly in a ftate of repulfion, into which ftate they are thrown by their vibrations from any violence applied ? Or, like elaftic balls in certain proportions fuf- pended in contact with each other, can motion, once begun, be increafed by their elafticity, till the whole explodes? And can this power be applied to any mechanical purpofcs ? J*4 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART!. XIV. i. " Sylphs ! if with morn deftruKve Eurus fprings, O, clafp the Harebel with your velvet wings; Screen with thick leaves the Jafmine as it blows, 555 And {hake the white rime from the {huddering Rofe j Whilft Amaryllis turns with graceful eafe Her bluihing beauties, and eludes the breeze. Sylphs ! if at noon the Fritillary droops, With drops neclareous hang her nodding cups ; 560 Thin clouds of goflamer in air difplay, And hide the vale's chafte Lily from the ray ; Whilft Erythrina o'er her tender flower Bends all her leaves, and braves the fultry hour; Shield, when cold Hefper {beds his dewy light, 565 Mimofa's foft fenfations from the night ; Fold her thin foliage, clofe her timid flowers, And with ambrofial {lumbers guard her bowers ; O'er each warm wall while Cerea flings her arms, waftes on night's dull eye a blaze of charms. 2. " Round her tall Elm with dewy fingers twine The gadding tendrils of the adventurous Vine ; From arm to arm in gay feftoons fufpend Her fragrant flowers, her graceful foliage bend ; Swell with fweet juice her vermil orbs, and feed 575 Shrined in tranfparent pulp her pearly feed ; Hang round the Orange all her filver bells, And guar^l her fragrance with Hefperian fpells ; With amlrofsal fmmlers. \. 568. Many vegetables, during the night, do riot feem to reipire, but to flccp like the dormant animals and infecls in win- ter. This appears from, the mimofa and many other plants clofing the upper iides of their leaves together in their ileep, and thus precluding that fide of them from both light and air. And from many flowers clofing up the po- liihed or interior fide of their petals, which we have alfo endeavoured to fliew to be a refpiratory organ. The irritability of plants is abundantly evinced by the abforption and pul- monary circulation of their juices; their lenfibility is fhewn by the approaches of the males to the females, and of the females to the males, in numerous in- ftance.s ; and, as the efiential circumftance of fleep confifts in the temporary abolition of voluntary power alone, the fleep of plants evinces that they pof- fcfs voluntary power; which alfo indifputably appears in many of them, by clofing their petals or their leaves during cold, or rain, or darknefs, or from mechanic violence. o CANTO IV. ECONOMY OF VEGETATION. 125 Bud after bud her polifli'd leaves unfold, And load her branches with fucceflive gold. 580 So the learn'd Alchemift exulting fees a Rife in his bright matrafs DIANA'S trees; ' Drop after drop, with juft delay he pours The red-fumed acid on Potofi's ores ; With fudden flafh the fierce bullitions rife, 585 And wide in air the gas phlogiftic flies ; Slow fhoot, at length, in many a brilliant mafs Metallic roots acrofs the netted glafs ; Branch after branch extend their filver ftems, Bud into gold, and blorTbm into gems. 590 " So fits enthron'd in vegetable pride Imperial KEW by Thames's glittering fide; Obedient fails from realms unfurrow'd bring For her the unnam'd progeny of fpring ; Diana s trees. I. 582. The chemifts and aftronomers, from the earlieft an- liquity, have ufed the fame characters to reprefent the metals and the planets, which were moft probably outlines or abftradls of the original hieroglyhic figures of Egypt. Thefe afterwards acquired niches in their temples, and leprefented Gods as well as metals and planets; whence filver is called Di- ana, or the moon, in the books of alchemy. , The procefs for making Diana's filver tree is thus defcribed by Lemeri. Diffplve one ounce of pure filver in acid of nitre, very pure, and moderately ftrotig; mix'thVfolution with about twenty ounces of diftilled water; add to this two ourfces of mercury, and let it remain at reft, In about four days there will form tqisn the mercury a tree of filver, with branches imitating vegetation. I. As the mercury has a greater affinity than filver with the nitrous acid, the filver becomes precipite'd ; and, being deprived of the nitrous oxygenc by the mercury, finks dowjftjn its metallic form and luftre. a. The attrac- tion between filver and mercury, which caufes them readily to amalgamate together, occafions the precipitated filver to adhere to the furface of the mercury in preference to any other part of the vefTel. 3. The attraction of the particles of the precipitated filver to each other, caufes the beginning branches to. thicken and elongate into trees and {hrubs rooted on the mer- cury. For other circumftances concerning this beautiful experiment, fee Mr. Keir's Chemical Dictionary, art. Arbor Dianae; a work, perhaps, of greater utility to mankind than the loft Alexandrian Library, the continuacion of which is fo eagerly expe&ed by all who are occupied in the arts, or attached to the fciences. - ia<5 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART I. Attendant Nymphs her dulcet mandates hear, 595 And nurfe in foftering arms the tender year, Plant the young hulb, inhume the living feed, Prop the weak ftem, the erring tendril lead ; ( Or fan in glafs-buili fanes the ftranger flowers With milder gales, and fteep with warmer fhowers. 600 Delighted Thames through tropic umbrage glides, And flowers antar&ic, bending o'er his tides ; Drinks the new tints, the fweets unknown inhales, And calls the fons of fcience to his vales. In one bright point admiring Nature eyes 605 The fruits and foliage of difcordant ikies, Twines the gay floret with the fragrant bough, And bends the wreath round GEORGE'S royal brow, Sometimes retiring from the public weal, One tranquil hour the Royal Partners fleal; 6lO Through glades exotic pafs with ftep fublime, Or mark the growths of Britain's happier clime; With beauty bloflbm'd, and with virtue blaz'd, Mark the fair Scions, that themfelves have rais'd; Sweet blooms the Rofe, the towering Oak expands, 615 The Grace and Guard of Britain's golden lands. XV. " Sylphs ! who, round earth on purple pinions borne, Attend the radiant chariot of the morn ; Lead the gay hours along the ethereal hight, And on each dun meridian ihower the light; 620 Sylphs ! who from realms of equatorial day To climes, that fhudder in the polar ray, From zone to zone purfue on {Lifting wing, The bright perennial journey of the fpring; Bring my rich Balms from Mecca's hallow'd glade's, 625 Sweet flowers, that glitter in Arabia's /hades; Fruits, whofe fair forms in bright fucceflion glow, Gilding the banks of Arno, or of Po ; Each leaf, whofe fragrant fleam with ruby lip Gay China's nymphs from pi&ur'd vafes fip ; 630 CANTO IV. ECONOMY OF VEGETATION. ii> Each fpicy rind, which fultry India boafts, ^r' Scenting the night-air round her breezy coafts; Roots, whofe bold ftems in bleak Siberia blow, And gem with many a tint the eternal fnow ; Barks, whofe broad umbrage high in ether waves 635 O'er Andes' deeps, and hides his golden caves ; And, where yon oak extends his dufky {hoots Wide o'er the rill, that bubbles from his roots ; Beneath whofe arms, protected from the ftorm, A turf-built altar rears its ruftic form ; 640 Sylphs ! with religious hands frefh garlands twine, And deck with lavifti pomp HYGEIA'S fhrine. " Call with loud voice the Sifterhood, that dwell On floating cloud, wide wave, or bubbling well ; Stamp with charm*d foot, convoke the alarmed Gnomes 645 From golden beds, and adamantine domes ; Each from her fphere with beckoning arm invite, Curled with red flame, the Veftal Forms of light; Clofe all your fpotted wings, in lucid ranks Prefs with your bending knees the crouded banks, 650 Crofs your meek arms, incline your wreathed brows, And win the Goddefs with unwearied vows. "Oh, wave, HYGEIA! o'er BRITANNIA'S throne, Thy ferpent-wand, and mark it for thy own ; Lead round her breezy coafts thy guardian trains, 655 Her nodding forefts, and her waving plains ; Shed o'er her peopled realms thy beamy fmile, And with thy airy temple crown her ifle !" The Goddefs ceafed, and, calling from afar The wandering Zephyrs, joins them to her car; 660 Mounts with light bound, and, graceful, as fhe bends, Whirls the long lafli, the flexile rein extends ; On whifpering wheels the lilver axle flides, Climbs into air, and cleaves the cryftal tides j BOTANIC GARDEN. PART 1, 665 Burfl from its pearly chains, her amber hair Streams o'er her ivory {boulders, buoy'd in air; Swells her white veil, with ruby clafp confined Round her fair brow, and undulates behind ; The leflening courfers rife in fpiral rings, 'Pierce the flow-failing clouds, and ftretch their fhadowj wings. 670 THE BOTANIC GARDEN. CONTENTS OF THE NOTES. CANTO I. iXOi )SICRUCIAN machinery All bodies are immerfed in the matter of heat. Particles of bo- dies dq not touch each other Gradual progrels of the formation of the earth, and of plants and animals. Monftrous births Fixed flars approach towards each other, they were projected from chaos by explofion, and the pla- nets projected from them An atmofphere of inflammable air above the common- atmofphere principally about the poles Twilight fifty miles high. Wants further obfervations Immediate caufe of volcanos from fleam and other vapours. They prevent greater earthquakes Conductors of heat. Cold on the tops of mountains Phoiphorefcent light in the even- ing from all bodies Phoiphoric light from calcined fhells. Bolognian fbone. Expe- riments of Beccari and Wilfon Ignis fatiius doubtful Electric Eel. Its electric organs. Compared to the electric Ley- den phial Difcovery of fire. Tools of fteel. Forefts fubdued. Quantity of food increafed by cookery Meclufa originally an hierogly- phic of divine wifdom Caufe of explofions from com- bined heat. Heat given out PART 1. from air in refpiration. Oxy- gene lofes lefs heat when con- verted into nitrous acid than in 97 any other of its combinations 226 Sparks from the collifion of flints are electric. From the collifion IOI of flint and fteel are from the combuftion of the fteel 229 Gun-powder defcribed by Bacon. Its power. Should be lighted 105 in the centre. A new kind of it. Levels the weak and ftrong 342 Steam-engine invented by Save- 123 ry. Improved by Newcomen. Perfected by Watt and Boulton 254 1 26 Divine benevolence. The parts of nature not of equal excellence 278 VIr. Boulton's fteam-engine for the purpofe of coining, would fave many lives from the exe- cutioner 281 Labours of Hercules of great an- tiquity. Pillars of Hercules. Surface of the Mediterranean lower than the Atlantic Aby- la and Calpe. Flood of Deu- calion 297 15' 176 177 182 180 21 r Accumulation of electricity not from friction 335 Mr.Bennet'sfenfible electrometer 345 Halo of faints is pictorial language 358 We have a fenfe adapted to per- ceive heat but not electricity 365 Paralytic limbs move by electric influence 367 Death of Profefibr Richman by electricity 573 s BOTANIC GARDEN. PART 1 Lightning drawn from the clouds. How to be fafe in thunder- ftorms 383 Animal heat from air and refpira- tion. Perpetual necefiity of refpiration. Spirit of anima- tion perpetually renewed 401 Cupid rifes from the egg of night. Mrs. Cofway's painting of this fubjea 413 Weftern winds. Their origin. Warmer than fouth winds. Produce a thaw. 430 Water expands in freezing. De- ftroys fucculent plants, not re- fmous ones. Trees in valleys more liable to injury. Fig-trees bent to the ground in winter 439 Buds and bulbs are the winter cradle of the plant. Defended from froft and from infects. Tulip produces one flower-bulb and feveral leaf-bulbs, and pe- rifhes 460 Matter of heat if different from light. Vegetables blanched by exclufion of light. Turn the upper furface of their leaves to the light. Water decompofed as it efcapes from their pores. Hence vegetables purify air in the day time only 462 Electricity forwards the growth of plants. Silk-worms electriz- ed fpin fdoner. Water decom- , pofed in vegetables, and by electricity 463 Sympathetic inks which appear by heat, and difappear in the cold. Made from cobalt 487 Star in Calliope's" chair 515 Tce-iflands 100 fathoms deep. Sea-ice more difficult of folu- tion. Ice evaporates, produc- ing great cold. Ice-iflands in- creafe. Should be navigated into fouthern climates. Some ice-ifland have floated fouth- wards 60 miles long. Steam attendingthemin warm climates 529 Monfoon cools the fand of Abyflinia 547 Afcending vapours are electrized plus, as appears from an expe- riment of Mr. Bennet. Elec- tricity fupports vapour in clouds. ^ Thunder-fhowers from combi- nation of inflammable and vi- tal air $53 CANTO II. Solar Volcanos analogous to ter- reftrial and lunar ones. Spots of the fun are excavations 14 Spherical form of the earth. O- cean from condenfed vapour. Character of Mr. Whitehurfl 1 7 Granite the oldeft part of the earth. Then limeilone. And laftly, clay, iron, coal, fand- fhone. Three great concentric divifions of the globe. 35 Formation of primeval iflands be- fore the production of the moon. Paradhc. The Golden Age. Rain-bow. Water of the fea ori- ginally frefli 36 Venus rifing from the fea, an hie- roglyphic emblem of the pro- duction of the earth beneath the ocean 47 Firft great vblcanos in the central parts of the earth. From fleam, inflammable gas, and vital air. Prefent volcanos like mole-hills 68 Moon lias little or no atmofphere. Its ocean is frozen. Is not yet inhabited, but may be in time 82* Earth's axis changed by the afcent of the moon. Its diurnal motion retarded. One great tide 84 Limeftone produced from fhells. Spars with double refractions. Marble. Chalk. 93 Ancient ftatues of Hercules. An- tinous. Apollo. Venus. De- figns of Roubiliac. Monument of General Wade lol Statues of Mrs. Darner 113 Moraffes reft on limeilone. Of immenfe extent 116 PART I. CONTENTS OF THE NOTES. Salts from animal and vegetable bodies decompofe each other, except marine fait. Salt-mines in Poland. Timber does not de- cayinthem. Rock-falt produc- ed by evaporation from fea-wa- ter. Foffil fhells in falt-mines. Salt in hollow pyramids. In cubes. Sea-water contains a- bout one thirtieth of fait 119 Nitre, native in Bengal and Italy. Nitrous gas combined wijh vi- tal air produces red clouds, and the two airs occupy lefs fpace than one of them before, and give out heat. Oxygene and azote produce nitrous acid. 143 Iron from decompofed vegetables. Chalybeat fprings. Fern-leaves in nodules of iron. Concentric fpheres of iron nodules owing to polarity, like iron-filings ar- ranged by a magnet. Great ftrata of the earth owing to their polarity 183 Hardnefs of iteel fpr tools. Gave fuperiority to the European na-? tions. Welding of fteel. Its magnetifm. Ufes of gold 192 Artificial magnets improved by Savery and Dr. Knight, per- fected by Mr. Michel. How produced. Polarity owing to the earth's rotatory motion. The electric fluid, and the mat- ter of heat, and magnetifm, gravitate on each other. Mag- netifm being the lighteft, is found neareft the axis of the motion. Electricity produces northern lights by its centrjfu- gal motion 193 Acids from vegetable recrements. Flint has its acid from the new world. Its bafe in part from the old world, and in part from the new. Precious ftones 215 Diamond. Its great refraction of light. Its volatility by heat. If an inflammable body 228 Fires of the new world from fer- mestation. Whence fulphur and bifumenby fublimation,the clay, coal, and flint, remaining 275 Colours not diftinguifhable in the enamel-kiln, till a bit of dry wood is introduced 283 Etrurian pottery prior to the foundation of Rome. Excelled in fine forms, and in a non-vi- treous encauftic painting, which was loft till reftored by Mr. Wedgwood. Still influences the tafte of the inhabitants 291 Mr. Wedgwood's cameo of a flave in chains, and of Hope 315 Baflb-relievos of two or more co- lours not made by the ancients. Invented by Mr. Wedgwood 342 Petroleum and naptha have been fublimed. Whence jet and am- ber. They abforb air. Attract ftraws when rubbed. Electri- city from electron, the Greek name for amber 35-3 plefts in gfanite rocks in which metals are found. Iron and, manganefe found in all ve,- getables. Manganefe in lime- ftone. W arm fprings from fteam rifing up the clefts of granite and Kmeftone. Ponderous earth in limeftone clefts and in gra- nite. Copper, lead, iron, front defcending materials. High mountains of granite contain no ores near their fummits. Tranfmutation of. metals. Of lead into calamy. Into filver. 398 Armies of Cambyfes deftroyed by famine, and by fand-ftorms 435 Whirling turrets of fand defcrib- ed and explained 478 Granite (hews iron as it decom- pofes. Marble decompofes. Immenfe quantity of charcoal exifts in limeftone. Volcanic flags decompofe, & become clay 523 Mill-ftones raifed by wooden pegs 5 24 Hannibal made a paflage by fire over the Alps 534 Pafled tenfe of many words two- fold, as driven or drove, fpoken or fpokc. A poetic licence, 609 13* BOTANIC GARDEN. PART I. CANTO III. Clouds confift of aqueous fpheres, which do not eafily unite like globules of quick-filver, as may be feen in riding through water. Owing to eledricity. Snow. Hailftones rounded by attrition and diflblution of their angles. Not from fro- zen drops of water Dew on points and edges of grafs, or hangs over cabbage-leaves, needle floats on water Mifts over rivers and on moun- tains. Halo round the moon. Shadow of a church-fteeple upon a mift. Dry mift, or want of tranfparency of the air, a fign of fair weather Tides on both fides of the earth. Moon's tides fliould be much greater than the earth's tides. The ocean of the moon is frozen Spiral form of ihells faves calca- reous matter. Serves them as an organ of hearing. Cal- careous matter produced from inflamed membranes. Colours of ihells, Labradore-ftone from mother-pearl. Foiiil ihells not now found recent Sea-infeds like flowers. A&inia Production of pearls, not a difeafe of the fiih. Crab's eyes. Re- fervoirs of pearly matter Rocks of coral in the fouth-fea. Coralloid limeftone at Linfcl, and Coalbrook Dale Rocks thrown from mountains, ice from glaciers, and portions of earth, or moraffes, remov- ed by columns of water. Earth- motion in Shropihire. Water of wells rifmg above the level of the ground. St. Alkmond's well near Derby might be raif- ed many yards, fo as to ferve the town. Well at Sheernefs, and at Hartford in Connecticut Monfoons attended with rain. Overflowing of the Nile. Vor- tex of afcending air Riling of the Dogflar announces the floods of the Nile. Anubis hung out upon their temples 6 1 90 116 Situation exempt from rain. At the line in Lower Egypt. On the coaft of Peru 138 iefar, a boiling fountain in Ice- landi Water with great de- grees of heat difiblves filiceous matter. Earthquake from iream 150 Warm fprings not from decom- pofed pyrites. From fteam, rifmg up fiffures from great depths i 66 Buxton bath pofleffes 82 degrees of heat. Ts improperly called a warm bath. A chill at im- merfion, and then a fenfation of warmth, like the eye in an obfcure room owing to increaf- ed fenfibility of the ikin 184 Water compounded of pure air and inflammable air with as much matter of heat as preferves it fluid. Perpetually decompof- ed by vegetables in the fun's light, and recompofed in the atmofphere 204 Mythological interpretation of Jupiter and Juno deiigned as an emblem of the compofition of water from two airs 260 Death of Mrs. French 308 Tomb of Mr. Brindley 341 Invention of the pump. The pifton lifts the atmofphere a- bove it. The fur rounding at- mofphere prefles up the water into the vacuum. Manner in which a child fucks 366 Air-cell in engines for extinguiih- ing fire. Water difperfed by the explofion of gun-powder. Houfes preferved from fire by earth on the floors, by a fecond cieling of iron-plates or coarfe mortar. Wood impregnated with alabafter or flint 406 Mufcular actions and fenfations of plants 460 River Achelous. Horn of Plenty 495 Flooding lands defends them from vernal frofts. Some fprings depoiit calcareous earth. Some contain azotic gas, which contributes to produce nitre. SnoVf water lefs ferviceable 540 PART I. CONTENTS O? THE NOTES. CANTO IV. Cacalia produces much honey, that a part may be taken by infers without injury 2 Analyfis of common air. Source of azote. Of oxygene. Water decompofed by vegetable pores and the fun's light. Blood gives out phlogifton and re- ceives vital air. Acquires heat and the vivifying principle 34 Cupid and Pfyche 48 Simoom, a peftilential wind. De- fcribcd. Owing to volcanic electricity. Not a whirlwind 6,5 Contagion either animal or ve- getable 82 Thyrfis efcapes the Plague 91 Barometer and air-pumps. Dew on exhaufting the receiver, though the hygrometer points to drynefs. Rare air will dif- iblve, or acquire more heat, and more moifture, and more electricity 128 Sound propagated beft by denfc bodies, as wood, and water, and earth. Fifhinfpiralfhellsallear 176 Difcoveries of Dr. Prieftley. Green vegetable matter. Pure air contained in the calces of metals, as minium, manganefe, calamy, ochre 178 Fable of Proferpine, an ancient chemical emblem 190 Diving balloonsfuppliedwithpure air from minium. Account of one by Mr. Boyle 207 Mr. Day. Mr. Spalding 229 Capt. Pierce and his daughters 2 Peftilential winds of volcanic ori- gin. Jordan flows through a country of volcanos 306 Change of wind owing to fmall caufes. If the wind could be governed, the produces of the earth would be doubled, and its number of inhabitants in- creafed 320 Mr. Kirwan's treatife on tem- perature of climates 354 >eeds of plants. Spawn of fifh. Nutriment lodged in feeds. Their prefervation in their feed- veffels* 367 Fixed liars approach each other 381 Fable of the Phoenix 389 Plants vifible within bulbs, and buds, and feeds 395 Great egg of night 418 Seeds ihoot into the ground. Pith. Seed-lobes. Starch con- verted into fugar. Like ani- mal chyle 423 Light occafions the aclions of ve- getable mufcles. Keeps them awake 434 Vegetable love in Parnaffia, Ni- gella. Vegetable adultery in Collinfonia 47$ Strong vegetable fhoots and roots bound with wire, in part de- barked, whence leaf-buds con- verted into flower-buds. The- ory of this curious fact: 479 Branches bent to the horizon bear more fruit 48 z Ingrafting of a fpotted paiTlon- flower produced fpots upon the ftock. Apple foft on one fide and hard on the other 513 Cyprepedium affumes the form of a large fpider to affright the humming-bird. Fly-ophris. Willow-wren fucks the honey of the crown-imperial 535 Difeafes of plants four kinds. PIo- ney-dew 541 Ergot, a difeafe of rye 543 Glafs unannealed. Its cracks ow- ing to elafticity. One kind of lead-ore cracks into pieces. Prince Rupert's drops. Elaftic balls 549 Sleep of plants. Their irritability, fenfibility, and voluntary mo- tions 568 THE BOTANIC GARDEN. ADDITIONAL NOTES. NOTE I. METEORS* " Ethereal Powers ! you chafe the Jhootingjlars t Or yoke the willed lightnings to your cars. CANTO I. 1. IIJ* nr JL HERE feem to be three concentric ftrata of our incumbent atmofphere; in which, or between them, are produced four kinds of meteors; lightning, Ihooting ftars, fire-balls, and northern lights. Firft, the lower region of air, or that which is denfe enough to refift, by the adhefion of its particles* the defcent of condenfed vapour, or clouds, which may extend from one to three or four miles high. In this region the common lightning is produced from the accumulation or defedt of electric matter in thofe floating fields of vapour, either in refpect to each other, or in refpe& to the earth beneath them, or the diflolved vapour above them, which is conftantly varying both with the change of the form of the clouds, which thus evolve a greater or lefs furface ; and alfo with their ever-changing degree of condenfation. As the lightning is thus produced in denfe air, it proceeds but a fliort courfe, on account of the greater refiftance which it encounters, is attended with a loud explofion, and appears with a red light. a. The fecond region of the atmofphere I fuppofe to be that which hat too little tenacity to fupport condenfed vapour, or clouds; but which yet contains invifible Vapour, or waiter in aerial folution. This aerial folution of water differs from that diflolved in the matter of heat, as it is fupported by its adhefion to the particles of air, and is not precipitated by cold. In this ftratum it feems probable that the meteors called fhooting ftars are pro- duced; and that they confift of electric fparks, or lightning, pafling from one region to another of thefe invifible fields of aero-aqueous folution. The height of thefe ftiooting ftars has not yet been afcertained by fufficient ob- Fervation. Dr. Blagden thinks their fituation is lower down in the atmof- phere than that of fire-balls, which he conje&ures from their fwift apparent motion, and afcribes their fmallnefs to the more minute divifion of the elec- tric matter of which they are fuppofed to confift, owing to the greater re- fiftance of the denfer medium through which they pafs, than that in which the fire-balls exift. Mr. Brydone obferved that the fliooting ftars appeared t}6 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART!, to him to be as high in the atmofphere, when he was near the fummit of Mount Etna, as they do when obferved from the plain. Phil. TranL vol. LXIII. As the ftratum of air in which fhooting ftars are fuppofed to exift, is much rarer than that in which lightning refides, and yet much denier than that in which fire-balls are produced, they will be attracted at a greater diftance than the former, and at a lefs than the latter. From this rarity of the air, fo fmall a found will be produced by their explofion, as not to reach the lower parts of the atmofphere; their quantity of light, from their greater diftance, being fmall, is never feen through denfe air at all, and thence does not appear red, like lightning or fire-balls. There are no apparent clouds to emit or to attract them, becaufe the conftituent parts of thcfe aero-aque- ous regions may poffefs an abundance or deficiency of electric matter, and yet be in perfect reciprocal folution. And, laftly, their apparent train of light is probably owing only to a continuance of their imprefiion on the eye; as when a fire ftick is whirled in the dark it gives the appearance of a complete circle of fire : for thefe white trains of fhooting ftars quickly va- niih, and do not feem to fet any thing on fire in their paffage, as feems to happen in the tranfit of fire-balls. 3. The fecond region or ftratum of air terminates, I fuppofe, where the twilight ceafes to be refracted, that is, where the air is 3000 times rarer than at the furface of the earth; and where it feems probable that the com- mon air ends, and is furrounded by an atmofphere of inflammable gas ten- fold rarer than itfelf. In this region I believe fire-balls fometimes to pafs, and at other times the northern lights to exift. One of thefe fire-balls, or draco volans, was obferved by Dr. Pringle, and many others, on Nov. 26, 1758, which was afterwards eftimated to have been a mile and a half in circum- ference, to have been about one hundred miles high, and to have moved towards the north with a velocity of near thirty miles in a fecond of time. This meteor had a real tail many miles long, which threw off fparks in its courfe, and the whole exploded, with a found like diftant thunder. Phil. Tranf. vol. LI. Dr. Blagden has related the hiftory of another large meteor, or fire-ball, which was feen the 1 8th of Auguft, 1783, with many ingenious obferva- tions and conjectures. This was eftimated^to be between 60 and 70 miles high, and to travel looo miles at the rate of about twenty miles in a fecond. This fire-ball had likewife a real train of light left behind it in its paffage, which varied in colour, and, in fome part of its courfe, gave cff fparks or cxplonons where it had been brighteft ; and a duiky red flreak remained vifible perhaps a minute. Phil. Tranf. vol. LXX1V. Thefe fire-balls differ from lightning, and from fhooting ftars, in many re- markable circumftances; as their very great bulk, being a mile and a half in diameter; their travelling looo miles nearly horizontally; their throwing off fparks in their paffage ; and changing colours from bright blue to dufky red; and leaving a train of fire behind them, continuing about a minute, They differ from the northern lights in not being diffufed, but pa fling from one point of the heavens to another in a defined line ; and this in a region &OTEL ADDITIONAL NOTES. 137 above the crepufcular atmofphere, where the air is 3000 times rarer than at the furfacc of the earth. There has not yet been even a conjecture which can account for thefe appearances! One I fhall therefore hazard; which, if it does not inform, may amufe the reader. In the note on 1. 123, it was {hewn that there is probably a fupernatant ftratum of inflammable gas or hydrogene, over the common atmofphere; and whofe denfity at the furface where they meet, muft be at leafl ten times lefs than that upon which it fwims; like chemical ether floating upon water, and perhaps without any real contact. I. In this region, where the aerial atmofphere terminates, and the inflammable one begins, the quantity of tenacity or refiftance muft be almoft inconceivable ; in which a ball of elec- tricity might pafs 1000 miles with greater eafe than through a thoufandth part of an inch of glafs. 2. Such a ball of electricity pafling between in-> flammable and common air, would fet fire to them in a line as it pafied along; which would differ in colour according to the greater proportionate commixture of the two airs; and from the fame caufe there might occur greater degrees of inflammation, or branches of fire, in fome parts of its courfe. As thefe fire-balls travel in a defined line, it is pretty evident from the known laws of electricity, that they muft be attracted ; and as they are a mile or more in diameter, they muft be emitted from a large furface of electric matter; becaufe large nobs give larger fparks, lefs diffufed, and more brightly luminous, than lefs ones or points, and refift more forcibly the emifiion of the electric matter. What is there in nature can attract them at ib great a diftance as 1000 miles, and fo forceibly as to detach an electric fpark of a mile diameter ? Can volcanos, at the time of their eruptions, have this effect, as they are generally attended with lightning ? Future obferva- tions muft difcover thefe fecret operations of nature ! As a ftream of com- mon air is carried along with the paffage of electric aura from one body to another, it is eafy to conceive, that the common air and the inflamma- ble air between which the fire-ball is fuppofed to pafs, will be partially in- termixed by being thus agitated, and fo far as it becomes intermixed it will take fire, and produce the linear flame and branching fparks above delcribed. In this circumftanoe of their being attracted, and thence pafling in a defined line, the fire-balls feem to differ from the corufcations of the aurora bureau's, or northern lights, which probably take place in the fame region of the at- mofphere ; where the common air exifts in extreme tenuity, and is covered by a itill rarer fphere of inflammable gas, ten times lighter than itfelf. As the electric ftreams, which conftitute thefe northern lights, feem to be repelled or radiated from an accumulation of that fluid in the north, and not attracted like the fire-balls; this accounts for the diffufion of their light, as well as the filence of their paffage ; while their variety of colours, and the permanency of them, and even the breadth of them in different places, may depend on their fitting on fire the mixture of inflammable and common air through which they pafs; asfeems to happen in the tranfit of the fire-balls. It was obferved by Dr. Pricftley, that the electric {hock taken through in- flammable air was red, in common air it is blueifh ; to thefe circumftances PART I. T 238 BOTANIC GARDEN". PART t perhaps fome of the colours of the northern lights may bear analogy ; though the denfity of the medium through which light is feen muft principally vary its colour, as is well explained by Mr. Morgan. Phil. Tranf. Vol. LXXV. Hence lightning is red when feen through a dark cloud, or near the horizon; becaufe the more refrangible rays cannot permeate fo denfe a medium. But the (hooting ftars confift of white light, as they are generally feen on clear nights, and nearly verticial; in other iituations their light is probably too faint to come to us. But as in fome remarkable appearances of the northern lights, as in March, 1716, all the prifmatic colours were feen quickly to fuc- ceed each other, thefe appear to have been owing to real combuftion ; as the denfity of the interpofed medium could not be fuppofed to change fo fre- quently ; and therefore thefe colours muft have been owing to different de- grees of heat, according to Mr. Morgan's theory of combuftion. In Smith's Optics, p. 69. the prifmatic colours, and optical deceptions of the northern lights, are defcribed by Mr. Cotes. The Torricellian vacuum, if perfectly free from air, is faid, by Mr. Mor- gan and others, to be a perfect non-conductor. This circumftance there- fore would preclude the electric ftreams from rifing above the atmofphere. But as Mr. Morgan did not try to pafs an electric fhock through a vacuum, and as air, or fornething containing air, furrounding the tranfit of electricity, may be neceffary to the production of light, the conclufion may perhaps ftill be dubious. If, however, the ftreams of the northern lights were fuppofed to rife above, our atmofphere, they would only be vifible at each extremity of their courfe; where they emerge from, or are again immerged into the at- mofphere ; but not in their journey through the vacuum; for the abfence of electric light in a vacuum is fufficiently proved by the common experiment of fhaking a barometer in the dark; the electricity, produced by the friction of the mercury in the glafs at its top, is luminous if the barometer has a little air in it ; but there is no light if the vacuum be complete. The aurora borealis, or northern dawn, is very ingenioufly accounted for by Dr. Franklin, on principles of electricity. He premifes the following elec- tric phenomena: I. That all new-fallen fnow has much pofitive electricity Handing on its furface. 2. That about twelve degrees of latitude round the poles are covered with a cruft of eternal ice, which is impervious to the elec- tric fluid. 3. That the denfe part of the atmofphere rifes but a few miles high; and that in the rarer parts of it the electric fluid will pafs to almoft any diftance. Hence he fuppofes there muft be a great accumulation of pofitive electric matter on the frefh-fallen fnow in the polar regions; which, not being abk- to pafs through the cruft of ice into the earth, muft rife into the rare air of the upper parts of our atmofphere, which will die leaft refift its paflage; and paffing towards the equator, defcend again into the denfer atmofphere, and thence into the earth in filent ftreams. And that many of the appearances attending thefe lights are optical deceptions, owing to the fituation of the eye that beholds them; which makes all afcending parallel lines appear to converge to a point. The idea, above explained in note on 1. 123, of the exiftence of a fphere of NOTE II. ADDITIONAL NOTES. 139 inflammable gas over the aerial atmofphere, would much favour this theory of Dr. Franklin; becaufe in that cafe the denfe aerial atmofphere would rife a much lefs height in the polar regions, diminifhing almoft to nothing at the pole itfelf ; and thus give an caller paflage to the afcent of the electric fluid. And from the great difference in the fpecific gravity of the two airs, and the velocity of the earth's rotation, there muft be a place between the poles and the equator, where the fuperior atmofphere of inflammable gas would termi- nate j which would account for thefe ftreams of the aurora borealis not appear- ing near the equator ; add to this, that it is probable the electric fluid may be heavier than the magnetic one ; and will thence, by the rotation of the earth's furface, afcend over the magnetic one by its centrifugal force; and may thus be induced to rife through the thin ftratum of aerial atmofphere over the poles. See note on Canto II. 1. 193. I fhall have occafion again to mention this great accumulation of inflammable air over the poles ; and to conjecture that thefc northern lights may be produced by the union of inflammable with common air, without the affiftance of the electric fpark to throw them into combuftion. The antiquity of the appearance of northern lights has been doubted j as none were recorded in our annals fince the remarkable one on Nov. 14, 1574, till another remarkable one on March 6, 1716, and the three following 1 nights, which was feen at the fame time in Ireland, Ruflia, and Poland, extending near 30 degrees of longitude, and from about the joth degree of latitude over almoft all the north of Europe, There is, however, reafon to believe them of remote antiquity, though inaccurately defcribed ; thus the fol- lowing curious paflage from the book of Maccabees (B. II. c, v.) is fuch a defcription of them, as might probably be given by an ignorant and alarmed people. " Through all the city, for the fpace of almoft forty days, there were feen horfemen running in the air, in cloth of gold, and armed with lances, like a band of foldiers; and troops of horfemen in array encountering and running one againft another, with making of fhields and multitude of pikes, and drawing of fwords, and calling of darts, and glittering of golden ornaments and harnefs." NOTE II. PRIMARY COLOURS. Cling round the aerial botv ivitb prifms bright, And f leafed unt-wijl the fevenfold threads of light. CANTO I. 1. 1 1 7. THE manner in which the rainbow is produced, was, in ibme meafure, xmderftood before Sir Ifaac Newton had difcovered his theory of colours. The firft perfon who exprefsly mewed the rainbow to be formed by the reflection of the fun-beams from drops of falling rain, was Antonio de Do- minis. This was afterwards more fully and diftinctly explained by DCS Cartes. But what caufed the diverfity of its colours was not then under- ftood ; it was referved for the immortal Newton to difcover that the rays of light confuted of feven combined colours of different refrangibility, which 140 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART I. could be feparated at pleafure by a wedge of glafs. Pemberton's View of Newton. Sir Ifaac Newton difcovered that the prifmatic fpectrum was compofed of feven colours, in the following proportions; violet 80, indigo 40, blue 60, green 60, yellow 48, orange 27, red 45. If all thefe colours be painted on a circular card, in the proportion above mentioned, and the card be rapidly whirled on its centre, they produce in the eye the fenfatioft of white. And any one of thefe colours may be imitated by painting a cajd with the two colours which are contiguous to it, in the fame proportion* as in the fpec-* trum, and whirling them in the fame manner. My ingenious friend, Mr. Galton, of Birmingham, afcertained, in this manner, by a fet of experiments, the following propofitions ; the truth of which he had preconceived from the above data. I. Any colour in the prifmatic fpe<5lrum may be imitated by a mixture of the two colours contiguous to it. a. If any three fucceffive colours in the prifmatic fpe&rum are mixed, they compofe only the fecond or middlemoft colour. 3. If any four fucceffive colours in the prifmatic fpeclrum be mixed, a tint fimilar to a mixture of the fecond and third colours will be produced, but not. precifely the fame, becaufe they are not in the fame proportion. 4. If, beginning with any colour in the circular fpectrum, you take of the fecond colour a quantity equal to the firft, fecond, and third; and add to that the fifth colour, equal in quantity to the fourth, fifth, and fixth; and with thefe combine the feventh colour in the proportion it exifts in the fpectrum, white will be produced. Becaufe the firft, fecond, and third, compofe only the fecond; and the fourth, fifth, and fixth, compofe only the fifth; there- fore, if the feventh. be added, the fame effect is produced as if all the feven were employed. 5 Beginning with any colour in the circular fpectrum, if you take a tint compofed of a certain proportion of the fecond and third, (equal in quantity to the firft, fecond, third, and fourth,) and add to this the fixth colour, equal in quantity to the fifth, fixth, and feventh, white will be produced. From thefe curious experiments of Mr. Galton, many phenomena in the chemical changes of colours may probably become better underftood ; efpe- cially if, as I fuppofe, the fame theory muft apply to tranfmitted colours, as to reflected ones. Thus it is well known, that if the glafs of manganefe, which is a tint probably compofed of violet and indigo, be mixed in a cer. tain proportion with the glafs of lead, which is yellow, that the mixture be- comes tranfparent. Now, from Mr. Gallon's experiments, it appears, that in reflected colours fuch a mixture would produce white, that is, the fame as if all the colours were reflected. And, therefore, in tranfmitted colours the fame circumftances muft produce tranfparency, that is, the fame as if all the colours were tranfmitted. For the particles which conftitute the glafs of mangariefe will tranfmit red, violet, indigo, and blue; and thofe of the glafs of lead will tranfmit orange, yellow, and green; hence all the pri- mary colours, by a mixture of thefe glaffes, become tranfmitted, that is, the glafs becomes tranfparent. NOTE III. ADDITIONAL NOTES. 141 Mr. Galton has further obferved, that five fuccefiive prifmatic colours may be combined in fuch proportions as to produce but one colour, a cir- cumftance which might be of confequence in the art of painting. For if you begin at any part of the circular fpectrum above defcribed, and take the firft, fecond, and third colours, in the proportions in which they exift in the fpectrum ; thefe will compofe only the fecond colour, equal in quantity to the firft, fecond, and third; add to thefe the third, fourth and fifth, in the proportion they exift in the fpectrum, and thefe will produce the fourth colour, equal in quantity to the third, fourth, and fifth. Confe- quently this is precifely the fame thing as mixing the fecond and fourth co- lours only; which mixture would only produce the third colour. There- fore, if you combine the firft, fecond, fourth and fifth, in the proportions an which they exift in the fpectrum, with double the quantity of the third colour, this third colour will be produced. It is probable that many of the unexpected changes in mixing colours on a painter's pallet; as well as in more fluid chemical mixtures, may depend on thefe principles rather than on a new arrangement or combination of their minute particles. Mr. Galton further obferves, that white may univerfally be produced by the combination of one prifmatic colour, and a tint intermediate to two others. Which tint may be diftinguifhcd by a name compounded of the two colours to which it is intermediate. Thus white is produced by a mix- ture of red with blue-green. Of orange with indigo-blue. Of yellow with violet-indigo. Of green with red-violet. Of blue with orange-red. Of indigo with yellow-orange. Of violet with green-yellow. Which, he fur- ther remarks, exactly coincides with the theory and facts mentioned by Dr. Robert Darwin, of Shrewfbury, in his account of ocular fpectra ; who has ihewn, that when one of thefe contrafted colours has been long viewed, a fpectrum, or appearance of the other, becomes vifible in the fatigued eye, Phil. Tranf. vol. LXXVI. for the year 1786. Thefe experiments of Mr. Galton might much aflift the copper-plate prin- ters of callicoes and papers in colours, as three colours, or more, might be produced by two copper-plates. Thus, fuppofe fome yellow figures were put on by the firft plate, and upon fome parts of thefe yellow figures, and on other parts of the ground, blue was laid on by another copper-plate. The three colours of yellow, blue, and green, might be produced, as green leaves with yellow and blue flowers. NOTE III. COLOURED CLOUDS. Eve's Jill-en couch tuitb gorgeous tints adorn , And fire the arroivy throne of rijing morn. CANTO I. 1. Up. THE rays from the rifing and fetting.fun are refracted by our fpherical atmofphere; hence the moft refrangible rays, as the violet, indigo, and blue, jire reflected in greater quantities from the morning and evening ikies; and ?4* BOTANIC GARDEN. PART!. the leaft refrangible ones, as red and orange, are laft feen about the fettlng fun. Hence Mr. Beguclin obferved, that the ihadow of his finger on his pocket-book was much bluer in the morning and evening, when the ihadow was about eight times as long as the body from which it was projeaed. Mr. Melville obferves, that the blue rays being more refrangible, are bent down in the evenings by our atmofpherc, while the red and orange, being lefs refrangible, continue to pafs on, and tinge the morning and evening clouds with their colours. See Prieftley's Hiftory of Light and Colours, p. 440. But as the particles of air, like thofe of water, are themfelves blue, a blue fhadow may be feen at all times of the day, though much more beautifully in the mornings and evenings, or by means of a candle in the middle of the day. For if a fhadow on a piece of white paper is produced by placing your finger between the paper and a candle in the day light, the fhadow will appear very blue; the yellow light of the candle upon the other parts of the paper apparently deepens the blue by its contraft, thcfe colours being oppofite to each other, as explained in note II. Colours are produced from clouds or mifls by refraction, as well as by reflection. In riding in the night over an unequal country, I .obferved a very beautiful coloured halo round the moon, whenever I was covered with a few feet of mift, as I afcended from the vallies, which ceafed to appear when I rofe above the mift. This I fuppofe was owing to the thinnefs of the ftratum of mift in which I was immerfed; had it been thicker, the co- lours refracted by the fmall drops, of whicli a fog confifts, would not have pa{Ted through it down to my eye. There is a bright fpot feen on the cornea of the eye, when we face a win- dow, which is much attended to by portrait-painters; this is the light re- flected from the fpherical furface of the polifhed cornea, and brought to a focus; if the obferver is placed in this focus, he fees the image of the win- dow; if he is placed before or behind the focus, he only fees a luminous fpot, which is more luminous, and of lefs extent, the nearer he approaches to the focus. The luminous appearance of the eyes of animals in the dufky corners of a room, or in holes in the earth, may arife, in fome inftances, from the fame principle; viz. the reflection of the light from the fpherica! cornea, which will be coloured red or blue, in fome degree, by the morn- ing, evening, or meridian light, or by the objects from which that light is previoufly reflected. In the cavern at Colebrook Dale, where the mineral tar exfudes, the eyes of the horfe which was drawing a cart from within towards the mouth of it, appeared like two balls of phofphorus, when he was above 100 yards off, and for a long time before any other part of the animal was vifible. In this cafe I fufpect the luminous appearance to have been owing to the light which had entered the eye, being reflected from the back furface of the vitreous humor, and thence emerging again in pa- rallel rays from the animal's eye, as it does from the back furface of the drops of the rainbow, and from the water-drops which lie, perhaps without contact, on cabbage-leaves, and have the brilliancy of quick-filver. This accounts for this luminous appearance being beft feen in thofe animals which have large apertures in their iris, as in cats and horfcs, and is the only part NOTE IV. ADDITIONAL NOTES. i^ vifible in obfcure places, becaufe this is a better reflecting furface than any other part of the animal. If any of thefe emergent rays from the animal's eye can be fuppofed to have been reflected from the choroid coat, through the femi-tranfparent retina, this would account for the coloured glare of the eyes of dogs, or cats, and rabits, in dark corners. NOTE IV. COMETS. Alarm ivith comet-blaze the fapphire plain y The tvanjlars glimmering through its fiver train. CANTO I. 1. I33 THERE have been many theories invented to account for the tails of co- mets. Sir Ifaac Newton thinks that they confift of rare vapours raifed from the nucleus of the comet, and fo rarefied by the fun's heat as to have their general gravitation diminifhed, and that they, in confequence, afcend oppo- fite to the fun, and from thence reflect the rays of light. Dr. HaUey com- pares the light of the tails of comets to the ftreams of the aurora borealis, and other electric effluvia. Phil. Tranf. No. 347. Dr. Hamilton obferves, that the light of fmall ftars is feen undiminifhed through both the light of the tails of comets, and of the aurora borealis, and has farther illuftrated their ele&ric analogy; and adds, that the tails of co- mets confift of a lucid felf-fhining fubftance, which has not the power of re- fracting or reflecting the rays of light, EfTays. The tail of the comet of 1744, at one time appeared to extend above 1 6 degrees from its body, and muft have thence been above twenty-three mil- lions of miles long. And the comet of 1680, according to the calculations of Dr. Halley, on Nov. the nth, was not above one femi-diameter of the earth, or lefs than 4000 miles to the northward of the way of the earth; at which time had the earth been in that part of its orbit, what might have been the confequence! No one would probably have furvived to have re- giftered the tremendous effects. The comet of 1531, 1607, and 1682, having returned in the year 1759, according to Dr. Halley's prediction in the Phil. Tranf. for 1705, there feems no reafon to doubt that all the other comets will return after their proper periods. Aflronomers have in general acquiefced in the conjecture of Dr. Halley, that the comets of 1532, and 1661, are one and the fame comet, from the fimilarity of the elements of their orbits, and were, there- fore, induced to expect its return to its perihelium in 1789. As this comet is liable to be difturbed, in its afcent from die fun, by the planets Jupiter and Saturn, Dr. Mafkelyne expected its return to its perihelium in the be- ginning of the year 1789, or the latter end of the year 1788, and certainly fome time before the 27rh of April, 1789; which prediction , has not been fulfilled. Phil. Tranf. vol. LXXVI. As the comets are fmall mafles of matter, and pafs in their perihelion very near the fun, and become invifible to us, on thefe accounts, in a fhorr. 14* BOTANIC GARDENT. PART L fpace of time, their number has not yet been afcertained, and will pro- bably increafe with the improvement of our telefcopes. M. Bode has gi- ven a table of 72 comets, whofe orbits are already calculated; of thefe 60 pafs within the earth's orbit, and only twelve without it ; and molt of them appear between the orbits of Venus and Mercury, or nearly midway between the fun and earth ; from whence, and from the planes of their or- bits being inclined to that of the earth and other planets in all poflible an- gles, they are believed to be lefs liable to interfere with, or injure each other. M. Bode afterwards inquires into the neareft approach it is poflible for each of the known comets to make towards the earth's orbit. He finds that only three of them can come within a diftance equal to two or three times the diftance of the moon from it ; and then adds the great improba- bility, that the earth ihould be in that dangerous point of its orbit, at the inftant when a comet, which may have been abfent fome centuries, paffes fo rapidly pail it. Hiftoire de 1'Academ. Royal. Berlin. 1792. NOTE V. SUN's RAYS. Or give the fun's phlogiftic orb to roll. CANTO I. 1. 136* THE difpute among philofophers about phlogifton is not concerning the exiftence of an inflammable principle, but rather whether there be one or more inflammable principles. The difciples of Stahl, which till lately in- cluded the whole chemical world, believed in the identity of phlogifton in all bodies which would flame or calcine. The difciples of Lavoifier pay homage to a plurality of phlogiftons, under the various names of charcoal, fulphur, metals, &c. Whatever will unite with pure air, and thence compofe an acid, is efteemed, in this ingenious theory, to be a different kind of phlogiftic or inflammable body. At the fame time there remains a doubt whether thefe inflammable bodies, as metals, fulphur, charcoal, &c. may not be compounded of the fame phlogifton along with fome other material yet undifcovered, and thus an unity of phlogifton exift, as in the theory of Stahl, though very dif- ferently applied in the explication of chemical phenomena. Some modern philofophers are of opinion, that the fun is the great fountain from which the earth and other planets derive all the phlogifton which they poffds; and that this is formed by the combination of the folar rays with all opake bodies, but particularly with the leaves of vegetables, which they fup- pofe to be organs adapted to abforb them. And that as animals receive their nourifliment from vegetables, they alfo obtain, in a fecondary manner, their phlcgifton from the fun. And laftly, as great maffes of the mineral kingdom, which have been found in the thin cruft of the earth which human labour has penetrated, have evidently been formed from the recrements of animal and vegetable bodies, thefe alfo are fuppofed thus to have derived their phlogifton from the fun. Another opinion concerning the fun's rays is, that they are not luminous VI. ADDITIONAL NOTES. 14$ till they arrive at our atmofphere ; and that there uniting with fome part of the air, they produce combuftion, and light is emitted; and that an ethereal acid, yet undiscovered, is formed from this combuftion. The more probable dpinion is, perhaps, that the fun is a phlogiftic mafs of matter, whofe furface is in a ftate of combuftion, which, like other burning bodies, emits light, with immenfe velocity, in all directions ; that thefc rays of light a6l upon all opake bodies, and, combining with them, either difplace or produce their elementary heat, and become chemically combined with the phlogiftic part of them ; for light is given out when phlogiftic bo- dies unite with the oxygenous principle of the air, as in combuftion, or in the reduction of metallic calxes ; thus in prefenting to the flame of a candle a letter-wafer (if it be coloured with red-lead) at the time the red-lead be- comes a metallic drop, a flafti of light is perceived. Dr. Alexander Wilfon very ingenioufly endeavours to prove, that the fun is only in a ftate of com- buftion on its furface, and that the dark fpots feen on the diflc are excava- tions or caverns through the luminous cruft, fome of which are 4000 miles in diameter. Phil. Tranf. 1774. Of this I Ihall have occafion to fpeak again. NOTE VI. CENTRAL FIRES. JR.ound her Jlill centre tread the burning foil^ And -watch the billo'wy Lavas as they boil. CANTO I. 1. 139. M. DE MAIRAN, in a paper publifhed in the Hiftoire de 1'Academie <le Sciences, 1765, has endeavoured to fhew, that the earth receives but a fmall part of the heat which it pofieffes, from the fun's rays, but it is prin- cipally heated by fires within itfelf. He thinks the fun is the caufe of the viciflitudes of our feafons of fummer and winter, by a very fmall quantity of heat in addition to that already refiding in the earth, which, by emana- tions from the centre to the circumference, renders the furface habitable* and without which, though the fun was conftantly to illuminate two thirds of the globe at once, with a heat equal to that at the equator, it would foon become a mafs of iblid ice. His reafonings and calculations on this fubjecl: are too long and too intricate to be inferted here, but are equally curious and ingenious, and carry much conviction along with them. The opinion that the centre of the earth confifts of a large mafs of burn- ing lava, has been efpoufed by Boyle, Boerhaave, and many other philo-' fophers. Some of whom, confidering its fuppofed effects on vegetation and the formation of minerals, have called it a fecond fun. There are many argu- ments in fupport of this opinion. I. Becaufe the power of the fun does not extend much beyond ten feet deep into the earth, all below being, in winter and fummer, always of the fame degree of heat, viz. 48, which being much warmer than the mildeft froft, is fuppofed to be fuftained by fome in- ternal diftant fire. Add to this, however, that from experiments made fome FART I. U BOTANIC GARDEN; PART I. years ago by Dr. Franklin, the fpring-water at Philadelphia appeared to be of 5 a of heat, wfeich feems farther to confirm this opinion, fince the climates in North-America are fuppofed to be colder than thofe of Europe under fimi. lar degrees of latitude. 2. M. De Luc, in going 1359 feet perpendicular into the mines of Hartz, on July the jth, 1778, on a very fine day, found the air at the bottom a little warmer than at the top of the {haft. Phil. Tranf. vol. LXIX. p. 488. In the mines in Hungary, which are joo cu- bits deep, the heat becomes very troublefome when the miners get below 480 feet depth. Morinus de Locis fubter. p. 131. But as fome other deep mines, as mentioned by Mr. Kirwan, are faid to pofiefs but the Common heat of the earth ; and as the cruft of the globe, thus penetrated by human labour, is fo thin compared with the whole, no certain deduction can be made from thefe fa&s on either fide of the queftion. 3* The warm-fprings in many parts of the earth, at great diftance from any volcanos, feem to originate from the condenfaticn of vapours arifing from water which is boiled by fub- terraneous fires, and cooled again in their pafiage through a certain length of the colder foil; for the theory of chemical folution will not explain the equality of their heat at all feafdris, and through fo many centuries. See note on Fucus, in vol. II. See a letter on this fubject in Mr. Pilkinton's View of Derbyfhire, from Dr. Darwin. 4. From the fituations of volcanos which are always found upon the fummit of the higheft mountains. For as thefe mountains have been lifted up, and lofe feveral of their uppermoft ftrata as they rife, the loweft flrata of the earth yet known appear at the tops of the higheft hills ; and the beds of the volcanos upon thefe hills muft, in confequence, belong to the loweft ftrata of the earth, confifting, perhaps, of granite or bafaltes, which were produced before the eSiftence of animal ibr vegetable bodies, and might conftitute the original nucleus of the earth, which I have fuppofed to have been projected from the fun; hence the voi- canos themfelves appear to be fpiracula, or chimneys, belonging to great cen- tral fires. It is probably owing to the efcape of the elaftic vapours from thefe fpiracula, that the modern earthquakes are of fuch fmall extent com- pared with thofe of remote antiquity, of which the veftiges remain all over the globe. 5. The great fize and height of the continents, and the great fize and depth of the South-fea, Atlantic, and other oceans, evince that the firft earthquakes, which produced thefe immenfe changes in the globe, muft have been occafioned by central fireis. 6. The very diftant and expeditious communication of the fhocks of fome great earthquakes. The earthquake at Lifbon, in 1755, was perceived in Scotland, in the Peak of Derbyfhire, and in many other diftant parts of Europe, The percuflions of it travelled with about the velocity of found, viz. about thirteen miles in a minute. The earthquake in 1693 extended 2600 leagues. (Goldfmith's Hiftory.) Thefe phenomena are eafily explained if the central parts of the earth con- fift of a fluid lava, as a percufllon on one part of fuch a fluid mafs would be felt on other parts of its confining vault, like a ftroke on a fluid contained in a bladder, which, however gentle on one fide, is perceptible to the hand, placed on the other ; and the velocity with which fuch a concuflion would travel, would be that of foundj or thirteen miles in a minute. For further NOTE VII. ADDITIONAL NOTES. 147 information on this part of the fubjedt, the reader is referred to Mr. Michel's excellent treatife on earthquakes in the Phil. Tranf. vol. LI. 7. That there is a cavity at the centre of the earth is made probable by the late experi- ments on the attraction of mountains, by Mr. Mafkelyne, who fuppofed, from other confiderations, that the denfity of the earth near the furface fhould be five times lefs than its mean denfity. Phil. Tranf. vol. LXV. p. 498. But found from the attraction of the mountain Schehallien, that it is probable, the mean denfity of the earth is but double that of the hill. Ibid, p. 533. Hence, if the firft fuppofition be well founded:, there would appear to be a cavity at the centre of confiderable magnitude, from whence the immenfe beds and mountains of lava, toadftone, bafaltes, granite, &c, have been protruded. 8. The variation of the compafs can only be accounted for by fuppofing the central parts of the earth to confift of a fluid mafs, and that part of this fluid is iron, which, requiring a greater degree of heat to bring it into fufion than glafs or other metals, remains a folid, and the vis inertae of this fluid mafs, with the iron in it, occafions it to perform fewer revolutions than the cruft of folid earth over it, and thus it is gradu- ally left behind, and the place where the floating "iron refides is pointed to by the direct or retrograde motions of the magnetic needle. This feems to have been nearly the opinion of Dr. Halley and Mr. Euler. NOTE VII. ELEMENTARY HEAT. Or fphere on fphere in widening -waves expand ^ And glad with genial -warmth the incumbent land, CANTO I. 1. 143. A CERTAIN quantity of heat feems to be combined with all bodies, be- fides the fenfible quantity which gravitates like the electric fluid amongfl them. This combined heat, or latent heat, of Dr. Black, when fet at li- berty by fermentation, inflammation, cryftallization, freezing, or other che- mical attractions producing new combination, pafles as a fluid element into the furrounding bodies. And by thawing, diffufion of neutral falts in wa- ter, melting, and other chemical folutions, a portion of heat is attracted from the bodies in vicinity, and enters into or becomes combined with the new folutions. Hence a combination of metals with acids, of effential oils and acids, of al- cohol and water, of acids and water, give out heat; whilft afotution of fnow in water or in acids, and of neutral falts in water, attract heat from the furreunding bodies. So the acid of nitre mixed with oil of cloves unites with it, and produces a moft violent flame; the fame acid of nitre poured on fnow inftantly diflolves it, and produces the greateft degree of cold yet known, by which, at Peterfburgh, quick-filver was firft frozen in 1760. Water may be cooled below 32 degrees without being frozen, if it be placed on a folid floor, and fecured from agitation ; but when thus cooled below the freezing point, the leaft agitation turns part of it fuddenly into ice, and J48 BOTANIC GARDEN. PAKT I< When this fudden freezing takes place, a thermometer placed in it inftantly ri- fes, as fome heat is given out in the act of congelation, and the ice is thus left with the fame fenfibh degree of cold as the water had poffeifed before it was agitated, but is, neverthelefs, now combined with lefs latent heat. A cubic inch of water thus cooled down to 32 degrees, mixed with an equal quantity of boiling water at aiz degrees, will cool it to the middle number between. thefe two, or to iaz. But a cubic inch of ice, whofe fen- fib le cold alfo is but 33, mixed with an equal quantity of boiling water, will cool it fix times as much as the cubic inch of cold water above-men- tioned, as the ice not only gains its fhare of the fenfible or gravitating heat of the boiling water, but attracts to itfelf alfo, and combines with the quan- tity of latent heat which it had loft at the time of its congelation. So boiling, water will acquire but 312 degrees of heat under the common preflure of the atmofphere, but the fleam raifed from it by its expanfion, or by its folution in the atmofphere, combines with and carries away a prodi- gious quantity of heat, which it again parts with on its condenfation, as is feen in common diftillation, where the large quantity of water in the worm tub is fo foon heated. Hence the evaporation of ether on a thermometer foon finks the mercury below freezing, and hence a warmth of the air in winter frequently fucceeds a fhower. When the matter of heat, or calorique, is fet at liberty from its combina- tions, as by inflammation, it paffes into the furronnding bodies, which pof- fefs different capacities of acquiring their fhare of the loofe or fenfible heat; thus a pint mgafure of cold water at 48 degrees, mixed with a pint of boil- ing water at 21 z degrees, will cool it to the degree between thefe two numbers, or to 154 degrees, but it requires two pint meafures of quick-filver at 48 degrees of heat, to cool one pint of water as above. Thefe and other curious experiments are adduced by Dr. Black, to evince the exiftence of combined or latent heat in bodies, as has been explained by fome of his pu- pils, and well illuftrated by Dr. Crawford. The world has long been in expectation of an account of his difcoveries on this fubject by the celebrated author himfelf. As this doctrine of elementary heat in its fluid and combined ftate is not yet univerfally received, I fhall here add two arguments in fupport of it, drawn from different fources, viz. from the heat given out or abforbed by the mechanical condenfation or expanfion of the air, and perhaps of other bodies, and from the analogy of the various phenomena of hgat with thofe of electricity. I. If a thermometer be placed in the receiver of an air-pump, and the air haftily exhaufted, the thermometer will fink fome degrees, and the glafs be- come fteamy; the fame occurs in haftily admitting a part of the air again. This I fuppofe to be produced by the expanfion of part of the air, both dur- ing the exhauftion and re-admiffion of it; and that the air fo expanded be- comes capable of attracting from the bodies in its vicinity a part of their heat, hence the vapours contained in it, and the glafs receiver, are for a time colder, and the fleam is precipitated. That the air thus parts with its woiflure from the cold occafioned by its rarefaction, and not limply by the NOTE VII. ADDITIONAL NOTES. *arefa6Hon itfelf, is evident, becaufe, in a minute or two, the fame fied air will again take up the dew depofited on the receiver; and becaufe water will evaporate fooner in rare than in denfe air. There is a curious phenomenon, fimilar to this, obferved in the fountain of Hiero, conftructed on a large fcale at the Chemnicenfian mines in Hungary., In this machine, the air in a large vefiel is comprefied by a column of wa- ter 260 feet high, a (top-cock is then opened, and as the air iiTues out with great vehemence, and thus becomes immediately greatly expanded, fo much cold is produced, that the moifture from this ftream of air is precipitated in the form of fnow, and ice is formed, adhering to the nofel of the cock. This remarkable circumftance is defcribed at large, with a plate of the ma- chine, in thil. Tranf. vol. LII. for 1761. The following experiment is related by Dr. Darwin, in the Phil. Tranf. vol. LXXVIII. Having charged an air-gun as forcibly as he well could, the air-cell and fyringe became exceedingly hot, much more fo than could be afcribed to the friction in working it; it was then left about half an hour to cool down the temperature of the air, and a thermometer having been previoufly fixed againft a wall, the air was difcharged in a continual ftream on its bulb, and it funk many degrees. From thefe three experi- ments of the fteam in the exhaufted receiver being depofited and re-abforb- ed, when a part of the air is exhaufted or re-admitted, and the fnow pro- duced by the fountain of Hiero, and the extraordinary heat given out in charging, and the cold produced in difcharging an air-gun, there is reafon to conclude, that when air is mechanically comprefled, the elementary fluid heat is preffed out of it, and that when it is mechanically expanded the fame fluid heat is re-abforbed from the common mafs. It is probable all other bodies as well as air attract heat from their neigh- bours when they are mechanically expanded, and give it out when they are mechanically condenfed. Thus when a vibration of the particles of hard bodies is excited by friction or by percuflion, thefe particles mutually recede from and approach each other reciprocally ; at the times of their recefiion from each other, the body becomes enlarged in bulk, and is then in a con- dition to attract heat from thofe in its vicinity with great and fudden power, at the times of their approach to each other this heat is again given out ; but the bodies in conta<5l having in the mean while received the heat they had thus loft, from other bodies behind them, do not fo fuddenly or fo for- cibly re-abforb the heat again from the body in vibration; hence it remains on its furface like the electric fluid on a rubbed glafs globe, and for the fame reafon, becaufe there is no good conductor to take it up again. Hence at every vibration more and more heat is acquired, and ftands loofe upon the furface, as in filing metals, or rubbing glafs tubes, and thus a fmith, with a, few ftrokes on a nail on his anvil, can make it hot enough to light a brim- ftone match; and hence in ftriking flint and fteel together, heat enough is produced to vitrify the parts thus ftrucken off, the quantity of which heat is again probably increafed by the new chemical combination. II. The analogy between the phenomena of the electric fluid and of heat, furnifhes another argument in fupport of the esiftence of heat as a gravitatt BOTANIC GARDEN. PART I, ing fluid. I. They are both accumulated by friction on the excited body. 1. They are propagated eafily or with difficulty along the fame clafles of bodies; with eafe by metals, with lefs eafe by water, and with difficulty by refms, bees- wax, filk, air, and glafs. Thus glafs canes, or canes of fealing- wax, may be melted by a blow-pipe, or a candle, within a quarter of an inch of the fingers which hold them, without any inconvenient heat, while a pin, or other metallic fubftance, applied to the flame of a candle, fo rea- dily conducts the heat as immediately to burn the fingers. Hence clothes of filk keep the body warmer than clothes of linen of equal thicknefs, by confining the heat upon the body. And hence plains are fo much warmer than the fummits of mountains, by the greater denfity of the air confining the acquired heat upon them. 3. They both give out light in their pafiage through air, perhaps not in their pafiage through a vacuum. 4. They both of them fufe or vitrify metals. 5. Bodies, after being electrized, if they are mechanically extended, will receive a greater quantity of electricity, as in Dr. Franklin's experiment of the chain in the tankard; the fame feems true in refpect to heat, as explained above. 6. Both heat and electricity con- tribute to fufpend fteam in the atmofphere, by producing or increafing the repulfion of its particles. 7. They both gravitate, when they have been accumulated, till they find their equilibrium. If we add to the above the many chemical experiments which receive an cafy and elegant explanation from the fuppofed matter of heat, as employed in the works of Bergman and Lavoifier, I think we may reafonably allow of its exiftence as an element, occafionally combined with other bodies, and oc- cafionally exifting as a fluid, like the electric fluid gravitating amongft them, and that hence it may be propagated from the central fires of the earth to the whole mafs, and contribute to preferve the mean heat of the earth, which, in this country, is about 48 degrees, but variable from the greater or lefs effect of the fun's heat in different climates, fo well explained in Mr. Kirwan's Treatifc on the temperature of different latitudes. 1787. Elmfly. London. NOTE VIIL MEMNON's LYRE. So to the facred Sun in Memnons fane, Spontaneous concords quired the matin f rain. CANTO I. 1. 183. THE gigantic ftatue of Memnon, in his temple at Thebes, had a lyre in his hands, which, many credible writers aflure us, founded when the rifing fun fhone upon it. Some philofophers have fuppofed that the fun's light poflefles a mechanical impulfe, and that the founds above-mentioned might be thence produced. Mr. Michel conftructed a very tender horizontal ba- lance, as related by Dr. Prieflley in his hityory of light and colours, for this purpofe, but fome experiments, with this balance, which I faw made by the late Dr. Powel, who threw tjie focus of a large reflector on one extremity K[OTE IX; ADDITIONAL NOTES. T$i &f it, were not conclufive either way, as the copper leaf of the balance ap- proached in one experiment and receded in another. There are, however, methods by which either a rotative or alternating motion may be produced by very moderate degrees of heat. If a ftraight glafs tube, fuch as are ufed for barometers, be fufpended horizontally before a fire, like a roafting fpit, it will revolve by intervals ; for as glafs is a bad conductor of heat, the lide next the fire becomes heated fooner than the op- pofite fide, and the tube becomes bent into a bow, with the external part of the curve towards the fire; this curve then falls down, and produces a fourth part of a revolution of the glafs tube, which thus revolves with intermediate paufes. Another alternating motion I have feen produced by fufpending a glad tube about eight inches long, with bulbs at each end, on a centre like a fcale- beam. This curious machine is filled about ene third part with pureft fpirit of wine, the other two thirds being a vacuum, and is called a pulfe-glafs: if it be placed on a box before the fire, fo that either bulb, as it rifes, may become lhaded from the fire, and expofed to it when it defcends, an alter- nate libration of it is produced. For fpirit of wine in vacuo emits fteam by a very fmall degree of heat, and this fteam forces the fpirit beneath it up into the upper bulb, which therefore defcends. It is probable fuch a ma- chine, on a larger fcale, might be of ufe to open the doors or windows of hot- houfes or melon-frames, when the air within them fhould become too much heated, or might be employed in more important mechanical purpofes. On travelling through a hot fummcr's day in a chaife, with a box co- vered with leather on the fore-axle-tree, I obferved, as the fun ihone upon the black leather, the box began to open its lid, which, at noon, rofe above a foot, and could not, without great force, be prefled down; and which gradually clofed again as the fun declined in the evening. This, I fuppofe, might with ftill greater facility be applied to the purpofe of opening melon- frames, or the fafhes of hot-houfes. The ftatue of Memnon was overthrown and fawed in two by Cambyfes, to difcover its internal ftrudure, and is faid ftill to exift. See Savery's Let- ters on Egypt. The truncated ftatue is faid, for many centuries, to have faluted the rifing fun with cheerful tones, and the fetting fun with melan- choly ones. NOTE IX. LUMINOUS INSECTS. Star of the earthy and diamond of the niglt. CANTO I. 1. 196. THERE are eighteen fpecies of Lampyris, or glow-worm, according to Linnaeus, fbme of which are found in almoft every part of the world. In many of the fpecies the females have no wings, and are fuppofed to be difcovered by the winged males by their fhining in the night. They become much more lucid when they put themfelves in motion, which would feem to in- i$fc BOTANIC GARDEN: PART!. dicate that their light is owing to their refpiration ; in which procefs it i* probable phofphoric acid is produced by the combination of vital air with ibme part of the blood, and that light is given out through their tranfparent bodies, by this flow internal combuftion. There is a fire-fly, of the beetle kind, defcribed in the Diet. Raifonne, un- der the name of Acudia, which is faid to be two inches long, and inhabits the Weft-Indies and South- America; the natives ufe them inftead of candles, putting from one to three of them under a glafs. Madam Merian fays, that at Surinam the light of this fly is fo great, that flue faw fufficiently well by one of them to paint and finifh one of the figures of them in her work on infers. The largeft and oldeft of them are faid to become four inches long, and to fhine like a {hooting ftar as they fly, and are thence called Lan- tern-bearers. The ufe of this light to the infect itfelf feems to be, that it may not fly againft objects in the night; by which contrivance thefe infects are enabled to procure their fuftenance either by night or day, as their wants may require, or their numerous enemies permit them; whereas fome of our beetles have eyes adapted only to the night, and if they happen to come abroad too foon in the evening, are fo dazzled that they fly againft every thing in their way. See note on Phofphorus, No. X. In fome feas, as particularly about the coaft of Malabar, as a fhip floats along, it feems, during the night, to be furrounded with fire, and to leave a long tract of light behind it. Whenever the fea is gently agitated, it feems converted into little ftars; every drop, as it breaks, emits light, like bodies electrified in the dark. Mr. Bornare fays, that when he was at the port of Cettes, in Languedoc, and bathing with a companion in the fea, after a very hot day, they both appeared covered with fire after every im- merfion, and that laying his wet hand on the arm of his companion, who had not then dipped himfelf, the exact mark of his hand and fingers was feen in characters of fire. As numerous microfcopic infects are found in this fhining water, its light has been generally afcribcd to them, though it feems probable that fifh-flime, in hot countries, may become in fuch a ftate of incipient putrefaction, as to give light, efpecially when by agitation it is more expofed to the air; otherwife it is not eafy to explain why agitation ihould be neceffary to produce this marine light. See note on Phofphorus, No. X, NOTE X. PHOSPHORUS. Or mark with Jbining letters KnnkeVs nams In the pale phofphor*! fdf-confumingfiame. CANTO I. 1. 231. KDNKEL, a native of Hamburgh, was the firft who difcovered to the world the procefs for producing phofphorus, though Brandt and Boyle were likewife faid to have previoufly had the art of making it. It was ob- tained from fal microcofmicum, by evaporation, in .the form of an acid, but NOTE X. ADDITIONAL NOTES. 155 has fince been found in other animal fubftances, as in the aflies of bones, and even in fome vegetables, as in wheat flour. Keir's Chemical Diet. This phofphoric acid is, like all other acids, united with vital air, and requires to- be treated with charcoal or phlogifton to deprive it of this air; it then be- comes a kind of animal fulphur, but of fo inflammable a nature, that on the accefs of air it takes fire fpontaneoufly, and, as it burns, becomes again united with vital air, and re-affumes its form of phofphoric acid. As animal refpiration feems to be a kind of flow combuftion, in which it is probable that phofphoric acid is produced by the union of phofphorus with the vital air, fo it is alfo probable that phofphoric acid is produced in the excretory or refpiratory veffels of luminous infects, as the glow-worm and fire-fly, and fome marine infects. From the fame principle I fuppofe the light from putrid flefh, as from the heads of haddocks, and from putrid veal, and from rotten wood, in a certain ftate of their putrefaction, is produced, and phofphorus, thus flowly combined with air, is changed into phofphoric acid. The light from the Bolognian ftone, and from calcined (hells, and from white paper, and linen, after having been expofed for a time to the fun's light, feem to produce either the phofphoric or fome other kind of acid, from the fulphurous or phlogiftic matter which they contain. See note on Beccari's fhells, 1. 182. There is another procefs feems fimilar to this flow combuftion, and thafe is bleaching. By the warmth and light of the fun, the water fprinkled upon linen or cotton cloth feems to be decompofed (if we credit the theory of M. Lavoifier), and a part of the vital air thus fet at liberty and uncombined, and not being in its elaftic form, more eafily diffolves the colouring or phlo- giftic matter of the cloth, and produces a new acid, which is itfelf colourlef?, or is wafhed out of the cloth by water. The new procefs of bleaching confirms a part of this theory, for by uniting much vital air to marine acid, by diftiiling it from manganefe, on dipping the cloth to be bleached in wa- ter replete with this fupcraerated marine acid, the colouring matter difap- pears immediately, fooner indeed in cotton than in linen. Sec note XXXIV. There is another procefs which, I fufpect, bears analogy to thefe above- mentioned, and that is the rancidity of animal fat, as of bacon ; if bacon be hung up in a warm kitchen, with much fait adhering on the outfide of it, the fat part of it foon becomes yellow and rancid ; if it be wafhed with much cold water after it has imbibed the fait, and juft before it is hung up, I am. well informed, that it will not become rancid, or in very flight degrees. In the former cafe I imagine the fait on the furface of the bacon attracts water during the cold of the night, which is evaporated during the day, and that in this evaporation a part of the water becomes decompoft-d, as in bleaching, and its vital air uniting with greater facility in its unelaftic ftate with the animal fat, produces an acid, perhaps of the phofphoric kind, which being of a fixed nature, lies upon the bacon, giving it the yellow colour and rancid tnfte. It is remarkable that the fuperaerated marine acid does not bleach living animal fubftances, at leaft it did not whiten a part of my hand which I for fome minutes expofed to it. PART I. X 154 BOTANIC GARDEN". PART!. NOTE XL STEAM-ENGINE. ^uick moves the balanced beam of giant-birth, Wields his large limbs, and, nodding, Jhakcs the earth. CANTO I. 1. j6l. THE expanfive force of fteam. was known in fome degree to the ancients. Ilero, of Alexandria, defcribes an application of it to produce a rotative mo- tion by the re-action of fteam iffuing from a fphere mounted upon an axis, through two fmall tubes bent into tangents, and iffuing from the oppofite fides of the equatorial diameter of the fphere; the fphere was fupplied with fteam by a pipe communicating with a pan of boiling water, and entering the fphere at one of its poles. A French writer, about the year 1630, defcribes a method of raifing wa- ter to the upper part of a houfe, by filling a chamber with fteam, and fuf- fering it to condcnfe of itfelf ; but it feems to have been mere theory, as his method was fcarcely practible as he defcribes it. In 1655, the Marquis of Worcefter mentions a method of raifing water by fire, in his Century of Inventions, but he feems only to have availed himfelf of the expanfive force, and not to have known the advantages arifing from condenfing the fteam by an injection of cold water. This latter and moft important improvement feems to have been made by Capt. Savery, fome time prior to 1698, for in that year his patent for the ufe of that invention was confirmed by act of parliament. This gentleman appears to have been the firft who reduced ' the machine to practice, and exhibited it in an ufeful form. This method eonfifted only in expelling the air from a velfel by fteam, and condenfing the fteam by an injection of cold water, which making a vacuum, the pref- fure of the atmofphere forced the water to afcend into the fteam- veffel through a pipe of 24 to 26 feet high, and by the admifllon of denfe fteam from the boiler, forcing the water in the fteam-velfel to afcend to the height defired. This conftruction was defective, becuufe it required very ftrong velfels to re- fifc the force of the fteam, and becaufe an enormous quantity of fteam was condenfed by coming in contact with the cold water in the fteam-veffel. About, or foon after that time, M. Papin attempted a fteam-engine on fimilar principles, but rather more defective in its conftruction. The next improvement was made very foon afterwards by Meffrs. New- comcn and Cawley, of Dartmouth; it eonfifted in employing for the fteam- veffel a hollow cylinder, fhut at bottom and open at top, furnifhed with a pifton fliding eafily up and down in it, and made tight by oakum or hemp, and covered with water. This pifton is fufpended by chains from one end of a beam, moveable upon an axis in the middle of its length; to the other end of this beam are fufpended the pump-rods. The danger of burfting the veifels was avoided in this machine; as how- ever high the water was to be raifed, it was not neceffary to increafe the denfity of the fteam, but only to enlarge the diameter of the cylinder. Another advantage was, that the cylinder, not being made fo cold as ia NOTE XL ADDITIONAL NOTES. i^ Savery's method, much lefs fteam was loft in filling it after each con- denfation. The machine, however, ftill remained imperfect, for the cold water thrown into the cylinder acquired heat from the fteam it condenfcd, and being in a vetfel exhaufted of air, it produced fteam itfelf, which, in part, refilled the action of the atmofphere on the pifton ; were this remedied by throwing in more cold water, the deftruction of fteam in the next filling of the cylinder would be proportionally increafed. It has therefore, in prac- tice, been found advifeable not to load thefe engines with columns of water weighing more than feven pounds for each fquare inch of the area of the pifton. The bulk of water, when converted into fteam, remained unknown, until Mr. J. Watt, then of Glafgow, in 1764, determined it to be about 1800 times more rare than water. It foon occurred to Mr. Watt, that a perfect engine would be that in which no fteam ihould be condenfed in fil- ling the cylinder, and in which the fteam fhould be fo perfectly cooled as to produce nearly a perfect vacuum. Mr. Watt having afcertained the degree of heat in which water boiled in vacuo, and under progreflive degrees of preffure, and inftructed by Dr. Black's difcovery of latent heat, having calculated the quantity of cold water necefiary to condenfe certain quantities of fteam fo far as to produce the exhauftion required, he made a communication from the cylinder to a cold vefiel previoufly exhaufted of air and water, into which the fteam rufhed, by its elafticity, and became immediately condenfed. He then adapted a cover to the cylinder, and admitted fteam above the pifton to prefs it down inftead of air, and inftead of applying water, he ufed oil or greafe to fill the pores of the oakum, and to lubricate the cylinder. He next applied a pump td extract the injection water, the condenfed fteam, and the air, from the condenfing veflel, every ftroke of the engine. To prevent the cooling of the cylinder by the contact of the external air, he furrounded it with a cafe containing fteam, which he again protected by a covering of matters which conduct heat flowly. This conftruction prefented an eafy means of regulating the power of the engine, for the fteam being the acting power, as the pipe which admits it from the boiler is more or lefs opened, a greater or fmaller quantity can enter during the time of a ftroke, and, confequently, the engine can act with exactly the neceffary degree of energy. Mr. Watt gained a patent for his engine in 1768, but the further profe- cution of his defigns was delayed by other avocations till 1775, when, in conjunction with Mr. Boulton, of Soho, near Birmingham, numerous expe- riments were made, on a large fcale, by their united ingenuity, and great improvements added to the machinery, and an act of parliament obtained for the prolongation of their patent for twenty-five years ; they have, fince that time, drained many of the deep mines in Cornwall, which, but for the happy union of fuch genius, muft immediately have ceafed to work. One of thefe engines works a pump of eighteen inches diameter, and upwards of loo fathom, or 600 feet high, at the rate of ten to twelve ftrokes, of feven feet long each, in a minute, and that with one fifth part of the coals which *$6 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART L a common engine would have taken to do the fame work. The power of this engine may be cafier comprehended by faying, that it raifed a weight equal to 81,000 pounds, 80 feet high, in a minute, which is equal to the combined aclion of aoo good ho v rfes. In Newcomen's engine this would have required a cylinder of the enornious diameter of 120 inches, or ten feet; but as in this engine of Mr. Watt and Mr- Boulton the fleam a&s, and a vacuum is made, alternately above and below the pifton, the power exerted is double to what the fame cylinder would otherways produce, and is further augmented by an inequality in the length of the two ends of the lever. Thefe gentlemen have alfo, by other contrivances, applied their engines to the turning of mills for almolt every purpofe, of which that great pile of machinery, the Albion Mill, is a well known inftance. Forges, flitting mills, and other great works, are eredcd where nature has furnifhed no running water, and future times may boaft that this grand and ufeful engine was invented and perfected in our own country. Since the above article went to the prefs, the Albion Mill is no more; it is fuppofed to have been fet on fire by interefted or 'malicious incendiaries, and is burnt to the ground. Whence London has loft the credit and the advantage of polTefling the moft powerful machine in the world. NOTE XII. FROST. In phalanx firm, tie Fiend of Frojl n/ail. CANTO I. 1. 439. THE caufe of the expanfion of water during its converfion into ice, is Jiot yet well afcertained; it was fuppofed to have been owing to the air being fct at liberty in the a6t of congelation, which was before dilTolved in the Nvater, and the many air bubbles in ice were thought to countenance this opinion. But the great force with which ice expands during its congelation, foas to burft iron bombs and coehorns, according to the experiments of Major Williams, at Quebec, invalidates this idea of the caufe of it, and may fome time be brought into ufe as a means of breaking rocks in mining, or pro- jetting cannon-balls, or for other mechanical purpofes, if the means of pro- ducing congelation fnould ever be difcovered to be as eafy as the means of producing combuftion. Mr. de Mairan attributes the increafe of bulk of frozen water to the dif- ferent arrangement of the particles of it in cryftallization, as they are con- ilantly joined at an angle of 60 degrees, and muft, by this difpofition, he thinks, occupy a greater volume than if they were parallel. He found the augmentation of the water, during freezing, to amount to one-fourteenth, one-eighteenth, one-nineteenth, and when the water was previoufly purged of air, to only one-twenty-fecond part. He adds, that a piece of ice, which was at firft only one-fourteenth part fpecifically lighter than water, on being cxpofed fome days to the frcil, became one-twelfth lighter than water. Hence NOTE XII. ADDITIONAL NOTES. 157 he thinks ice, by being expofed to greater cold, ftill increafes in volume, and to this attributes the bur fling of ice in ponds, and on the glaciers. See Lewis's Commerce of Arts, p. 257, and the note on Mufchus, in the fecond part of this work. This expanfion of ice well accounts for the greater mifchief done by ver- nal frofts attended with moifture (as by hoar frofts), than by the dry frofts, called black frofts. Mr. Lawrence, in a letter to Mr. Bradley, complains that the dale-mill:, attended with a froft, on May-day, had deftroyed all his tender fruits; though there was a fharper froft the night before, without a mift, that did him no injury; and adds, that a garden not a ftone's throw from his own, on a higher fituation, being above the dale-mift, had re- ceived no damage. Bradley, vol. II. p. 231. Mr. Hunter, by very curious experiments, difcovered that the living principle in fifh, in vegetables, and even in eggs and feeds, pofleffes a power of refitting congelation. Phil.Tranf. There can be no doubt but that the exertions of animals to avoid the pain of cold, may produce in them a greater quantity of heat, at leaft for a time ; but that vegetables, eggs, or feeds, fhould poffefs fuch a quality, is truly wonderful. Others have ima- gined that animals poflefs a power of preventing themfelves from becoming much warmer than 98 degrees of heat, when immerfed in an atmofphere above that degree of heat. It is true that the increafed exhalation from their bodies will, in fome meafure, cool them, as much heat is carried off by the evaporation of fluids; but this is a chemical, not an animal procefs. The experiments made by thofe who continued many minutes in the air of a room heated fo much above any natural atmofpheric heat, do not feem conclufive, as they remained in it a lefs time than would have been necef-^ fary to have heated a mafs of beef of the fame magnitude; and the circula- tion of the blood in living animals, by perpetually bringing new fupplies of fluid to the fkin, would prevent the external furface from becoming hot much fooncr than the whole mafs. And, thirdly, there appears no power of animal bodies to produce cold in difeafes, as in fcarlet fever, in which the increafed action of the veffels of the fkin produces heat, and contributes fco exhauft the animal power already to much weakened. It has been thought by many that frofts meliorate the ground, and that they are in general falubrious to mankind. In refpecl; to the former, it is now well known that ice or fnow contains no nitrous particles, and though froft, by enlarging the bulk of moift clay, leaves it fofter for a time after the thaw, yet as foon as the water exhales, the clay becomes as hard as before, being prefied together by the incumbent atmofphere, and by its felf-attrac^ tion, called fetting by the potters. Add to this, that on the coafts of Africa, where froft is unknown, the fertility of the foil is almoft beyond our con- ceptions of it. In refped: to the general falubrity of frofty feafons, the bills of mortality are an evidence in the negative, as in long frofts many weakly and old people perifh from debility occafioned by the cold, and many dalles of birds, and other wild animals, are benumbed by the cold, or deftroyed by the confequent fcarcity of food, and many tender vegetables periili from the degree of cold, i$% BOTANIC GARDEN. PART!. I do not think it fliottld be objected to this doctrine, that there are nioift days, attended with a brifk cold wind, when no vifible ice appears, and which are yet more difagreeable and deitructive than frofty weather. For on thefe days the cold moifture which is depofited on the ikin is there eva- porated, and thus produces a degree of cold perhaps greater than the milder frofts. Whence, even in fuch days, both the difagreeable fenfations and in- falubrious effects belong to the caufe above-mentioned, viz. the intcnfity of the cold. Add to this, that in thefe cold moift days, as we pafs along, or as the wind blows upon us, a new fheet of cold water is, as it were, per- petually applied to us, and hangs upon our bodies. Now, as water is 800 times denfer than air, and is a much better conductor of heat, we are flarved with cold, like thofe who go into a cold bath, both (by the great number of particles in contact with the fkin, and their great facility of re- ceiving our heat. It may neverthelefs be true, that fnows of long duration, in our winters, may be lefs injurious to vegetation than great rains and Ihorter frofts, for two reafons. i. Becaufe great rains carry down many thoufand pounds worth of the befl part of the manure off the lands into the fea, whereas fnow diffolvcs more gradually, and thence carries away lefs from the land. Any one may diftinguifh a fnow-flood from a. rain-flood by the tranfparency of the water. Hence hills or fields, with confiderable inclination of furface, fhould be ploughed horizontally, that the furrows may flay the water from fhowers till it depofits its mud. 2. Snow protects vegetables from the feve- rity of the froft, fince it is always in a ftate of thaw where it is in contact \viththeearth; as the earth's heat is about 48 degrees, and the heat of thawing fnow is 32 degrees, the vegetables between them are kept in a de- gree of heat about 40, by which many of them are preferved. See note on Mufchus, part II. of this work. NOTE XIII. ELECTRICITY. Cold from each point cerulean lujlres gleam. CANTO I. 1. 339, ELECTRIC POINTS. THERE was an idle difpute, whether knobs or points were preferable on the top of conductors, for the defence of houfes. The defign of thefe con- ductors is to permit the electric matter accumulated in the clouds, to pafs through them into the earth in a fmaller continued ftream as the cloud ap- proaches, before it comes to what is termed ftriking diftance. Now, as it is well known that accumulated electricity will pafs to points at a much greater diftance than it will to knobs, there can he no doubt of their preference; and it would feem, that the finer the points, and the lefs liable to become rufty, the better, as it would take off the lightning while it was full at a greater diftance, and by that means preferve a greater extent of building. NOTE XIII. ADDITIONAL NOTES. 159 The very extremity of the point fbould be of pure filver or gold, and might be branched into a kind of brulh, fince one fmall point cannot be fuppofed to receive fo great a quantity as a thicker bar might conduct into the earth. If an infulated metallic ball is armed with a point, like a needle, project- ing from one part of it, the electric fluid will be feen in the dark to pafs off from this point, fo long as the ball is kept fupplied with electricity. The reafon of this is not difficult to comprehend: Every part of the elec- tric atmofphere which furrounds the infulated ball, is attracted to that ball by a large furface of it, whereas the electric atmofphere which is near the extremity of the needle, is attracted to it only by a fingle point ; in confe- .quence, the particles of electric matter, near the furface of the ball, approach towards it, and pufli off, by their greater gravitation, the particles of elec- tric matter over the point of the needle, in a continued ftream. Something like this happens in refpect to the diffufion of oil on water from a pointed cork, an experiment which was many years ago fhewn me by Dr. Franklin. He cut a piece of cork about the fize of a letter-wafer, and left on one edge of it a point about a fixth of an inch in length, projecting as a tangent to the circumference. This was dipped in oil, and thrown on a pond of water, and continued to revolve, as the oil left the point, for a great many minutes. The oil defcends from the floating cork upon the water, being diifufed upon it without friction, and perhaps without contact ; but its going off at the point fo forcibly as to make that cork revolve in a con- trary direction, feems analogous to the departure of the electric fluid from points. Can any thing fimilar to either of thefe happen in refpect to the earth's atmofphere, and give occafion to the breezes on the tops of mountains, which may be confidered as points on the earth's circumference ? FAIR Y-R INGS. There is a phenomenon fuppofed to be electric which is yet unaccounted for; I mean the Fairy-rings, as they are called, fo often feen on the grafs. The numerous flalhes of lightning which occur every fumnier, are, I be- lieve, generally difcharged on the earth, and but feldom (if ever) from one cloud to another. Moift trees are the nioft frequent conductors of thefe flafhes of lightning, and I am informed by purchafers of wood, that innu- merable trees are thus cracked and injured. At other times larger parts or prominences of clouds, gradually finking as they move along, are difcharged on the moifter parts of graiTy plains. Now, this knob or corner of a cloud, in being attracted by the earth, will become nearly cylindrical, as loofe wool would do when drawn out into a thread, and will ftrike the earth with a ftream of electricity, perhaps two or ten yards in diameter. Now, as a ftream of electricity difplaces the air it paffes through, it is plain no part of the grafs can be burnt by it, but juft the external ring of this cylinder, where the grafs can have accefs to the air, fince without air nothing can be cal- cined. This earth, after having been fo calcined, becomes a richer foil, and i6o BOTANIC GARDEN". PART L either fungufes or a bluer grafs for many years mark the place. That light- ning difplaces the air in its paffage is evinced by the loud crack that fucceeds it, which is owing to the fides of the aerial vacuum clapping together when the lightning is withdrawn. That nothing will calcine without air is now well under Hood from the acids produced in the burning of phlogiftic fubflances, and may be agreeably feen by fufpending a paper on an iron prong, and putting it into the centre of the blaze of an iron-furnace; it may be held there feme feconds, and may be again withdrawn without its being burnt, if it be paffed quickly into the flame and out again, through the external part of it, which is in contact with the air. I know fon:e circles of many yards diameter of this kind, near Foremark, in Derbyfhire, which annually produce large white fungufcs, and flronger grafs, and have done fo, I am informed, above thirty years. This increafed fertility of the ground by calcination or charring, and its continuing to operate fo many years, is well worth the attention of the farmer, and Ihews the ufe of par- ing and burning new turf in agriculture, which produces its effecSl not fo much by the afhes of the vegetable fibres, as by charring the foil which ad- heres to them. Thefe lituations, whether from eminence or from moifture, which were proper once to attract and difcharge a thunder-cloud, are more liable again to experience the fame. Hence many fairy-rings are often feen near each other, either without interfering each other, as I faw this fummer in a gar- den in Nottinghamfhire, or interfering each other, as defcribed on Arthur's feat, near Edinburgh, in the Edinb. Tranf. vol. II. p. 3. NOTE XIV. BUDS AND BtfLBS. JVLcre divell my vegetative realms Lcnumfrd, In buds imprifond^ or in bulbs intomb'd. CANTO I. 1. 459. A TREE is, properly fpeaking, a family or fwarm of buds, each bud be- ing an individual plant ; for if one of thefe buds be torn or cut out, and planted in the earth, with a glafs cup inverted over it, to prevent its exha- lation from being at firft greater than its power of abforption, it will pro- duce a tree fimilar to its parent ; each bud has a leaf, which is its lungs, ap- propriated to it, and the bark of the tree is a congeries of the roots of thefe individual buds; whence old hollow trees are often feen to have fome branches flourifh with vigour after the internal wood is almoft entirely de- cayed and vaniflied. According to this idea, Linnreus has obferved, that trees and flirubs are roots above ground, for if a tree be inverted, leaves will grow from the rootrpart, and roots from the trunk-part. Phil. Bot. p. 39. Hence it appears that vegetables have two methods of propagating themfelves, the oviparous as by feeds, and the viviparous as by their buds and bulbs ; and that the individual plants, whether from feeds, or buds, or bulbs, are all annual productions,, like many kinds of inft'&s, as the iiijk-worm , NOTE XIV. ADDITIONAL NOTES. 161 the parent perilling in the autumn after having produced an cmbryon, which lies in a torpid ftate during the winter, and is matured in the fuc- ceeding fummcr. Hence Linnaeus names buds and bulbs the winter cra- dles of the plant, or hybernacula, and might have given the fame term to feeds. In warm climates few plants produce buds, as the vegetable life can be completed in one fummer, and hence the hybernacle is not wanted ; in cold climates alfo fome plants do not produce buds, as philadelphus, fran- ,gula, viburnum, ivy, heath, wood-nightfhade, rue, geranium. The bulbs of plants are another kind of winter cradle, or hybernacle, ad- hering to the defcending trunk, and are found in the' perennial herbaceous plants, which are too tender to bear the cold of the winter. The produc- tion of thefe fubterraneous winter lodges, is not yet, perhaps, clearly under- ilood; they have been diftributed by Linnjeus, according to their forms, into f,caly, folid, coated, and jointed bulbs, which, however, does not elucidate their manner of production. As the buds of trees may -be truly efteemed, individual annual plants, their roots conftituting the bark of the trees, it follows, that thefe roots (viz. of each individual bud) fpread themfelves over the laft year's bark, making a new bark over the old one, and thence defcending, cover with a new bark the old roots alfo in the fame manner, A fimilar circumftance I fuppofe to happen in fome herbaceous plants, that is, a new bark is annually produced over the old root, and thus, for fome years at leaft, the old root or caudex increafes in fize, and puts up new flems. As thefe roots increafe in fize, the central part, I fuppofe, changes like the internal wood of a tree, and does not poflefs any vegetable life, and there- fore gives out no fibres or rootlets, and hence appears bitten off, as in vale- rian, plantain, and devil's-bit. And this decay of the central part of the root, I fuppofe, has given occafion to the belief of the root-fibres drawing down the bulb, fo much infilled on by Mr. Milne, in his Botanical Dic- tionary, art. Bulb. From the obfervations and drawings of various kinds, of bulbous roots, at different times of their growth, fent me by a young lady of nice obferva- tion, it appears probable that all bulbous roots, properly fo called, perifh annually in this climate. Bradley, Miller, and the author of Spectacle de la Nature, obferve that the tulip annually renews its bulb, for the ftalk of the old flower is found under the old dry coat, but on the out fide of the new bulb. This large new bulb is the flowering bulb; but befides this there are other fmall new bulbs produced between the coats of this large one, but from the fame caudex (or circle from which the root-fibres fpring); thefe fmall bulbs are leaf-bearing bulbs, and renew themfelves annually, with in* creafmg fize, till they bear flowers. Mifs favoured me with the following curious experiment: Shs took a fmall tulip-root out of the earth when the green leaves were fuffU ciently high to fhow the flower, and placed it in a glafs of water ; the leaves and flower foon withered, and the bulb became wrinkled and foft, but put out one fmall fide bulb, and three bulbs beneath, defcending an inch into the water by proceffes from the caudex ; the old bulb in fome weeks entirely decayed. On differing this monfter, the middle defcending btjlb, was found, PART L, Y i64 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART L by its procefs, to adhere to the caudex, and to the old flowcr-ftem; and the fide ones were feparated from the flower-ftem by a few fhrivelled coats, but adhered to the caudex. Whence file concludes that thefe laft were off- fets, or leaf-bulbs, which fhould have been feen between the coats of the new flower-bulb, if it had been left to grow in the earth, and that the mid- dle one would have been the new flower-bulb* In fome years (perhaps in wet feafons) the florifrs are faid to lofe many of their tulip-roots by a fimi- lar procefs, the new leaf-bulbs being produced beneath the old ones by an elongation of the caudex, without any new flower-bulbs. By repeated diffe&ions, flie obferves, that the leaf-bulbs, or off-fets of tulip, crocus, gladiolus, fritillary, are renewed in the fame manner as the flowering-bulbs, contrary to the opinion of many writers ; this new leaf- bulb is formed on the infide of the coats from whence the leaves grow, and is more or lefs advanced in fize as the outer coats and leaves are more or lefs Ihrivelled. In examining tulip, i ris, hyacinth, hare-bell, the new bulb was invariably found between the flower-ftem and the bafe of the innermoft leaf of thofe roots which had flowered, and iticlofed by the bafe of the innermoft leaf in thofe roots which had not flowered, in both cafes adhering to the cau- dex or flelhy circle from which the root-fibres fpring. Hence it is probable that the bulbs 'of hyacinths are renewed annually, but that this is performed from the caudex within the old bulb, the outer coat of which does not fo ftirivel as in crocus and fritillary, and hence this change is not fo apparent. But, I believe, as foon as the flower is advanced, the new bulbs may be feen on difledlion ; nor does the annual increafe of the fize of the root of cyclamen, and of aktris capenfis, militate againft this annual renewal of them, lince the leaf-bulbs, or off-fets, as defcribed above, are increafed in fize as they are annually renewed. See note on Orchis, and on Anthoxanthum, in Part II. of this work. . NOTE XV. SOLAR VOLCANOS. From tie deep iraters of bis realms ofjlre The whirling Sun this ponderous planet hurfd. CANTO II. 1 14. DR. ALEXANDER WILSON, Profeffor of Aftronomy at Glafgow, publifhed a paper in the Philofophical Tranfactions for 1774, demonftrating that the fpots in the fun's difk are real cavities, excavations through the lu- minous material, which covers the other parts of the fun's furface. One of thefe cavities he round to be about 4000 miles deep, and many times as wide. Some objections were made to this doctrine by M. De la Lande, in the Memoirs of the French Academy for the year 1776, which, however, have been ably anfwered by profeffor Wiifon in reply, in the Philof. Tranf. for 1783. Keil obferves, in his Aftronomical Lectures, p. 44, " We fre- quently fee fpots in the fun which are larger and broader not only than Eu- rope or Africa, but which even equal, if they do not exceed, the furface of NOTE XV. ADDITIONAL NOTES. 163 the whole terraqueous globe." Now that thefe cavities are made in the fun's body by a procefs of nature fimilar to our earthquakes, does not feem impror bable on feveral accounts, i. Becaufe, from this difcovery of Dr. Wilfon, it appears that the internal parts of the fun are not in a ftate of inflammation or of ejecting light, like the external part or luminous ocean which covers it; and hence that a greater degree of heat or inflammation, and confequent expan- fion or explofion, may occafionally be produced in its internal or dark nucleus. 2. Becaufe the folar fpots or cavities are frequently increafed or diminifhed in iize. 3. New ones are often produced. 4. And old ones vanifh. 5. Be- caufe there are brighter or more luminous parts of the fun's dilk, called fa- culx by Scheiner and Hevelius, which would feem to be volcanos in the fun, or, as Dr. Wilfon calls them, " eructations of matter more luminous than that which covers the fun's furface." 6. To which may be added that all the planets added together, with their fatellites, do not amount to more than one fix hundred and fiftieth part of the mafs of the fun, according to Sir Ifaac Newton. Now, if it could be fuppofed that the planets were originally thrown out of the fun by larger fun-quakes than thofe frequent ones which occafion thcfe fpots or excavations above-mentioned, what would happen ? I. Accord- ing to the* obfervations and opinion of Mr. Herfchel, the fun itfelf and all its planets are moving forwards round fome other centre with an unknown velocity, which may be of opake matter, correfponding with the very ancient and general idea of a chaos. Whence, if a ponderous planet, as Saturn, could be fuppofed to be projected from the fun by an explofion, the motion of the fun itfelf might be at the fame time difturbed in fuch a manner as to prevent the planet from falling again into it. 3. As the fun revolves round its own axis, its form muft be that of an oblate fpheroid like the earth, and therefore a body prejeded from its furface perpendicularly upwards from that furface would not rife perpendicularly from the fun's centre, unlefs it happened to he projected exactly from either of its poles or from its equator. Whence it may not be neceffary that a planet, if thus projected from the fun by explofion, fhould again fall into the fun. 3. They would part from the fun's furface with the velocity with which that furface was moving, and with the velocity acquired by the explofion, and would therefore move round the fun in the fame direction in which the fun rotates on its axis, and perform eliptic or- bits. 4. All the planets would move the fame way round the fun, from this firft motion acquired at leaving its furface, but their orbits would be inclined to each other according to the diilance of the part, where they were thrown out, IVom the fun's equator. Hence thofe which were ejected near the fun's equator would have orbits but little inclined to each other, as the primary pla- nets; the plain of all whofe orbits are inclined but feven degrees and a half from each other. Others which were ejected near the fun's poles would have much more eccentric orbits, as they would partake fo much lefs of the fun's rotatory- motion at the time they parted from his furface, and would, therefore, be carried further from the fun by the velocity they had gained by the explofion which ejected them, and become comets. 5. They would all obey the fame laws of motion in their revolutions round t he fun ; this has been determined by aftro- 164 BOTANIC GARDEN".. PART!. homers, who have demon ft rated that they move through equal areas, in equal times. 6. As their annual periods would depend on the height they rofe by the explofion, thefe would differ in them all. 7. As their diurnal revolu- tions would depend on one fide of the exploded matter adhering more than the other at the time it was torn off by the explofion, thefe would alfo differ in the different planets, and not bear any proportion to their annual periods. Now, as all thefe circumftances coincide with the known laws of the plane- tary fyftem, they ferve to ftrenghten this conjecture. This coincidence of fuch a variety of circtimftances induced M. de Buffon to fuppofe that the planets were all flruck off from the fun's ftlrface by the impucl of a large comet, fuch as approached fo near the fun's difk, and with fuch amazing velocity, in the year 1680, and is expected to return in 2155. But Mr. Buffort did not recollecl: that thefe comets themfelves are only planets with more eccentric orbits, and that therefore it muft be aflced, what had previoufly ftruck off thefe comets from the fun's body ? 2. That if all thefe planets were ftruck off from the fun at the fame time, they muft have been fo near as to have attracted each other and have formed one mafs. 3. That we fhall want new caufes for ieparating the fecondary planets from the primary ones, and muft therefore look out for fome other agent, as it does not appear how the impulfe of a comet could have made one planet roll round another at the time they both of them were driven off from the furface of the fun. If it fhould be afked, why new planets are not frequently ejected from the fun ? it may be anfvvered, that after many large earthquakes many vents are left for the elaftic vapours to efcape, and hence, by the prefent appear- ance of the furface of our earth, earthquakes, prodigioufly larger than any recorded in hiftory, have exifted ; the fame circumftances may have affected the fun, on whofe furface there are appearances of volcanos, as defcribed above. Add to this, that fome of the comets, and even the georgium fidus, may, for aught we know to the contrary, have been emitted from the fun in more modern days, and have been diverted from their courfe, and thus per- vented from returning into the fun, by their approach to fome of the older planets, which is fomewhat countenanced by the opinion feveral philofophers have maintained, that the quantity of matter of the fun has decreafed. Dr. Halley obferved, by comparing the proportion which the periodical time of the moon bore to that of the fun in former times, with the proportion be- tween them at prefent, that the moon is found to be fomewhat accelerated in refpecl; to the fun. Pemberton's View of Sir Ifaac Newton, p. 247. And fo large is the body of this mighty luminary, that all the planets thus thrown out of it would make fcarce any perceptible diminution of it as mentioned above. The cavity mentioned above, as meafured by Dr. Wilfon, of 4000 miles in depth, not penetrating an hundredth part of the fun's femi-diame- ter; and yet as its width was many times greater than its depth, was large enough to contain a greater body than our terreftrial world. I do not mean to conceal, that from the laws of gravity unfolded by Sir Ifaac Newton, fuppofing the fun to be a fphere, and to have no progreffive motion, and not liable itftlf to be difturbcd by the fuppofed projection of NOTE 'XVI. ADDITIONAL NOTES. 16$ the planets from it, that fuch planets muft return into the fun. The late Rev. William Ludlam, of Leicefler, whofe genius never met with reward equal to its merits, in a letter to me, dated January, 1787, after having {hewn, ^s mentioned above, that planets fo projected from the fun would return to it, adds, " That a body as large as the moon fo prejected, would " difturb the motion of the earth in its orbit, is certain; but the calculation " of fuch difturbing forces is difficult. The body in fome circumftaiices " might become a fatellite, and both move round their common centre of " gravity, and that centre be carried in an annual orbit round the fun." There are other circumftances which might have concurred at the time of fuch fuppofed explofions, which would render this idea not impofiible. I. The planets might be thrown out of the fun at the time the fun itfelf was rifing from chaos, and be attracted by other funs in their vicinity riling at the fame time out of chaos, which would prevent them from returning into the fun. z. The new planet, in its courfe or afcent from the fun, might ex- plode and eject a fatellite, or perhaps more than one, and thus, by its courfc being affected, might not return into the fun. 3. If more planets were ejected at the fame time from the fun, they might attract and difturb each others courfe at the time they left the body of the fun, or very foon afterwards, when they would be foinuch nearer each other. NOTE XVI. CALCAREOUS EARTH. While Ocean ivrap'd it in his azure robe* CANTO II. 1. 34. FROM having obferved that many of the higheft mountains of the world eonfift of lime-ftone replete with {hells, and that thefe mountains bear the marks of having been lifted up by fubterraneous fires from the interior parts of the globe ; and as lime-ftone replete with {hells is found at the bottom of many of our deepeft mines, fome philofophers have concluded that the nu- cleus of the earth was for many ages covered with water, which was peo- pled with its adapted animals; that the {hells and bones of thefe animals, in a long feries of time, produced folid ftrata in the ocean furrounding the original nucleus. Thefe ftrata eonfift of the accumulated exuvise of {hell-fifh the animals periftied age after age, but their {hells remained, and, in progreflion of time, produced the amazing quantities of lime-ftone which almoft cover the earth. Other marine animals, called coralloids, raifed walls, and even mountains, by the congeries of their calcareous habitations; thefe perpendicular coral- line rocks make fome parts of the fouthern ocean highly dangerous, as ap- pears in the journals of Capt. Cook. From contemplating the immenfe ftrata of lime-ftone, both in refpect to their extent and thicknefs, formed from thefe {hells of animals, philofophers have been led to conclude, that much of the water of the fea has been converted into calcareous earth, by palling through their organs of digeftion. The formation of calcareous earth r66 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART!. fcems more particularly to be an animal procefs, as the formation of clay be- longs to the vegetable economy; thus the {hells of crabs, and other teftaceous fifh, are annually re-produced from the mucous membrane beneath them; the fhells of eggs are firft a mucous membrane, and the calculi of the kid- neys, and thofe found in all other parts of our fyftem, which fometimes con- tain calcareous earth, feem to originate from inflamed membranes ; the bones themfelves confift of calcareous earth united with the phofphoric or animal acid, which may be feparated by diffolving the afhes of calcined bones in the nitrous acid ; the various fecretions of animals, as their faliva and urine, abound likewife with calcareous earth, as appears by the incruftations about the teeth, and the fediments of urine. It is probable that animal mucus is a previous procefs towards the formation of calcareous earth; and that all the calcareous earth in the world, which is fcen in lime-ftones, marbles, fpars, alabafters, marls (which make up the greateft part of the earth's cruft, as far as it has yet been penetrated), have been formed originally by animal and vegetable bodies from the mafs of water, and that by thefe means the folid part of the terraqueous globe has perpetually been in an increafing Hate, and the water perpetually in a decreafmg one. After the mountains of (hells, and other recrements, of aquatic animals, were elevated above the water, the upper heaps of them were gradually dif- folved by rains and dews, and oozing through, were either perfectly cryftal- lized in fmaller cavities, and formed calcareous fpar, or were imperfectly cryflallized on the roofs of larger cavities, and produced ftalactites; or mix- ing with other undiffolved fhells beneath them, formed marbles, which were more or lefs cryftallized and more or lefs pure; or, laftly, after being dif- folved, the water was exhaled from them in fuch a manner that the external parts became folid, and, forming an arch, prevented the internal parts from approaching each other fo near as to become folid, and thus chalk was pro- duced. I have fpecimens of chalk formed at the root of feveral ftalactitcs, and in their central parts; and of other ftalactites, which are hollow like quills, from a fimiiar caufe, viz. from the external part of the flalaclite harden- ing firft by its evaporation, and thus either attracting the internal diffolved particles to the cruft, or preventing them from approaching each other fo as to form a folid body. Of thefe I faw many hanging from the arched roof of a cellar under the high flreet in Edinburgh. If this diffolved lime-ftone met with, vitriolic acid, it was converted into alabafter, parting at the fame time with its fixable air. If it met with the fluor acid, it became fluor; if with the filiceous acid, flint; and when mixed with clay and fand, or either of them, acquires the name of marl. And under one or other of thefe forms, compofes a great part of the folid globe of the earth. Another mode in which lime-flone appears is in the form of round granu- lated particles, but flightiy cohering together; of this kind a bed extends over Lincoln heath, perhaps twenty miles long by ten -wide. The form of this calcareous fand, its angles having been rubbed off, and the flntnefs of its bed, evince that that part of the country was fo formed under water, the particles of fand having thu? been rounded, like all other rounded pebbles. NOTE XVI. ADDITIONAL NOTES. 16? This round form of calcareous fand, and of other larger pebbles, is produced under water, partly by their being more or lefs foluble in water, and hence the angular parts become diffolved; firft, by their expofing a larger furfacc to the adion of the menflruum; and, fecondly, from their attrition againft each other by the ftreams or tides, for a great length of time, fucceffively, as they were collected, and, perhaps, when fome of them had not acquired their hardeft ftate. This calcareous fand has generally been called ketton-flone, and believed to referable the fpawn of nib; it has acquired a form fo much rounder than filiceous fand, from its being of fo much fofter a texture, and alfo much more foluble in water. There are other foft calcareous ftones called tupha, which are depofued from water on moffes, as at Matlock, from which mofs it is probable the water may receive fomething which induces it the readier to part with its earth. In fome lime-ftones the living animals feem to have been buried, as well a their fhells, during fome great convulfion of nature. Thefe fhells contain a black coaly fubftance within them, in others fome phlogifton or volatile alkali, from the bodies of the dead animals, remains mixed with the ftone, which is then called liver-ftone, as it emits a fulphurous fmell on being ftruck; and there is a ftratum about fix inches thick extends a confiderablc way over the iron-ore at Wingerworth, near Chefterfield, in Derby mire, which, feems evidently to have been formed from the fhells of frefh-water mufcles. There is, however, another fource of calcareous earth befides the aquatic one above defcribed, and that is from the recrements of land animals and vegetables, as found in marls, which confift of various mixtures of calcareous earth, fand, and clay, all of them, perhaps, principally from vegetable origin. Dr. Hutton is of opinion-, that the rocks of marble have been foftened by- fire into a fluid mafs, which, he thinks, under immenfe preffure, might be done without the efcape of their carbonic acid or fixed air. , Edinb. Tranf. vol. I. If this ingenious idea be allowed, it might account for the purity of fome white marbles, as during their fluid ftate there might be time for their partial impurities, whether from the bodies of the animals which produced the fhells, or from other extraneous matter, either to fublime to the upper- moft part of the ftratum, or to fubfide to the lowermoft part of it. As a confirmation of this theory of Dr. Hutton's, it may be added, that fome cal- careous ftones are found mixed with lime, and have thence loft a part of their fixed air, or carbonic gas, as the bath-ftone, and, on that account, hardens on being expofed to the air, and, mixed with fulphur, produces cal- careous liver of fulphur. Falconer on Bath-water, vol. I. p. 156 and p. 257. Mr. Monnet found lime in powder in the mountains of Auvergne, and fuf- pected it of volcanic origin. Kirwan's Min. p. aa. 163 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART I. NOTE XVII. MORASSES. GnofKfs ! you then taught tranfud'ing deivs to pafs Through time-fulfil "woods, and root-iuivo-ve morafs. CANTO II. 1. ITS* WHERE woods have repeatedly grown and perifhed, morafles are, in pro- cefs of time., produced, and by their long roots, fill up the interftices till the whole becomes, for many yards deep, a niafs of vegetation. This fact is cu- rioufly verified by an account given many years ago by the Earl of Cromar- tie, of which the following is a fhort abitra6L In the year 1651, the Earl of Cromartie, being then nineteen years of age, faw a plain in the parifh of Lockburn covered over with a firm ftanding wood, which was fo old that not only the trees had no green leaves upon them, but the bark was totally thrown off, which, he was there informed by the old countrymen, was the oniverfal manner in which fir- woods term:'- nated, and that in twenty or thirty years the trees would caft thcmfelves up by the roots. About fifteen years after he had occafion to travel the fame way, and obferved that there was not a tree nor the appearance of a root of any of them ; but in their place, the whole plain where the wood, flood was covered with a flat green mofs, or morafs, and on alking the country- people what was become of the wood, he was informed that no one had been at the trouble to carry it away, but that it had all been overturned by the wind, that the trees lay thick over each other, and that the mofs or bog- had overgrown the whole timber, which, they added, was occafioned by the moifture which came down from the high hills above it, and fhagnatcd upon the plain, and that nobody could yet pafs over it, which, however, hi .Lordfhip was fo incautious as to attempt, and flipt up to the arm-pits. Be- fore the year 1699, that whole piece of ground was become a folid mofs, wherein the peafants then dug turf or peat, which, however, was not yet of the belt fort. Phil. Tranf. No. 330. Abriclg. vol. V. p. 272. Moraffes in great length of time undergo variety of changes, firil by elu- triation, and afterwards by fermentation, and the confequent heat. I. By water perpetually oozing through them the moft foluble parts are firft wafhed away, as the effential falts; thefe, together with the falts from animal recre- ments, are carried down the rivers into trie fea, where all of them feem to decompofe each other except the marine fait. Hence the afhes of peat con- tain little or no vegetable alkali, and are not ufed. in the countries where peat conftitutes the fuel of the lower people, for the purpofe of waftiing linen. The fecond thing which is always i'een cozing from moraffes is iron in folution, which produces chalybeat fprings, from whence depoiitions of ochre and variety of iron ores. The third elutriation feems to confift of ve- getable acid, which by means unknown appears to be converted into all other acids. I. Into marine and nitrous acids as mentioned above, a. Into vi- triolic acid, which is found in fome moraffes fo plentifully as to prcferve the bodies of animals from putrefaction which have been buried in them, and this acid, carried away by rain and dews, and meeting with calcareous earth, pro- NOTE XVIII. ADDITIONAL NOTES. 169 duces gypfum or alabafter, with clay it produces alum, and, deprived of its vital air, produces fulphur. 3. Fluor acid, which being waftied away, and meeting with calcareous earth, produces fluor or cubic fpar. 4. The filiceous acid, which feems to have been diffeminated in great quantity either by folu- tion in water or by folution in air, and appears to have produced the fand in the fea, uniting with calcareous earth, previoufly diffolved in that element, from which were afterwards formed fome of the grit-ftone rocks by means of a filiceous or calcareous cement. By its union with the calcareous earth of the morafs, other ftrata of filiceous fand have been produced ; and by the mixture of this with clay and lime arofe the beds of marl. In other circumftances, probably where lefs moifture has prevailed, mo* raffes feem to have undergone a fermentation, as other vegetable matter, new hay, for inftance, is liable to do from the great quantity of fugar it con- tains. From the great heat thus produced in the lower parts of immenfe beds of morafs, the phlogiltic part, or oil, or afphaltum, becomes diftilled, and rifing into higher ftrata, becomes again condenfed, forming coal-beds of greater or lefs purity according to their greater or lefs quantity of inflam- mable matter; at the fame time the clay-beds become purer or lefs fo, as the phlogiilic part is more or lefs completely exhaled from them. Though coal and clay are frequently produced in this manner, yet I have no doubt, but that they are likewife often produced by elutriation ; in fituations on decli-* vities the clay is warned away down into the valleys, and the phlogiftic part or coal left behind; this circumftance is feen in many valleys near the beds of rivers, which are covered recently by a whitifh impure clay, called wa- ter-clay. See note XIX. XX. and XXIII. LORD CROMARTIE has furnifhed another curious obfervation on moraffes in the paper above refered to. In a mofs near the town of Eglin, in Murray, though there is no river or water which communicates with the mofs, yet for three or four feet of depth in the mofs there are little fhell-fifh refembling oyfters, with living fifh in them in great quantities, though no fuch fifh are found in the adjacent rivers, nor even in the water pits in the mofs, but only in the folid fubftance of the mofs. This curious facl: not only accounts for the fhells fometimes found on the furface of coals, and in the clay above them, but alfo for a thin ftratum of fhells which fometimes exift over ironr ore. NOTE XVIIL IRON. Cold iv antes, immerfed, the gloiving mafs congeal, And turn to adamant the bijjlng Steel. CANTO II. I. 191. AS iron is formed near the furface of the earth, it becomes expofed to ftreams of water and of air more than moft other metallic bodies, and thence becomes combined with oxygene, or vital air, and appears very frequently in its oilciform ftatc, as in variety of ochres. Manganefc and zinc, and PART 1. Z 1 70 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART!, fomctimes lead, arc alfo found near the furface of the earth, and, on that ac- count, become combined with vital air, and are exhibited in their cakiform ftate. The avidity with which iron unites with oxygene, or vital air, in which procefs much heat is given out from the combining materials, is (hewn by a curious experiment of M. Ingenhouz. A fine iron wire, twifted fpirally, is fixed to a cork, on the point of the fpire is fixed a match made of agaric, dipped in folution of nitre; the match is then ignited, and the wire with the cork put immediately into a bottle full of vital air, the match firft burns vividly, and the iron foon takes fire, and confumes with brilliant fparks tilt it is reduced to fmall brittle globules, gaining an addition of about one third of its weight by its union with vital air. Annales de Chimie. Traite dc Chimie, par Lavoifier, c. iii. STEEL. It is probably owing to a total deprivation of vital air, which it hold* with fo great avidity, that iron, on being kept many hours or days in ignit- ed charcoal, becomes converted into fteel, and thence acquires the faculty of being welded, when red hot, long before it melts, and alfo the power of be- coming hard when immerfed in cold water ; both which I fuppofe depend on the fame caufe, that is, on its being a worfe conductor of heat than other metals ; and hence the furface both acquires heat much fooner, and lofes it much fooner > than the internal parts of it, in this circumftance refembling glafs. When fteel is made very hot, and fuddenly immerged in very cold water, and rnoved about in it, the furface of the fteel becomes cooled firft, and thus producing a kind of cafe or arch over the internal part, prevents that internal part from contracting quite fo much as it otherwife would do, whence it becomes brittler and harder, like the glafs drops called Prince Rupert's drops, which are made by dropping melted glafs into cold water. This idea is countenanced by the circumftance that hardened fteel is fpeci- fically lighter than fteel which is more gradually cooled. (Nicholfon's Che- miftry, p. 313.) Why the brittlenefs and hardnefs of fteel or glafs fliould keep pace, or be companions to each other, may be difficult to conceive. When a fteel fpring is forcibly bent till it break, it requires lefs power to bend it through the firft inch than the fecond, and lefs through the fecond than the third. The fame I fuppofe to happen if a wire be diftended till it break, by hanging weights to it. This fhews that the particles may be forced from each other, to a fmall diftance, by lefs power than is necefTary to make them recede to a greater diftance; in this circumftance, perhaps, the attraction of cohefion differs from that of gravitation, which exerts its power inverfely as the fquares of the diftance. Hence it appears, that if the innermoft particles of a fteel bar, by cooling the external furface firft, arc kept from approaching each other fo nearly as they otherwife would do, that they become in the fituation of the particles, on the convex fide of a bent fpring, and cannot be forced farther from each other except by a greater NOTE XVIII. ADDITIONAL NOTES. 171 power than would have been neceffary to have made them recede thus far. And, fecondly, that if they be forced a little farther from each other they feparate: this may be exemplified by laying two magnetic needles parallel to each other, the contrary poles together, then drawing them longitudinally from each other, they will Hide with fmall force till they begin to feparate, and will then require a flronger force to really feparate them. Hence it appears, that hardnefs and brittlenefs depend on the fame circumftance, that the particles are removed to a greater diftance from each other, and thus re- fift any power more forcibly which is applied to difplace them farther; this conftitutes hardnefs. And, fecondly, if they are difplaced by fuch applied force, they immediately feparate, and this conftitutes brittlenefs. Steel may be thus rendered too brittle for many purpofes, on which ac- count artifts have means of foftening it again, by expofing it to certain de- grees of heat, for the conftruction of different kinds of tools, which is calr led tempering it. Some artifts plunge large tools in very cold water as foon as they ure completely ignited, and moving them about, take them out as foon as they ceafe to be luminous beneath the watery they are then rubbed quickly with a file, or on fand, to clean the furface ; the heat which the me- tal ftill retains foon begins to produce a fucceflion of colours; if a hard tem- per be required, the piece is dipped again, and ftirred about in cold water as foon as the yellow tinge appears; if it be cooled when the purple tinge appears, it becomes fit for gravers' tools, ufed in working upon metals; if cooled while blue, it is proper for fprings. Nicholfon's Chemiftry, p. 313. Keir's Chemical Dictionary. MODERN PRODUCTION OF IRON* The recent production of iron is evinced from the chalybeate water* which flow from moraffes, which lie upon gravel-beds, and which muft, therefore, have produced iron after thofe gravel-beds were raifed out of the fea. On the fouth fide of the road between Cheadle and Okeymoor, in Staf- fordfhire, yellow ftains of iron are feen to penetrate the gravel from a thin morafs on its furface. There is a fiffure eight or ten feet wide, in a gravel- bed on the eaftern fide ef the hollow road, afcending the hill about a mile from Trentham, in Staffordfhire, leading toward Drayton, in Shropfhire, which fiffure is filled up with nodules of iron-ore. A bank of fods is now raifed againft this fiffure to prevent the loofe iron nodules from falling into the turnpike road, and thus this natural curiofity is at prefent concealed from travellers. A fimilar fiffure, in a bed of marl, and filled up with iron nodules, and with fome large pieces of flint, is feen on the eaftern fide of the hollow road afcending the hill from the turnpike houfe, about a mile from Derby, in the road towards Burton. And another fuch fiffure, filled with iron nodes, appears about half a mile from Newton-Solney, in Derbyfhire, in the road to Burton, near the fummit of the hill. Thefe collections of iron and of flint muft have been produced pofterior to the elevation of all thofe hills, and were thence evidently of vegetable or animal origin. To which ih uid J be added, that iron i found, in general, in beds either near the furface *^ BOTANIC GARDEN. P A nt t of the earth, or ^ratified with clay, coals, or argillaceous grit, which a?6 themfelves productions of the modern world, that is, from the recrements of vegetables and air-breathing animals. Not only iron, but manganefe, calamy, and even copper and lead, appear, in fome inftances, to have been of recent production. Iron and manganefe are detected in all vegetable productions, and it is probable other metallic bodies might be found to exift in vegetable or animal matters, if we had tefts to detect them in very minute quantities. Manganefe and calamy are found in beds like iron near the furface of the earth, and in a calciform ftate, which countenances their modern production. The recent produdtioft of calamy, one of the ores of zinc, appears from its frequently incrufting calcareous fpar, in its defcent from the furface of the earth into the upper- molt fiffures of the lime-ftone mountains of Derby (hire. That the calamy has been carried, by its folutiori or diffufion in water, into thefe cavities, and not by its afcent from below in form of {team, is evinced from its not only forming a cruft over the dogtooth fpar, but by its afterwards diffolving or deftroying the fparry cryftal. I have fpecimens of calamy in the form of dogtooth fpar two inches high, which are hollow, and lland half an inch above the diminilhed fparry cryftal on which they were formed, like a {heath a great deal too big for it; this feems to {hew, that this procefs was carried on in water, otherwife, after the calamy had incrufted its fpar, and diflblved its furface, fo as to form a hollow cavern over it, it could not a6t further Upon it except by the interpofition of fome medium. As thefe fpars and ca- jamy are formed in the fiffures of mountains, they muft both have beea formed after the elevations of thofe mountains. In refpetfl to the recent production of copper, it was before obferved, ifi toote on Canto II. 1. 398, that the fummit of the grit-flone mountain at tlawkftone, in Shropfliire, is tinged with copper, which, from the appear- ance of the blue {tains, feems to have defcended to the parts of the rock be-* neath. I have a calciform ore of copper coniifting of the hollow crufts of cubic cells, which has evidently been formed on cryflals of fluor, which it has eroded in the fanie manner as the calamy erodes the calcareous cryftals, from whence may be deduced, in the fame manner, the aqueous folution or diffufion, as well as the recent production of this calciform ore of copper. Lead, in fmall quantities, is fometimes found in the fiffures of coal-beds, \vhich fiffures are previoufly covered with fpar ; and fometimes in nodules t)f iron-ore. Of the former I have a fpecimen from near Caulk, in Derby- fhire, and of the latter from Colebrook Dale, in Shropfhire. Though all thefe fa6ts {hew that fome metallic bodies arc formed from vegetable or 1 animal recrements, as iron, and perhaps manganefe and calamy, all which arc found near the furface of the earth; yet as the other metals are found tonly in fiffures of rocks, which penetrate to unknown depths, they may be wholly or in part produced by afcending fleams from fubterraneou: fires, as mentioned in note on Canto II. 1. 398. NOTE XVIII. ADDITIONAL NOTES. SEPTARIA OF IRON-STONE. Over fome lime works at Walfall, in Staffordfhire, I obferved fome years ago a flratum of iron earth about fix inches thick, full of very large cavities; thefe cayities were evidently produced when the material patted from a fe- mi-fluid ftate into a folid one ; as the frit of the potters, or a mixture of clay and water, is liable to crack in drying; which is owing to the further contraction of the internal part, after the cruft has become hard. Thefe hollows are liable to receive extraneous matter, as, I believe, gypfum, and Ibmetimes fpar, and even lead; a curious fpecimen of the laft was prefented to me by Mr. Darby, of Colebrook Dale, which contains in its cavity fome ounces of lead-ore. But there are other feptaria of iron-ftone, which feem. to have had a very different origin, their cavities having been formed in cool- ing or congealing from an ignited ftate, as is ingenioufly deduced by Dr. Hutton, from their internal ftructure. Edinb. Tranf. vol. 1. p. 246. The volcanic origin of thefe curious feptaria, appears to me to be further evinced from their form and the places where they are found. They confift of ob- late fpheroids, and are found in many parts of the earth totally detached from the beds in which they lie, as at Eaft-Lothian, in Scotland. Two of thefe, which now lie before me, were found, with many others, immerfed in argillaceous (hale, or ihiver, furrounded by broken lime-ftone mountains, at Bradbourn, near Afhbourn, in Derbyfhire, and were prefented to me by Mr. Buxton, a gentleman of that town. One of thefe is about fifteen inches in its equatorial diameter, and about fix inches in its polar one, and contains beautiful ftarlike feptaria, incrufted, and in part filled with calcareous fpar. The other is about eight inches in its equatorial diameter, and about four inches in its polar diameter, and is quite folid, but fhews on its internal fur- face marks of different colours, as if a beginning feparation had taken place. Now, as thefe feptaria contain fifty per cent, of iron, according to Dr. Hut- ton, they would foften or melt into a femi-fluid globule, by fubterraneous fire, by lefs heat than the lime-ftone in their vicinity ; and if they were ejected through a hole or failure, would gain a circular motion along with their progreflive one, by their greater friction or adhefion to one fide of the hole. This whirling motion would produce the oblate fpheroidical form which they poffefs, and which, as far as I know, can not in any other way be accounted for. They would then harden in the air as they rofe into the colder parts of the atmofphere ; and as they defcended into fo foft a mate- rial as fhale or ftiiver, their forms would not be injured in their fall; and their prefence in materials fo different from themfelves becomes accounted for. About the tropics of the large feptarium above-mentioned, are circular eminent lines, fuch as might have been left if it had been coarfely turned in a lath. Thefe lines feem to confift of fluid matter, which feems to have exfuded in circular zones, as their edges appear blunted or retracted ; and the feptarium feems to feave fplit eafier in fuch fections parrallel to its equa- tor. Now, as the cruft would firft begin to cool and harden after its ejection in a femi-fluid ftate, and the equatorial diameter would become gradually en- I 74 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART!. larged as i{ rofe in the air ; the internal parts, being foftcr, would flide be- neath the polar cruft, which might crack, and permit part of the femi-fluid to exfude, and it is probable the adhefion would thus become lefs in fections parallel to the equator. Which further confirms this idea of the produc- tion of thefe curious feptaria. A new-caft cannon ball, red-hot, with its cruft only folid, if it were fliot into the air, would probably burft in its pafiage, as it would confift of a more fluid material than thefe feptaria; and thus, by dafcharging a fhower of liquid iron, would produce more dreadful combuf- tion, if ufed in war, than could be effected by a ball which had been cooled and was heated again, fmce, in the latter cafe, the ball could not have its internal parts made hotter than the cruft of it, without firft lofmg its form. NOTE XIX. FLINT. *Tranfmute to glittering Flints her chalky lands , Or Jink on Oceans bed in countlefs Sands, CANTO II. 1. 217. I. SILICEOUS ROCKS. THE great mafies of filiceous fand which lie in rocks upon the beds of lime-ftone, or which are ftratified with clay^ coal, and iron-ore, are evident- ly produced in the decompofition of vegetable or animal matters, as explained in the note on moraffes. Hence the impreflions of vegetable roots and even whole trees are often found in fand-ftone, as well as in coals and iron-ore. In thefe fand-roeks both the filiceous acid and the calcareous bafe feem to be produced from the materials of the morafs ; for though the prefence of a fili- ceous acid and of a calcareous bafe have n<jt yet been feparately exhibited from flints, yet from the analogy of flint to fluor, and gypfum, and marble, and from the converfion of the latter into flint, there can be little doubt of their exiftence. Thefe filiceous fand-rocks are either held together by a filiceous cement, or have a greater or lefs portion of clay in them, which in fome acts as a ce- ment to the filiceous cryftals, but in others is in fuch great abundance that in burning them they become an imperfect porcelain, and are then ufed to repair the roads, as at Chefterfield, in Derbyfhire ; thefe are called argillace- ous grit by Mr. Kirwan. In other places, a calcareous matter cements the cryftals together ; and in other places the filiceous cryftals lie in loofe ftrata, under the marl, in the form of white fand; as at Normington, about a mile from Derby. The loweft beds of filiceous fand-ftone, produced from morafles, fcem to obtain their acid from the morafsj and their calcareous bafe from the lime- ftone on which it refts. Thefe beds pofiefs a filiceous cement, and from their greater purity and hardnefs are ufed for coaife grinding-ftone s and fcythe ftones, and are fituated on the edges of lime-ftone countries, having loft the other ftrata of coals, or clay, or iron, which were originally produced &6TEXIX. ADDITIONAL NOTES. ijj above them. Such are the fand-rocks incumbent on lime-ftone near Mat- lock, in Derbyfhire. As thei'e filiceous fand-rocks contain no marine pro- ductions fcattered amongft them, they appear to have been elevated, torn tt> pieces, and many fragments of them fcattered over the adjacent country, by cxplofions, from fires within the morafs from which they have been formed, and which diffipated every thing inflammable above and beneath them, except fome ftams of iron with which they are in fome places fpotted. If thefe fand- rocks had been accumulated beneath the fea, and elevated along with the beds of lime-ftone on which they reft, fome veftiges of marine {hells, either in their filiceous or calcareous flate, muft have been diicerned amongft them. a. SILICEOUS TREES. In many of thefe fand-rocks are found the impreflipns of vegetable roots* which feem to have been the moft unchangeable parts of the plant, as fhells and fliark's teeth are found in chalk beds, from their being the moft un- changeable parts of the animal* In other inftances the wood itfelf is pene- trated, and whole trees converted into flint ; fpecimens of which I have by me, from near Coventry, and from a gravel-pit in Shropfhire, near Child's Archal, in the road to Drayton. Other polifhed fpecimens of vegetable flints abound in the cabinets of the curious, which evidently fhew the con- centric circles of woody fibres, and their interftices filled with whiter filice- ous matter, with the branching off of the knots when cut horizontally, and the parallel lines of wood when cut longitudinally, with uncommon beauty and variety. Of thefe I poflefs fome beautiful fpecimens, which were pre- fented to me by the Earl of Uxbridge. The colours of thefe filiceous vegetables are generally brown, from the iron, I fuppofe, or mangenefe, which induced them to cryftalize or to fufe more eafily. Some of the cracks of the wood in drying are filled with white flint or calcedony, and others of them remain hollow, lined with innumera- ble fmall cryftals, tinged with iron, which I fuppofe had a fhare in convert- ing their calcareous matter into filiceous cryftals, becaufe the cryftals called Peak-diamonds are always found bedded in an ochreous earth ; and thofe called Briftol-ftones are fituated on lime-ftone coloured with iron. Mr. F. French prefented me with a congeries of filiceous cryftals, which he gather- ed on the crater (as he fuppofes) of an extinguifhed volcano at Cromach Water, in Cumberland. The cryftals are about an inch high, in the fliape of dogtooth or caLareous fpar, covered with a dark ferruginous matter. The bed on which they reft is about an inch in thicknefs, and is ftained with iron on its under furface. This curious foffil fhews the tranfmutation of cal- careous earth into filiceous, as much as the filiceous fhells which abound in the cabinets of the curious. There may fome time be difcovered in this age of fci- cnce, a method of thus impregnating wood with liquid flint, which would produce pillars for the fupport, and tiles for the covering of houfes, which would be uninflammable and endure as long as the earth beneath them. That fome filiceous productions have been in a fluid ftate without much heat at the time of their formation, appears from the vegetable flint* above de-. i;6 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART!. fcribed not having quite loft their organized appearance ; from fliells, and coralloids, and entrochi being converted into flint without lofing their form ; from the bafon of calcedony round Giefar, in Iceland, and from the experi- ment of Mr. Bergman, who obtained thirteen regular formed cryftals by fuffering the powder of quartz to remain in a veffel with fluor acid for two years; thefe cryftals were about the fize of fmall peas, and were not fo hard as quartz. Opufc. de Terra Silicea, p. 33. Mr. Achard procured both calcareous and filiceous cryftals, one from calcareous earth, and the other from the earth of alum, both diffolved in water impregnated with fix- ed air; the water filtrating very flowly through a porous bottom of baked clay. See Journal de Phyfique, for January, 1778. 3. AGATES, ONYXES, SCOTS-PEBBLES. In fmall cavities of thefe fand-rocks, I am informed, the beautiful filiceous hodules are found which are called Scots-pebbles; and which, on being cut in different directions, take the names of agates, onyxes, fardonyxes, &c. according to the colours of the lines or ftrata which they exhibit. Some of the nodules are hollow and filled with cryftals, others have a nucleus of lefs compact filiceous matter, which is generally white, furrounded with many concentric ftrata, coloured with iion, and other alternate ftrata of white agate or calcedony, fometimes to the number of thirty. I think thefe nodules bear evident marks of their having been in perfect fufion by either heat alone, or by water and heat, under great preffure, ac- cording to the ingenious theory of Dr. Hutton ; but I do not imagine, that they were inje&ed into cavities from materials from without, but that fomc vegetables or parts of vegetables containing more iron or manganefe than others, facilitated the complete fufion, thus deftroying the veftiges of vege- table organization, which were confpicuous in the filiceous trees above-men- tioned. Some of thefe nodules being hollow and lined with cryftals, and others containing a nucleus of white filiceous matter of a loofer texture, fhew they were compofed of the materials then exifting in the cavity ; which con fitting before of loofe fand, muft take up lefs fpace when fufed into a folid maft. Thefe filiceous nodules refemble the nodules of iron-ftone mentioned in note on Canto II. 1. 183, in refpect to their poffefling ^ great number of concentric fpheres, coloured generally with iron; but they differ in this chv cumftance, that the concentric fpheres generally obey the form of the exter- nal cruft, and in their not poffeffing a chalybeate nucleus. The ftalaclites formed on the roofs of caverns are often coloured in concentric ftrata, by their coats being fpread over each other at different times; and fome of them, as the cupreous ones, poffefs great beauty from this formation ; but as thefe are neceffarily more or lefs of a cylindrical or conic form, the nodu- les or globular flints above defcribed cannot have been conftru&ed in this manner. To what law of nature then is to be referred the production of fuch numerous concentric fpheres ? I fufpecl: to the law of congelation. When fait and water are expofed to fevere frofty air, the fait is faid to be NOTE XIX. ADDITIONAL NOTES. *7Jr precipitated as the water freezes; that is, as the heat in which it was diffolv- ed is withdrawn: where the experiment is tried in a bowl or bafon, this may be true, as the furface freezes firft, and the fait is found at the bot- torn. But in a fluid expofed in a thin phial, I found, by experiment, that jthe extraneous matter previoufly diflblved by the heat, in the mixture, was i>ot fimply fet at liberty to fubfide, but was detruded or pulhed backward as the ice was produced. The experiment was this: about two ounces of a fo- lution of blue vitriol were accidentally frozen in a thin phial, the glafs was cracked and fallen to pieces, the ice was diflblyed, and I found a pillar of blue vitriol ftanding erecl: on the bottom of the broken bottle. Nor is this power of congelation more extraordinary than that, by its powerful and fudr den expanfion, it fhould burft iron fhells and coehorns, or throw out the plugs with which the water was fecured in them, above one hundred and thirty yards, according to the experiments at Quebec, by Major Williams. Edinb. Tranfaa. vol. II. p. 23. In fome filiceous nodules, which now lie before me, the external cruft foe #bout the tenth of an inch confifts of white agate, in others it is much thinner, 2nd in fome much thicker ; correfponding with this cruft there are from twenty to thirty fuperincumbent ftrata, of alternately darker and lighter colour; whence it appears, that the external cruft, a it cooled or froze, pro- pelled from it the iron or manganefe which was diflblved in it; this receded till it had formed an arch or vault ftrong enough to refift its further protru- fion; then the next inner fphere or ftratum, as it cooled or froze, propelled forwards its colouring matter in the fame manner, till another arch or fphere produced fufficient refiftance to this frigorefcent expulfion. Some of them have detruded their colouring matter quite t6 the centre, the rings continu- ing to become darker as they are nearer it ; in others the chalybeate arch feems to have flopped half an inch from the centre, and become thicker by having attracted to itfelf the irony matter from the white nucleus, owing probably to its cooling lefs precipitately in the central parts than at the furface of the pebble. A fimilar detrufion of a marly matter, in circular arches or vaults, obtains in the fait mines in Cheflaire; from whence Dr. Hutton very ingenioufly concludes, that the fait muft have been liquified by heat, which would feen> to be much confirmed by the above theory. Edinb. Tranf. vol. I. p. 244. I cannot conclude this account of Scots-pebbles without obferving, that fome of them, on being favved longitudinally afunder, feem ftill to poflefs fome veftiges of the cylindrical organization of vegetables; others poflefs a nucleus of white agajte, much refembling fome bulbous roots, with their con- centric coats, or the knots in elm-roots or crab-trees; fome of thefe, I fup- pofe, were formed in the manner above explained, during the congelation f maffes of melted flint and iron ; others may have been formed from a ve- getable nucleus, and retain fome veftiges of the organization of the plant. PART I. 2 A 178 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART!, 4. SAND OF THE SEA. The great abundance of filiceous fand at the bottom of the ocean may, in part, be waflied down from the filiceous rocks above defcribed; but, in gene- ral, I fuppofe it derives its acid only from the vegetable and animal matter of morafies, which is carried down by floods or by the atmofphere, and be- comes united in the fea with its calcareous bafe, from fhells and coralloids, and thus aflumes its cryftalline form at the bottom of the ocean, and is there intermixed with gravel, or other matters, waflied from the mountains in its vicinity. 5. CHERT, OR PETROSILEX. The rocks of marble are often alternately intermixed with ftrata of chert, or coarfe flint, and this in beds from one to three feet thick, as at Ham and Matlock, or of lefs than the tenth of an inch in thicknefs, as a mile or two from Bakewell, in the road to Buxton. It is difficult to conceive in what manner ten or twenty ftrata of either lime-ftone or flint, of different fhades of white and black, could be laid quite regularly over each other from fedi- ments, or precipitations from the fca; it appears to me much eafier to com- prehend, by fuppofmg, with Dr. Hutton, that both the folid rocks of mar- ble and the flint had been fufed by great heat (or by heat and water), under immenfe preffure; by its cooling, or congealing, the colouring matter might be detruded, and form parallel or curvilinear ftrata, as above explained. The colouring matter, both of lime-ftone and flint, was probably owing to the flefh of peculiar animals, as well as the filiceous acid, which converted fome of the lime-ftone into flint ; or to fome ftrata of fhell-fifh having been overwhelmed, when alive, with new materials, while others, dying in their natural fituations, would lofe their flefhy part, either by its putrid folution in the water, or by its being eaten by other fea infecls. I have fome calca- reous foflil fhells which contain a black coaly matter in them, which was evidently the body of the animal, and others of the fame kind filled with fpar inftead of it. The Labradore ftone has, I fuppofe, its colours from the nacre, or m.other-pearl Ihells, from which it was probably produced. And there is a ftratum of calcareous matter about fix or eight inches thick, at Wingerworth, in Derbyfhire, over the iron-beds, which is replete with fhells of frefh-water mufcles, and evidently obtains its dark colour from them, as mentioned in note XVI. Many nodules of flint refemble, in colour, as well in form, the fhells of the echinus, or fea-urchin ; others refemble fome co- ralloids, both in form and colour; and M. Arduini found in the Monte de Pancrafio, red flints branching like corals, from whence they feem to have obtained both their form and their colour. Ferber's Travels in Italy, p. 4*. NOTE XIX. ADDITIONAL NOTES. 179 6. NODULES OF FLINT IN CHALK-BEDS. As the nodules of flint found in chalk-beds poflefs no marks of having been rounded by attrition or folution, I conclude that they have gained their form, as well as their dark colour, from the flelh of the (hell-fifh from which they had their origin ; but which have been fo completely fufed by heat, or heat and water, as to obliterate all veftiges of the fhell, in the fame manner as the nodules of agate and onyx were produced from parts of vegetables, but which had been fo completely fufed as to obliterate all marks of their organization, or as many iron-nodules have obtained their form and origin from peculiar vegetables. Some nodules in chalk-beds confift of fhells of echini filled up with chalk* the animal having been diffolved away by putrefcence in water, or eaten by other fea infects; other fhells of echini, in which I fuppofe the animal's body remained, are converted into flint, but ftill retain the form of the fhcll. Others, I fuppofe^ as above, being more completely fufed, have become flint- coloured by the animal flefh, but without the exact form either of the flefh or fhell of the animal. Many of thefe are hollow within, and lined with cryftals, like the Scots-pebbles above defcribed; but as the colouring matter of animal bodies differs little from each other compared with thofe of vege- tables, thefe flints vary lefs in their colours than thofe above-mentioned. At the fame time as they cooled in concentric fpheres, like the Scots-pebbles, they often poffefs faint rings of colours, and always break in conchoidc forms like them. This idea of the productions of nodules of flint in chalk-beds, is counte- nanced from the iron which generally appears as thefe flints become decom* pofed by the air, which, by uniting with the iron in their competition, re- duces it from a vitrefcent ftate to that of calx, and thus renders it vifible. And, fecondly, by there being no appearance in chalk-bede of a firing or pipe of filiceous matter connecting one nodule with another, which mufl have happened if the filiceous matter, or its acid, had been injected from without, according to the idea of Dr. Hutton. And, thirdly, becaufe many of them have very large cavities at their centres, which fhould not have happened had they been formed by the injection of a material from without. When fhells or chalk are thus converted from calcareous to filiceous mat- ter by the flefh of the animal, the new flint being heavier than the fhell or chalk, occupies lefs fpace than the materials it was produced from ; this is the caufe of frequent cavities within them, where the whole mafs has not been completely fufed and preffed together. In Derby fhire there are mafTcs of coralloid and other fhells which have become filiceous, and are thus left with large vacuities, fometimes within and fometimcs on the outfide of the remaining form of the fhell, like the French mill-ftones, and, I fuppofe, might ferve the fame purpofe; the gravel of the Derwent is full of fpeci- mens of this kind. Since writing the above, I have received a very ingenious account of chalk-beds from Dr. Menifh, of Chelmsford. He diftinguifhes chalk-beds i8d BOTANIC GARDEN. into three kinds; fuch as have been raifed from the fea with little ance of their ftrata, as the cliffs of Dover and Margate, which he terms in* tire chalk. Another ftate of chalk is where it has fuffered much derangement^ as the banks of the Thames at Gravefend and Dartford. And a third ftate, where fragments of chalk have been rounded by water, which he terms /- 'iuvial chalk. In the firft of thefe fituations of chalk he obferves, that the flint lies in ftrata horizontally, generally in diftindl nodules, but that he haf bbferved two inftances of folid plates or ftrata of flint, from an inch to two" inches in thicknefs, interpofed between the chalk-beds; one of thefe is in a chalk-bank by the road fide, at Berkhamftead, the other in a bank on the road from Chatham leading to Canterbury. Dr. Menifti has further ob- ferved, that many of the echini are crufhed in their form, and yet filled with flint, which has taken the form of the crufhed fhellj and that though- many flint nodules are hollow, yet that in fome echini the filiceum feems to have enlarged as it paffed from a fluid to a folid ftate, as it fwells out in a protuberance at the mouth and anus of the fhell, and that though thefe Jhells are fo filled with flint, yet that in many places the fhell itfelf remain* calcareous. Thefe ftrata of nodules and plates of flint feem to countenance Uieir origin from the flefh of a ftratum of animals which perifhed by fome natural violence, and were buried in their fhells. 7. ANGLES OF SILICEOUS SAND, In many rocks of filiceous fand the particles retain their angular form> fend in fome beds of loofe fand, of which there is one of confiderable purity a few yards beneath the marl at Normington, about a mile fouth of Derby. Other filiceous fands have had their angles rounded off, like the pebbles irt gravel-beds. Thefe feem to owe their globular form to two canfes; one td their attrition againft each other, when they may for centuries have lain at the bottom of the fea, or of rivers, where they may have been progrefiively accumulated, and thus progrefilvely at the fame time rubbed upon each other by the dafhing of the water, and where they would be more eafily rolled over each other by their gravity being fo much lefs than in air. This is evidently now going on in the river Derwent ; for though there are no lime j Hone rocks for ten or fifteen miles above Derby, yet a great part of the ri- ver-gravel at Derby confifts of lime-ftone nodules, whofe angles are quite worn off in their defcent down the ftream. There is, however, another caufe which muft have contributed to round the angles both of calcareous and filiceous fragments, and that is, their folu- l>ility in water; calcareous earth is perpetually found fufpended in the wa- ters which pafs over it ; and the earth of flints was obferved by Bergmari to be contained in water in the proportion of one grain to a gallon. Kir- wan's Mineralogy, p. 107. In boiling water, however, it is foluble in much greater proportion, as appears from the Clicecus. earth lublimed in the dif- tillation of fluor acid in glafs veffels, and from the bafons of calcedony which furroundcd the jets of hot water near Mount Hecla, in Icelarfd. Troil oh Iceland. It is probable moll filiceous fands or pebbles have, at fome ages of ADDITIONAL NOTES. 181 the world, been long expofed to aqueous fteams raifed by fubterranean fires. And if fragments of ftone were long immerfed in a fluid menftruum, their angular parts would be firft diflblved, on account of their greater furface. Many beds of filiceous gravel are cemented together by a filiceous cementj and are called breccia, as the plumb-pudding {tones of Hartfordihire, and the walls of a ftibterraneous temple excavated by Mr. Curzon, at Hagley, hear Rugely, in Staffordshire; thefe may have been expofed to great heat as they were immerfed in water, which water, under great preffure of fuper- incumbent materials, may have been rendered red-hot, as in Papin's digefter; and have thus poffefled powers of folution with which we are unacquainted. BASALTES AND GRANITES. Another fource of filiceous ftones is from the granite, or bafaltes, or por- phyries, which are of different hardneifes, according to the materials of their compofition, or to the fire they have undergone ; fuch are the {tones of Ar- thur's-hill, near Edinburgh; of the Giant's Caufeway, in Ireland; and of Charnwood Foreft, in Leicefterihire ; the uppermoft ilratum of which laft feems to have been cracked either by its elevation, or by its haftily cooling, after ignition, by the contact of dews or fnows, and thus breaks into angu- lar fragments, fuch as the ftreets of London are paved with, or have had their angles rounded by attrition, or by partial folution; and have thus formed the common paving ftones, or bowlers, as well as the gravel, which is often rolled into flrata amid the filiceous fand-beds, which are either formed or collected in the fea. In what manner fuch a mafs of cryftallized matter as the Giant's Caufe- way, and limilar columns of bafaltes, could have been raifed without other volcanic appearances, may be a matter not eafy to comprehend; but there is another power in nature befides that of expanfile vapour, which may have raifed fome materials which have previoufly been in igneous or aqueoua fo- lution; and that is the act of congelation. "When the water, in the experi- ments above related of Major Williams, had, by congelation, thrown out the plugs from the bomb-fhells, a column of ice rofe from the hole of the bomb fix or eight inches high. Other bodies, I fufpect, increafe in bulk, which cryftallize in cooling, as iron and type-metal. I remember pouring eight or ten pounds of melted brimftone into a pot to cool, and was fur* prized to fee, after a little time, a part of the fluid beneath break a hole in the congealed cruft above it, and gradually rife into a promontory feveral inches high; the bafaltes has many marks of fufion and of crystallization, and may thence, as well as many other kinds of rock, as of fpar, marble, petrofilex, jafper, &c. have been raifed by the power of congelation, a power whofe quantity has not yet been afcertained, and, perhaps, greater and more univerfal than that of vapours expanded by heat. Thefe bafaltic columns rife fometimes out of mountains of granite itfelf, as mentioned by Dr. Bed- does, (Phil. Tranf. vol. LXXX.) and as they feem to confift of fimilar ma- terials, more completely fufed, there is {till greater reafon to believe them to have been elevated in the cooling or crystallization of the maf. See not* XXIV. BOTANIC GARDEN. PART!. NOTE XX. CLAY. Hence ditfiile Clays In ivlde expanjlon fpread t Soft as the Cygnet's do-wn^ their fiioiu-iuhite bed. CANTO IT. 1. 277. THE philofophers who have attended to the formation of the earth, have acknowledged two great agents in producing the various changes which the terraqueous globe has undergone, and thefe are water and fire. Some of them have, perhaps, afcribed too much to one of thefe great agents of na- ture, and fome to the other. They have generally agreed, that the {Grati- fication of materials could only be produced from fediments or precipita- tions, which were previoufly mixed or diffolved in the fea; and that what- ever effects were produced by fire, were performed afterwards. There is, however, great difficulty in accounting for the univerfal {Grati- fication of the folid globe of the earth in this manner, fince many of the materials, which appear in ftrata, could not have been fufpended in water; as the nodules of flint in chalk-beds, the extenfive beds of {hells; and, laftly, the ftrata of coal, clay, fand, and iron-ore, which, in mofl coal-countrks, lie from five to feven times alternately ftratified over each other, and none of them are foluble in water. Add to this, if a folution of them, or a mixture of them in water, could be fuppofed, the caufe of that folution muft ceafe be- fore a precipitation could commence. 1. The great maffes of lava, under the various names of granite, por- phyry, toad-ftone, moor-flone, rag, and flate, which conftitute the old world, may have acquired the old {Gratification, which feme of them appear to poffefs, by their having been formed by fucceffive eruptions of a fluid mafs, which, at different periods of ancient time, arofe from volcanic {hafts and covered each other, the furface of the interior mafs of lava would cool, and become folid, before the fuperincumbent ftratum was poured over it; to the fame caufe may be afcribed their different compofitions and textures, which are fcarcely the fame in any two parts of the world. 2. The {Gratifications of the great maffes of lime-ftone, which were produced from fea-fhclls, feem to have been formed by the different times at which the innumerable {hells were produced and depofited. A colony of echini, or madrepores, or cornua ammonis, lived and periflied in one period of time; in another, a new colony of either fimilar or different {hells lived and died over the former ones, producing a ftratum of more recent {hells over a ftratum of others which had begun to petrify, or to become marble ; and thus, from unknown depths to what are now the fummits of mountains, the lime-ftone is difpofed in ftrata of varying folidity and colour. Thefe have afterwards undergone variety of changes by their folution and depofition from the water in which they were immerfed, or from having been expofed to great heat under great preffure, according to tha ingenious theory of Dr. Hutton. Edinb. Tranfad. vol. I. See Note XVL 3. In moft of the coal-countrieS of this ifland, there are from five to feven beds of coal ftratified, with an equal number of beds, though of much greater NOTE XX. ADDITIONAL NOTES. 183 thicknefs, of clay and fand-ftone, and occafionally of iron-ores. In what manner to account for the {Gratification of thefe materials feems to be a problem of great difficulty. Philosophers have generally fuppofed that they have been arranged by the currents of the fea; but confidering their infolubility in water, and their almoft fimilar fpecific gravity, an accumula- tion of them in fuch diftind: beds from this caufe is altogether inconceivable, though fome coal-countries bear marks of having been, at fome time, im- merfed beneath the waves, and raifed again by fubterranean fires. The higher and lower parts of morafles were neceffarily produced at dif- ferent periods of time, fee Note XVII. and would thus originally be formed in ftrata of diiferent ages. For when an old wood periihed, and produced a morafs, many centuries would elapfe before another wood could grow, and perifh again, upon the fame ground, which would thus produce a new ftra- tum of morafs over the other, differing, indeed, principally in its age, and, perhaps, as the timber might be different, in the proportion of its compo- nent parts. Now, if we fuppofe the lowermoft ftratum of a morafs become ignited, like fermenting hay (after whatever could be carried away by folution in water was gone), what would happen ? Certainly the inflammable part, the oil, fulphur, or bitumen, would burn away, and be evaporated in air; and the fixed parts would be left, as clay, lime, and iron ; while fome of the cal- careous earth would join with the filiceous acid, and produce fand; or with the argillaceous earth, and produce marl. Thence, after many centuries, another bed would take fire, but with lefs degree of ignition, and with a, greater body of morafs over it; what then would happen ? The bitumen and fulphur would rife, and might become condenfed under an impervious ftra- tum, which might not be ignited, and there form, coal of different purities, according to its degree of fluidity, which would permit fome of the clay to fubfide through it into the place from which it was fublimed. Some centuries afterwards another fimilar procefs might take place, and cither thicken the coal-bed, or produce a new clay-bed, or marl, or fand, or depofit iron upon it, according to the concomitant circumftances above- mentioned. I do not mean to contend, that a few mafles of fome materials may not have been rolled together by currents, when the mountains were much more elevated than at prefent, and, in confequence, the rivers broader and more rapid, and the ftorms of rain and wind greater both in quantity and force. Some gravel-beds may have been thus wafhed from the mountains; and fome white clay wafhed from morafles into valleys beneath them; and fome ochres of iron diffolved and again depofited by water; and fome calcareous depofitions from water (as the bank, for inftance, on which ftand the houfes at Matlock-bath); but thefe are all of fmall extent or confequence compared to the primitive rocks of granite or porphyry which form the nucleus of the earth, or to the immenfe ftrata of limc-ftone which cruft over the greateft part of this granite or porphyry; or, laftly, to the very extenfive beds of clay, marl, fand-ftone, coal, and iron, which were probably for many mil* lions of years the only parts of our continents and iflands, which were then 184 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART I. elevated above the level of the fea, and which, on that account, became covered with vegetation, and thence acquired their later or fuperincumbent flrata, which conftitute what fome have termed the new world. There is another fource of clay, and that of the fineft kind, from decom- pofed granite; this is of a fnowy white, and mixed with fhining particles of mica; of this kind is an earth from the country of Cherokees. Other kinds fire from lefs pure lavas ; Mr. Ferber afierts that the fulphurous fleams from Mount Vefuvius convert the lava into clay. " The lavas of the ancient Solfatara volcano have been undoubtedly of a vitreous nature, and thefe appear at prefent argillaceous. Some fragments of this lava are but half, or at one fide changed into clay, which either is vifcid or du&ile, or hard and ftony. Clays, by fire, are deprived of their coherent quality, which cannot be reftored to them by pulverisation, nor by numeration. But the fulphureous Solfatara fleams reftore it, as may be eafily obferved on the broken pots wherein they gather the fal ammoniac; though very well baked and burnt at Naples, they are mollified again by the acid fleams into a vifcid clay, which keeps the former fire-burnt colour/* Travels in Italy, p. 156. NOTE XXI.-ENAMELS. Smeared her huge dragons tvitb metallic hues y With golden purples y and cobaltic blues. CANTO II. 1. 287, THE fine bright purples or rofe colours which we fee on china cups, aro Mot producible with any other material except gold; manganefe indeed gives a purple, but of a very different kind. In Europe, the application of gold to thefe purpofes, appears to be of mo- dern invention. Caffius's difcovery of the precipitate of gold by tin, and the ufe of that precipitate for colouring glafs and enamels, are now gene- rally known ; but though the precipitate with tin be more fuccefsful in pro~ clucing the ruby glafs, or the colourlefs glafs, which becomes red by fub- fequent ignition, the tin probably contributing to prevent the gold from feparating (which it is very liable to do during the fufion); yet, for ena- mels, the precipitates made by alkaline falts anfwer equally well, and give a finer red; the colour produced by the tin precipitate being a bluifh purple, but with the others a rofe red. I am informed that fome of our befl artifts prefer aurum fulminans, mixing it, before it has become dry, with the white compofition, or enamel flux; when once it is divided by the other matter, it is ground with great fafety, and without the leafl danger of explofion, whether moifl or dry. The colour is remarkably improved and brought forth by long grinding, which accordingly makes an effential circumflancc in the procefe. The precipitates of gold, and the colcothar, or other red preparations of iron, are called tender colours. The heat muft be no greater than \% jujl NOTE XXI. ADDITIONAL NOTES. 185 fufficient to make the enamel run upon the piece, for if greater, the colours will be deftroyed or changed to a different kind. When the vitreous matter has juft become fluid, it feems as if the coloured metallic calx remained barely intermixed with it, like a coloured powder of exquifite tenuity fufpended in water; but by ftronger fire the, calx is dij/ol>ued, and metallic colours are altered byfolution in glafs, as well as in acids or alkalies. The Saxon mines have, till very lately, almoft exclufively fupplied the reft of Europe with cobalt, or rather with its preparations, zaffre and fmalt, for the exportation of the ore itfelf is there a capital crime. Hungary, Spain, Sweden, and fomc other parts of the continent, are now faid to afford cobalts equal to the Saxon, and fpecimens have been difcovered in our own ifland, both in Cornwall and in Scotland, but hitherto in no great quantity. Calces of cobalt and of copper differ very materially from thofe above* mentioned in their application for colouring enamels. In thofe the calx has previoufly acquired the intended colour, a colour which bears a red heat without injury, and all that remains is to fix it on the piece by a vitreous fiux. But the blue colour of cobalt, and the green or bluilh green of cop- per, are produced by vitrification, that is, by folution in the glafs, and a ftrong fire is neceffary for their perfection. Thefe calces, therefore, when mixed with the enamel flux, are melted in crucibles, once or oftener, and the deep coloured opake glafs, thence refulting, is ground into impalpable pow- der, and ufed for enamel. One part of eitheiiof thefe calces is put to ten, fixteen, or twenty parts of the flux, according to the depth of colour required. The heat of the enamel-kiln is only a full red, fuch as is marked on Mr. Wedgwood's thermometer 6 degrees. It is therefore neceffary that the flux be fo adjufted as to melt in that low heat. The ufual materials are flint, or flint-glafs, with a due proportion of red-led, or borax, or both, and fome- times a little tin calx to give opacity. Ka-o-lin is the name given by the Chinefe to their porcelain clay, and pe-tun-tfc to the other ingredient in their China ware. Specimens of both thefe have been brought into England, and found to agree in quality with fome of our own materials. Kaolin is the very fame with the clay called in Cornwall and the petuntfe is a granite fimilar to the Cornifh moor-ftone. There are differences, both in the Chinefe petuntfes, and the Englifh moor-ftones; all of them contain micaceous and quartzy particles, in greater or lefs quantity, along with feltfpat, which laft is the effential ingredient for the porcelain manufactory. The only injurious material com- monly found in them is iron, which difcolours the ware in porportion to its quantity, and which our moor-ftones are, perhaps, more frequently tainted with than the Chinefe. Very fine porcelain has been made from Englifh mate- rials, but the nature of the manufa-fiure renders the procefs precarious and, the profit hazardous ; for the fernl-vitrification, which conftitutes porcelain, is neceffarily accompanied with a degree of foftnefs or femi-fufion, fo that the veffels are liable to have their forms altered in the kiln, or to run jher with any accidental augmentations of the fire. PART I. 2 B 1 86 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART I, NOTE XXII. PORTLAND VASE. Or hid Mortality rejoice and mourn O'er the Jinc forms on Portland's myjlic urn. CANTO II. 1. 3*9* THE celebrated funeral vafe, long in pofleffion of the Barberini family, and lately purchafed by the Duke of Porland for a thoufand guineas, is about ten inches high, and fix in diameter in the broadeft part. The figuiea are of moft exquiflte workman {hip in has relief, of white opake glafs, raifed on a ground of deep blue glafs, which appears black, except when held againfl the light. Mr. Wedgwood is of opinion, from many circumftances, that the figures have been made by cutting away the external cruft of white opake glafs, in the manner the finefl cameos have been produced, and that it muft thence have been the labour of a great many years. Some antiqua- rians have placed the time of its production many centuries before the chrif- tian sera, as fculpture was faid to have been declining, in refpe5l to its ex- cellence, in the time of Alexander the Great. See an account of the Bar- berini, or Portland vafe, by M. D'Hancarville, and by Mr. Wedgwood. Many opinions and conj eiShires have been publifhed' concerning the figures on this celebrated vafc. Having carefully examined one of Mr. Wedg- wood's beautiful copies of this wonderful production of art, I lhall add one more conjecture to the number. Mr. Wedgwood has well obferved, that it does not feem probable that the Portland vafe was purpofely made for the afhes of any particular perfon deceafed, becaufe many years muft have been neceflary for its production. Hence it may be concluded, that the fubjecl of its embellilhments is not private hiftory, but of a general nature. This fubjecT: appears to me to be well chofen, and the flory to be finely told ; and that it reprefents what in ancient times engaged the attention of philofophers, poets, and heroes ; I mean a part of the Eleufmian myfteries. Thefe myfteries were invented in Egypt, and afterwards transferred to Greece, and flourifhed more particularly at Athens, which was, at the fame s time, the feat of the fine arts. They confifted of fcenical exhibitions, re- prefenting and inculcating the expectation of a future life after death, and, on this account, were encouraged by the government, in fo much that the Athe- nian laws puniftied a difcovery of then: fecre'ts with death. Dr. Warbur- ton has, with great learning and ingenuity, fhewn, that the defcent of ./Eneas into hell, defcribed in the iixth Book of Virgil, is a poetical account of the reprefentations of the future ftate in the Eleufinian myfteries. Divine Le- gation, vol. I. p. aio, And though fome writers have differed in opinion from Dr. Warburton on this fubjecT:, becaufe Virgil has introduced fome of his own heroes into the Elyfian fields, as Deiphobus, Palinurus, and Dido, in the fame manner as Homer had done before him ; yet it is agreed, that the received notions about a future ftate were exhibited in thefe myfteries ; and as theTe poets defcribed thofe received notions, they may be faid, as far as thefe religious doctrines were concerned, to have defcribed the myfteries. ADDITIONAL NOTES. 187 Now, as thefe were emblematic exhibitions, they rnuft have been as well adapted to the purpofes of fculpture as of poetry, which, indeed, does not feem to have been uncommon, fince one compartment of figures in the {hield of jEneas reprefented the regions of Tartarus. ./En. Lib. X. The proceflion of torches, which, according to M. De St. Croix, was exhibited in thefe myfteries, is {till to be feen in baffo relieVo, difccvered by Spon and Wheler. Memoires fur le Myfteres par De St. Croix. 1784. And it is very probable that the beautiful gem reprefenting the marriage of Cupid and Pfyche, as defcribed by Ajpuleus, was originally defcriptive of another part of the exhibitions in thefe myfleries, though afterwards it became a common fubjed of ancient art. See Divine Legat. Vol. I. p. 323. What fubjed: could have been imagined fo fublime for the ornaments of a funeral urn, as the mortality of all things, and their refufcitation ? Where could the dcfigner be fupplied with emblems for this purpofe, before the Chriftian Era, but from the Eleufinian myfteries? I. The exhibitions of the myfteries were of two kinds thofe which the people were permitted to fee, and thofe which were only {hewn to the ini- tiated. Concerning the latter, Ariftides calls them " the moft mocking and moft ravifhing reprefentations." And Stoboeus afierts, that the initiation^ into the grand myfteries exactly refembles death. Divine Legat. vol. I. p. 280, and p. 27 a. And Virgil, in his entrance to the {hades below, amongft other things of terrible form, mentions death, JEn. VI. This part of the exhibition feems to be reprefented in one of the compartments of the Port- land vafe. Three figures of exquifite workmanfhip are placed by the fide of a ruined column, whofe capital is fallen off, and lies at their feet with other disjointed {lones; they fit on loofe piles of ftone, beneath a tree, which has not the leaves of any evergreen of this climate, but may be fuppofed to be an elm, which Virgil places near the entrance of the infernal regions, and adds, that a dream was believed to dwell under every leaf of it. ./En. VI. 1. 281. In the midft of this group reclines a female figure in a dying attitude, in which extreme languor is beautifully reprefented; in her hand is an inverted torch, an ancient emblem of extinguifhed life; the elbow of the fame arm refting on a ftone, fupports her as {he finks, while the other hand is raife'd, and thrown over her drooping head, in fome meafure fuftaining it, and gives, with great art, the idea of fainting laflitudjea On the right of her fits a man, and on the left a woman, both fupporting themfelves on their arms, as people are liable to do ,when they are thinking intenfely. They have their backs towards the dying figure, yet with their faces turned toward* her, as if ferioufly contemplating her fituation, but without ftretching out their hands to affifl her. This central figure, then, appears to me to be an hieroglyphic, or Eleufi- nian emblem of MORTAL LIFE, that is, the lethum, or death, mentioned by Virgil amongft the terrible things exhibited at the beginning of the myfte- ries. The inverted torch fhews the figure to be emblematic; if it had been defigned to reprefent a real perfon in the a6t of dying, there had been no aeceffity for the expiring torch, as the dying figure alone would have been i8fl , BOTANIC GARDEN. PART?, fufficiently intelligible ; it would have been as abfurd as to have put an in<* verted torch into the hand of a real perfcn at the time of his expiring. Be- fides, if this figure had reprefented a real dying perfon, -would not the other figures, or one of them at leaft, have ftretchtd out a hand to fupport her, to have eafed her fall among loofe flones, or to have fmoothed her pillow ? Thefe circumftances evince that the figure is an emblem, and, therefore, could not be a reprefentation of the private hiftory of any particular family or event, The man and woman on each fide of the dying figure muft be confidered as emblems, both from their fimilarity of fituation and drefs to the middle figure, and their being grouped along with it. Thefe, I think, are hierogly- phic or Eleufinian emblems of HUMANKIND, with their backs toward the dy- ing figure of MokTAL LIFE, unwilling to affociate with her, yet turning back their ferious and attentive countenances, curious indeed to behold, yet forry to contemplate their latter end. Thefe figures bring ffcrongly to one's mind the Adam and Eve of facred writ, whom fome have fuppofed to- have been allegorical or hieroglyphic perfons of Egyptian origin, but of more ancient date; amongft whom, I think, is Dr. Warburton. According to this opi-- nion, Adr.m and Eve were the names of two hieroglyphic figures, reprefent- ing the early ftate of mankind ; Abel was the name of an hieroglyphic fi- gure, reprefenting the age of pafturage ', and Cain, the name of another hie- roglyphic fymbol, reprefenting the age of agriculture ; at which time the ufes of iron were discovered. And as the people who cultivated the earth, arid' built houfes, would increafe in numbers much fafter by their greater pro- duction of food, they would readily conquer or deftroy the people who were fuftained by pafturage, which was typified by Cain flaying Abel. 2. On the other compartment of this celebrated vafe, is exhibited an em- blem of immortality, the reprefentation of which was well known to con-' ftitute a very principal part of the fhews at the Eleufinian myfteries, a* Dr. Warburton has proved by variety of authority. The habitation of fpi- rits or ghofts, after death, was fuppofed by the ancients to be placed beneath the earth, where Pluto reigned, and difpenfed rewards or punifhments. Hence the firft figure in this group is of the MANES, or GHOST, who, hav- ing paffed through an open portal, is dcfceriding into a dulky region, point- ing his toe with timid and unftcady ftcp, feeling, as it were, his way in the gloom. This portal ./Eneas ^WeYs, which is defcribed by Virgil, patet atri janua Ditis, JEn. VI. 1. 126; as well as the eafy dcfcent, facilis dc- fcenfus Averni. Ib. The darkncfs at the entrance to the fhades is humor- oufly defcribed by Lucian. Div. Legat. vol. I. p. 241. And th'e horror of the gates of hell was, in the time of Homer, become a proverb. Achilles fays to Ulyffes, " I hate a Ipr worfe than the gates of hell;" the fame ex- prefiion is ufed in Ifaiah, ch. xxxviii. v. 10. The MANES, or GHOST, appears lingering and fearful, and wifhes to drag after him a part of his mortal garment, which, however, adheres to the fide of the portal through which he has paffed. The beauty of this allegory would have been expreffed by Mr. Pope, by " We feel the ruling paffion ftrong in death." A little lower down in the group, the manes, or ghcfl, is received by NOTE XXII.- ADDITIONAL NOTES. 189 beautiful female, a fymbol of IMMORTAL LIFE. This is evinced by her fondling between her knees a large and playful ferpent, which, from its an- nually renewing its external ficin, has, from great antiquity, even as early as the fable of Prometheus, been efteemed an emblem of renovated youth. The ftory of the ferpent acquiring immortal life from the afs of Prome- theus, who carried it on his back, is told in Bacon's Works, vol. V. p. 462. quarto edit. Lond. 1778. For a fimilar purpofe a ferpent was wrapped round the large hieroglyphic egg in the temple of Diofcuri, as an emblem, of the renewal of life from a ftate of death. Bryant's Mythology, vol. II. P-.359- fee. edit. On this account alfo the ferpent was an attendant on -ffifculapius, which feems to have been the name of the hieroglyphic figure of medicine. This ferpent fhews this figure to be an emblem, as the torch Ihewed the central T.gure of the other compartment to be an emblem; hence they agreeably correfpond, and explain each other, one reprefenting MOR- TAL LIFE, and the other IMMORTAL LIFE. This emblematic figure of immortal life fits down with her feet towards the figure of Pluto, but, turning back her face towards the timid ghoft, (he ftretches forth her hand, and, taking hold of his elbow, fupports his totter- ing fteps, as well as encourages him to advance, both which circumftances are thus, with wonderful ingenuity, brought to the eye. At the fame time the fpirit loofely lays his hand upon her arm, as one walking in the dark would naturally do for the greater certainty of following his conductrefs; while the general part of the fymbol of IMMORTAL LIFE, being turned to- ward the figure of Pluto, fhews that Ihe is leading the phantom to his realms. In the Pamphili gardens at Rome, Perfeus, in aflifting Andromeda to de- fcend from the rock, takes hold of her elbow to fteady or fupport her flep, and fhe lays her hand loofely en his arm, as in this fgure. Admir. Reman Antiq. The fgure of PLUTO can not be miftaken, as it is agreed by moft of the writers who have mentioned this vafe ; his grifley beard, and his having one foot buried in the earth, denote the infernal monarch. Ke is placed at the loweft part of the group, and, refting his chin on his hand, and his arm upon his knee, receives the ftranger-fpirit with inquifitive attention. It was before obferved, that when people think attentively, they naturally reft their bodies in feme eafy -attitude, that more animal power may be employed on the thinking faculty. In this group of figures there is great art fhewn in giving an idea of a defcending plain, viz. from earth to Elyfium, and yet all the fgures are, in reality, on a horizontal one. This wonderful decep- tion is produced, frft, by the defcending ftep of the manes, or ghoft; fe- condly, by the arm of the fitting figure of Immortal Life being raifed up to receive him as he defcends ; and, laftly, by Pluto having one foot funk into the earth. There is yet another figure which is concerned in conducting the manes, or ghoft, to the realms of Pluto, and this is LOVE. He precedes the defcend- ing fpirit on expanded wings, lights him with his torch, and turning back his beautiful countenance, beckons him to advance. The ancient God of love *9* BOTANIC GARDEN. PART!. was of much higher dignity than the modern Cupid. He was the firft that Came out of the great egg of night, (Hefiod. Theog. V. CXX. Briant's Mythol. vol. II. p. 348.) and is faid to pofiefs the keys of the Iky, fea, and earth. As he, therefore, led the way into this life, he feems to conftitute a proper emblem for leading the way to a future life. See Bacon's works, vol. I. p. 568. and vol. III. p. 582. quarto edit. The introduction of Love into this part of the myfteries requires a little further explanation. The Pfychc of the Egyptians was one of their moft, favourite emblems, and represented the foul, or a future life ; it was origi- nally no other than the aurelia, or butterfly, hut in after time, was repre- fented by a lovely female child, with the beautiful wings of that infect. The aurelia, after its firft ftage as an eruca or caterpillar, lies for a feafon in a manner dead, and is inclofed in a fort of coffin ; in this {late of darkncfs it remains all the winter ; but, at the return of fpring, it burfts its bonds and comes out with new life, and in the moft beautiful attire. The Egyptians thought this a very proper picture of the foul of man, and of the immor- tality to which it afpired. But as this was all owing to divine Love, of which EROS was an emblem, we f ; nd this perfon frequently introduced as a toncomitant of the foul in general, or Pfyche. (Bryant's Mythol. vol. II. p. 386.) EROS, or divine Love, is for the fame reafon a proper attendant on the manes or foul after death, and much contributes to tell the ftory, that is, to fhew that a foul or manes is defigned by the defcending ligure. From this figure of Love, M. D'Hancarville imagines that Orpheus and Eurydicc are typiticd under the figure of the manes, and immortal life as above de- fcribed. It may be fufficient to anfwer, firft, that Orpheus is always repre- fented with a lyre, of Avhich there are prints of four different gems in Spence's Polymetis, and Virgil fo defcribes him, JEn. VI. cythara fretus. And fecondiy, that it is abfurd to fuppofe that Eurydice was fondling and playing with a ferpent that had {lain her. Add to this, that Love feems to have been an inhabitant of the infernal regions, as exhibited in the myfteries; for Claudian, who treats more openly of the Eleufmian myfteries, when they were held in lefs veneration, invokes the deities to difclofe to him their fecrets, and ainongft other things, by what torch Love foftens Pluto. Dii, quibits in numerum, &c. J' r cs miL'i j'jcrarnin penetralia pan:liie rerxm., t "jejlri fccrcla foli t qua lai:tbadz Diicm Flcxit Amor. In this compartment there are two trees, whofe branches fprcad over the figures : one of them has 1'moother leaves, like fome evergreens, and might thence be fuppofed to have fome allufion to immortality, but they may perhaps have been defigned only as ornaments, or to relieve the figures, or becaufe it was in grcves, where thcfe myfteries were originally celebrated. Thus Homer {peaks of the woods of Proferpine, and mentions many trees in Tartarus, as prefenting their fruits to Tantalus; Virgil ipeaks of the pleafant groves of Ely Hum; and in Spence's Fclymetis there are prints of two ancient gems, one of Orpheus charming Cerberus with his lyre, and the other of HarcuJes binding him in a cord; each of th-em {lauding by a NOTE XXII. ADDITIONAL NOTES. x 9 t tree. Polymet. p. 284. As, however, thefe trees have all different foliage fe clearly marked by the artift, they may have had fpecific meanings in the exhibitions of the myfleries, which have not reached pofterity : of this kind, feem to have been the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and the tree of life, in facred writ, both which muft have been emblematic or allegorical. The mafks, hanging to the handles of the vafe, feem to indicate that there is a concealed meaning in the figure? befides their general appearance. And, the prieftefs at the bottom, which I come now to defcribe, feems to ftievr this concealed meaning to be of the facred or Eleufinian kind. 3. The figure on the bottom of the vafe, is on a larger fcale than th<? others, and lefs finely finifhed, and lefs elevated; and, as this bottom part was afterwards cemented to the upper part, it might be executed by ano- ther artift, for the fake of expedition ; but there feems no reafon to fuppofe that it was not originally defigned for the upper part of it, as fome have conjectured. As the myfleries of Ceres were celebrated by female prieffo, for Porpliyrius fays the ancients called the priefceffes of Ceres, Meliflai, or bees, which were emblems of chaftity, Div. Leg. vol. I. p. 235. and, as in his Satire againft the fex, Juvenal fays, that few women are worthy to be prieilelfes of Ceres, Sat. VI. the figure at the bottom of the vafe would fecrn to reprefent a PRIESTESS, or HIEROPHANT, whofe office it was to intro- duce the initiated, and point out to them, and explain the exhibitions in the myfleries, and to exclude the uninitiated, calling out to them, "Far, far retire, ye profane !" and to guard the fecrets of the temple. Thus the in- troduvStory hymn fung by the hierophant, according to Eufebius, begins, " I will declare a fecret to the initiated, but let the doors be fhut againft the profane." Div. Leg. vol. 1. p. 177. The prieftefs or hierophant ap- pears in this figure, with a clofe hood, and drefled in linen, which fits clofe ibout her; except a light cloak, which flutters in the wind. "Wool, as taken from flaughtered animals, was eileemed profane by the priefts of Egypt, who were always drefled in linen. Apuleus, p. 64. Div. Leg. vol. I. p. 318. Thus Eli made for Samuel a linen ephod. Samuel i. 3. Secrecy was the foundation on which all myfleries refted; when publicly known, they ceafed to be myfleries; hence a difcovery of them was not only punifhed with death by the Athenian law, but in other countries a dilgrace attended the breach of a folemn oath. The prieftefs, in the figure before us, has her finger pointing to her lips, as an emblem of filence. There is a figure of Harpocrates, who was of Egyptian origin, the fame as Orus, with the lotus on his head, and with his finger pointing to his lips, not prefied upon them, in Bryant's Mythol, vol. II. p. 398. and another female figure ftanding on a lotus, as if juft rifen from the Nile, with her finger in the fame attitude; thefe feem to have been reprefentations or emblems of male and female priefts of the fecret myfteries. As thefe forts of emblems were frequently changed by artifts for their more elegant exhibition, it is poffible the foliage over the head of this figure may bear fome analogy to the lotus above-mentioned. This figure of fecrecy feems to be here placed, with great ingenuity, as a caution to.the initiated, who might imderfland the meaning of the em* tga BOTANIC GARDEN. PART I. blems round the vafe, not to divulge it. And this circumftance feems to account for there being no written explanation extant, and no tradition con- cerning thefe beautiful figures handed down to us along with them. Another explanation of this figure, at the bottom of the vafe, would feem to confirm the idea that the baffo relievos round its fides are reprefentations of a part of the myfteries; I mean that it is the head of ATIS. Lucian fays that Atis Was a young man of Phrygia, of uncommon beauty; that he dedi- cated a temple in Syria to Rhea, or Cybele, and firft taught her myfteries to the Lydians, Phrygians, and Samothracians, which myfteries he brought from India. He was afterwards made an eunuch by Rhea, and lived like a woman, and affumed a feminine habit, and in that garb went over the world, teaching her ceremonies and myfteries. Did:, par M. Danet, art. Atis. As this figure is covered with clothes, while thofe on the fides of the vafe are naked, and has a Phrygian cap on the head, and as the form and features are fo foft, that it is difficult to fay whether it be a male or female figure, there is reafon to conclude, I. That it has reference to fome particular perfon of fome particular country ; a. That this perfon is Atis, the firft great hierophant, or teacher of myfteries, to whom M. De la Chauffe fays the figure itfelf bears a refemblance. Mufeo. Capitol. Tom. IV. p. 402. In the Mufeum Etrufcum, vol. I. plate 96, there is the head of Atis with feminine features, clothed with a Phrygian cap, and rifing from very broad foliage, placed on a kind of term, fupported by the paw of a lion. Goreus, in his explanation of the figure, fays that it is placed on a lion's foot be- caufe that animal was facred to Cybele, and that it rifes from very broad leaves, becaufe after he became an eunuch, he determined to dwell in the groves. Thus the foliage, as well as the cap and feminine features, confirm the idea of this figure at the bottom of the vafe, reprefenting the head of Atis, the firft great hierophant ; and that the figures on the fides of the vafe are emblems from the ancient myfteries. I beg leave to add, that it does not appear to have been uncommon amongft the ancients, to put allegorical figures on funeral vafes. In the Pamphili palace at Rome, there is an elaborate reprefentation of Life and Death, on an ancient farcophagus. In the firft Prometheus is reprefented making man, and Minerva is placing a butterfly, or the foul, upon his head. In the other compartment, Love extinguifhes his torch in the bofom of the dying figure, and is receiving the butterfly, or Pfyche, from him, with % great number of complicated emblematic figures grouped in very bad taftc. Admir, Roman Antic}. NOTE XXIII. ADDITIONAL NOTES. 193 NOTE XXIII. COAL, ' Hence fable Coal his maj]y couch extends, Andjlars of gold the fparkllng Pyr:te blends. CANTO II. 1. 349, TO elucidate the formation of coal-beds, I Jfhall here defcribe a fountain of foflil tar, or petroleum, difcovered lately near Colebrook Dale, in Shrop- Ihire, the particulars of which were fent me by Dr. Robert Darwin, of Shrew fbury. About a mile and a half below the celebrated iron-bridge, conftructed by the late Mr. Darby, near Colebrook Dale, on the eaft fide of the river Severn, as the workmen, in October, 1786, were making a fubterranean canal into the mountain, for the more eafy acquifition and conveyance of th coals which lie under it, they found an oozing of liquid bitumen, or petro-? leum; and as they proceeded further, cut through fmall cavities of different fizes, from which the bitumen iffued. From ten to fifteen barrels of this fofiil tar, each barrel containing thirty-two gallons, were at firft collected in a day, which has fince, however, gradually diminifhed in quantity, fa that at prefent the product is about feven barrels in fourteen days. The mountain into which this canal enters, confifls of filiceous fand, in which, however, a few marine productions, apparently in their recent ftate, have been found, and are now in the poffeffion of Mr. William Reynolds, of Ketly Bank. About three hundred yards from the entrance into the mountain, and about twenty-eight yards below the furface of it, the tar i$ found oozing from the fand-rock above, into the top and fides of the canal. Beneath the level of this canal, a fliaft has been funk through a grey argillaceous fubftance, called, in this country, clunch, which is faid to be a pretty certain indication of coal ; beneath this lies a ftratum of coal, about two or three inches thick, of an inferior kind, yielding little flame in burnr ing, and leaving much afh.es; below this is a rock of a harder texture; and beneath this are found coals of an excellent quality ; for the purpofc of pro- curing which with greater facility, the canal, of horizontal aperture, is now making into the mountain. July, 1788. Beneath thefe coals in fome places is found fait water ; in other parts of the adjacent country, there are beds of iron-ftone, which alfo contain fome bitumen in a lefs fluid ftate, and which are about on a level with the new canal, into which the foflil tar oozes, as above defcribed. There are many interefting circumftances attending the fituation and acr companiments of this fountain of foflil tar, tending to develope the manner of its production. I. As the canal pafilng into the mountain runs over the beds of coals, and under the refervoir of petroleum, it appears that a natural tltjlillation of this foflil, in the bowels of the earth, muft have iaken place at fome early period of the world, fimilar to the artificial diftillation of coal, which has many years been carried on in this place on a fmaller fcale above ground. When this refervoir of petroleum was cut into, the flownefs of it$ exfudation into the canal, was not only owing to its vifcidity, but to the PART I, 2 C 194 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART!. preffure of the atmofphere, or to the neceflity there was that air fhould at the fame time infmuate itfelf into the fmall cavities from which the petro- leum defccnded. The exiftence of fuch a diftillation at fome ancient time* is confirmed by the thin ftratum of coal beneath the canal, (which covers the hard rock,) having been deprived of its foffil oil, fo as to burn without flame, and thus to have become a natural coak, or foflil charcoal, while the petroleum diftilled from it is found in the cavities of the rock above it. There are appearances in other places, which favour this idea of the natu- ral diftillation of petroleum: thus, at Matlock, inDerbyfhire, a hard bitumen is found adhering to the fpar in the clefts of the lime-rocks, in the form of round drops about the fize of peas; which could, perhaps, only be depofited there in that form by fublimation. 2. The fecond deduction w'hich offers itfelf is, that thefe beds of coal have been expofed to a considerable degree of /jeat t fince the petroleum above could not be feparated, as far as we know, by any other means, and that the good quality of the coals beneath the hard rock, was owing to the im- permeability of this rock to the bituminous vapour, and to its preffure beinor too great to permit its being removed by the elaflicity of that vapour. Thus, from the degree of heat, the degree of preffure, and the permeability of the fuperincumbent flrata, many of the phenomena attending coal-beds receive an eafy explanation, which much accords with the ingenious theory of the earth by Dr. Hutton. Tranf. of Edinb. vol. I. In fome coal works, the fufion of the flrata of coal has been fo light, that there remains the appearance of ligneous fibres, and the impreffion of leaves, as at Bovey, near Exeter, and even feeds of vegetables, of which I have had fpecimens from the collieries near Polefworth, in Warwickfhire, In fome, where the heat was not very intenfe, and the incumbent ftratum not permeable to vapour, the foffil oil has only rifen to the upper part of the coal-bed, and has rendered that much more inflammable than the lower parts of it, as in the collieries near Beaudefert, the feat of the Earl of Ux- bridge, in Staffer dfhire, where the upper ftratum is a perfect cannel, or can- dle-coal, and the lower of an inferior quality. Over the coal-beds near Sir H. Harpur's houfc, in Derbyfhire, a thin lamina of afphaltum is found in fome places near the furface of the earth, which would feem to be from a diftillation of petroleum from the coals below, the more fluid part of which had, in procefs of time, exhaled, or been confolidatcd by its abforption of air. In other coal-works the upper part of the ftratum is of a woife kind than the lower one, as at Alfreton and Denbigh, in Derbyfhire, owing to the fuperincumbent ftratum having permitted the exhalation of a great part of the petroleum; whilft at Widdrington, in Northumberland, there is firft a feam of coal about fix inches thick, of no value, which lies under about four fathom of clay ; beneath this is a white free-ftone, then a hard ftone, which the workmen there call a whin, then two fathoms of clay, then ano- ther white ftone, and under that a vein of coals three feet nine inches thick, of a fimilar nature to the Newcaftle coal. Phil. Tranf. Abridg. vol. VI. .plate 2, p. 192. The fimilitude between the circumftances of this colliery, and of the coal beneath the fountain of tar above described, renders it NOTE XXIII. ADDITIONAL NOTES. 19; highly probable, that this upper thin feam of coal has fuffered a fimilar dif- tillation, and that the inflammable part, of it had either been received into, the clay above, in the form of fulphur, which, when burnt in the open air, would produce alum; or had been diflipated, for want of a receiver, where it could be condenfed. The former opinion is, perhaps, in this cafe, more pro- bable, as in feme other coal-beds, of which I have procured accounts, the furface of the coal beneath clunch or clay is of an inferior quality, as at Weft Hallum, in Nottinghamlhire. The clunch probably from hence acquire* its inflammable part, which, on calcination, becomes vitriolic acid. I ga-, thered pieces of clunch, converted partially into alum, at a colliery near Bil- fton, where the ground was ftill on fire a few years ago. The heat, which has thus pervaded the beds of morafs, feems to have been the effect of the fermentation of their vegetable materials; as new- hay fometimes takes fire, even in fuch very fmall maffes, from the fugar it contains, and feems, hence, not to have been attended with any expulfion of lava, like the deeper craters of volcanos fituated in the beds of granite. 3. The marine fliells found in the loofe fand-rock, above this refervoir of petroleum, and the coal-beds beneath it, together with the exiftence of fea-r fait beneath thefe coals, prove that thefe coal-beds have been at the bottom of the fsa y during fome remote period of time, and were afterwards raifed into their prefent fituation by fubterraneous expanfions of vapour. This doc^ trine is further fupported by the marks of violence, which fome coal-beds received at the time they were raifed out of the fea, as in the colleries at Men- dip, in Somerfetfhife. In thefe are feven ftrata of coals, equitant upon each other, with beds of clay and ftone intervening; amongft which clay are found fhells and fern branches. In one part of this hill the ftrata arc disjoined, and a quantity of heterogeneous fubftanccs fill up the chafm which disjoins them ; on one fide of this chafm the feveu ftrata of coal arc feen correfponding, in refped: to their reciprocal thicknefs and goodnefs, with the feven ftrata on the other fide of the cavity, except that they have been elevated fever al yards higher. Phil. Tranf. No. 360. Abridg. vol. v. P . 237. The cracks in the coal-bed near Ticknall, in Derbyfhire, and in the fand* ftone rock over it, in both of which fpecimens of lead-ore and fpar arc found, confirm this opinion of their having been forcibly raifed up by fub?- terraneous fires. Over the colliery at Brown-hills, near Lichfield, there is a flratum of gravel on the furface of the ground, which may be adduced as ano- ther proof to fhew that thofe coals had fome time been beneath the fea, or the bed of a river. Neverthelefs, thefe arguments only apply to the collieries above-mentioned, which are few compared with thofe which bear no marks of having been immerfed in the fea. On the other hand, the production of coals from moraffes, as defcribed in note XX. is evinced from the vegetable matters frequently found in them\ and in the ftrata over them ; as fern-leaves in nodules of iron-ore, and from the bog-lhells, or frefh water mufcles, fometimes found over them, of both which I have what I believe to be fpecimens ; and is further proved, from fome parts of thefe beds being only in part transformed to coal; and the igS BOTANIC GARDEN. PART L other part flill retaining not only the form, but fome of the properties of wood; fpecimens of which are not unfrequent in the cabinets of the curi- ous, procured from Loch Neigh, in Ireland, from Bovcy, near Exeter, and other places ; and from a famous cavern called the Temple of the Devil, near the town of Altorf, in Franconia, at the foot of a mountain covered with pine and favine, in which are found large coals refembling trees of ebony; which are fo far mineralized as to be heavy and compact; and fo to efilorefce with pyrites in fome parts as to crumble to pieces; yet from other parts white aflies are produced on calcination, from which Jixtd alkali is procured; which evinces their vegetable origin. (Di6t. Raifonne, art. Charbon.) To thefe may be added another argument, from the oil which Js diflilled from coals, and which is analogous to vegetable oil, and does inot exift in any bodies truly mineral. Keir's Chemical Dictionary, art. Bitumen. Whence it would appear,- that though moft collieries, with their attendant ftrata of clay, fand-ftone, and iron, were formed on the places where the vegetables grew, from which they had their origin; yet that other collec- tions of vegetable matter were waihed down from eminences, by currents of waters, into the beds of rivers, or the neighbouring feas, and were there accumulated at different periods of time, and underwent a great degree of heat, from their fermentation, in the fame manner as thofe beds of morafs which had continued on the plains where they were produced. And that, by this fermentation', many of them had been raifed from the ocean, with fand and fea-fhells over them; and others from the beds of rivers, with ac- cumulations of gravel upon them. 4. For the purpofe of bringing this hiftory of the products of morafies more diftinclly to the eye of the reader, I {hall here fubjoin two or three ac- counts of finking or boring for coals, out of above twenty, which I have procured from various places, though the terms are not very intelligible, being the language of the overfeers of coal-works. 1. JVLltfield mine, near the Pottery, in Staffordfhire. Soil I foot, brick- clay 3 feet, fhale 4, metal which is hard brown, and falls in the weather, 41, coal 3, warrant clay 6, brown grit-ftone 36, coal 3 v, warrant clay 3*, bafs and metal 53^, hard-ftone 4, fhaly bafs i|, coal 4, warrant clay depth unknown; in all about 55 yards. 2. Coal-mine at Alfreion^ in Derbyfliire. Soil and clay 7 feet, fragments of fione 9, bind-I3, ftone 6, bind 34, ftone 5, bind 2, Hone 2, bind 10, coal ly, bind I y, ftone 37, bind 7, foft coal 3, bind 3, ftone 20, bind 16, coal 7;; in all about 61 yards. 3. A lajjcl coal-mine at Woolarion^ in Nottlnghamfhire. Sand and gravel 6 feet, bind 21, ftone IO, fmut or effete coal I, clunch 4, bind 21, ftone 18, bind 18, ftone-bind 15, foft coal 2, clunch and bind 21, coal /; in all about 48 yards. 4. Coal-mine at IVe^-IIallam, in Nottinghamfhire. Soil and clay 7 feet, bind 48, fmut I*, clunch 4, bind 3, ftone a, bind I, ftone I, bind 3, ftone I, bind 1 6, fhnle 2, bind 12, fhale 3, clunch, ftone, and a bed of cank, 54, foft coal 4, clay and -dun I, foft coal 4}, clunch and bind 2f, coal I, broad bind 26, hard coal 6 ; in all about 74 yards. KOTE XXIV. ADDITIONAL NOTES. 197 As thcfe ftrata generally lie inclined, I fuppofe, parallel with the lime- ftone on which they reft, the upper edges of them all come out to day, which is termed baffetting ; when the whole mai's was iginited by its fer- mentation, it ie probable that the inflammable part of fome ftrata might thus more eafily efcape than of others, in the form of vapour, as dews are known to flide between fuch ftrata in the production of -fprings; which ac counts for fome coal-beds being fo much worfe than others. See note XX, From this account of the production of co-als from moraifss-, it would ap- pear, that coal-beds are not to be expected beneath maffes of lime-ftone. Neverthelefs, I have been lately informed by my friend, Mr. Michel, of Thornhill, who, I hope, will foon favour the public with his geological investigations, that the beds of chalk are the uppermoft of all the lime- ftones; and that they reft on the granulated lime-ftone, called ketton-ftone; which, I fuppofe, is fimilar to that which covers the whole country from IjCadenham to Sleaford, and from Sleaford to Lincoln; and that, thirdly, coal-dclphs are frequently found beneath thefe two uppermoft beds of lime* ft one. Now, as the beds of chalk, and of granulated lime-ftone may have been formed by alluviation, on or beneath the fhores of the fea, or in vailies of the land, it would feem, that fome coal-countries, which, in the great com- motions of the earth, had been funk beneath the water, were thus covered with alluvial lime-ftone, as well as others with alluvial bafaltes, or com- mon gravel-beds. Very extenfive plains, which now confift of alluvial ma- terials, were, in the early times, covered with water, which has fmce di- minifhed, as the folid parts of the earth have increafcd. For the folid parts of the earth, confiding chiefly of animal and vegetable recrements, mufl have originally been formed or produced from the water, by animal and vegetable proceffes; and as the folid parts of the earth may be fuppofed to be thrice as heavy as water, it follows, that thrice the quantity of water muft have vanifhed, compared with the quantity of earth thus produced. This may account for many immenfe beds of alluvial materials, as gravel, rounded fand, granulated lime-ftone, and chalk, covering fuch extenfive plains as Lincoln-heath, having become dry without the fuppofition of their having been again elevated from the ocean. At the fame time we acquire the knowledge of one of the ufes or final caufes of the organized world, not indeed very flattering to our vanity ; that it converts water into earth, forming iflands and continents by its recrements or exuvise. NOTE XXIV. GRANITE. Climb the rudejleeps, the granite-cliffs furround. CANTO II. 1. 523. THE loweft ftratum of the earth which human labour has arrived to, is granite; and of this, likewife, confifts the higheft mountains of the world. It is known under variety of names, according to fome difference in its ap- i 98 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART!. pearance or compofition, but is now generally confidered by philofophers a a fpecies of lava; if it contains quartz, feltfpat, and mica, in diftindt cryftals, it is called granite; which is found, in Cornwall, in rocks; and in loofe Hones in the gravel near Drayton, in Shropfhire, in the road towards New- caftle. If tbefe parts of the compofition be lefs diftincT:, or if only two of them be vifible to the eye, it is termed porphyry, trap, whin-ftone, moor- flone, flate. And if it appears in a regular angular form, it is called ba- faltes. The affinity of thefe bodies has lately been further well eftablifhed by Dr. Beddoes, in the Phil. Tranf. vol. LXXX. Thefe are all efteemed to have been volcanic productions, that have un- dergone different degrees of heat, it is well known, that in Papin's digefter water may be made red-hot by confinement, and will then diffolve many bodies which otherwife are little or not at all acted upon by it. From hence it may be conceived, that under immenfe preffure of fuperincumbent materials, and by great heat, thefe maffes of lava may have undergone a kind of aqueous folution, without any tendency to vitrifadlion, and might thence have a power of ceyftallization; whence all the varieties above-men- tioned, from the different proportion of the materials, or the different de- grees of heat they may have undergone in this aqueous folution. And that the uniformity of the mixture of the original earths, as of lime, argil, filex, magnefia, and barytes, which they contain, was owing to their boiling to- gether a longer or fhorter time before their elevation into mountains. See note XIX. art. 8. The feat of volcanos feems to be principally, if not entirely, in thefe ftrata of granite, as many of them are fituated on granite mountains, and throw up, from time to time, fheets of lava, which run down over the pre- ceding ftrata, from the fame origin ; and in this they feem to differ from the heat which has feparated the clay, coal, and fand, in moraffes, which would appear to have rifen from a kind of fermentation, and thus to have pervaded the whole mafs, without any expuition of lava. All .the lavas from Vefuvius contain one fourtli part of iron, (Kirwan's Min.) and all the five primitive earths, viz. calcareous, argillaceous, filiceous, bar y tic, and magnefian earths, which are alfo evidently produced now, daily, from the recrements of animal and vegetable bodies. What is to be thence concluded ? Has the granite ftratum, in very ancient times, been produced like the prefent calcareous and filiceous maffes, according to the ingenious theory of Dr. Hutton, who fays new continents are now forming at the bottom of the fea, to rife in their turn ; and that thus the terraqueous globe has been, and will be, eternal? Or fhall we fuppofe, that this internal heated mafs of granite, which forms the nucleus of the earth, was a part of the body of the fun, before it was feparated by an explofion ? Or was the fun originally a planet, inhabited like ours, and a fatellite to fome other greater fun, which has long been extinguifhed by diffufion of its light, and around which the prefent fun continues to revolve, according to a conjec- ture of the celebrated Mr. Herfchell, and which conveys to the mind a moft fublime idea of the progreflive and increafing excellence ef the works of the Creator of all things ? c/ct <>/ <r <>/(/t /h\><'< v///v/ <y /n' >//}('/' t(*tf/t<W/~ '/<'t/</ Mr //' ////V ^ ///>///"/ ' / / / NOTE XXIV. ADDITIONAL NOTES. 199 For the more eafy comprehenfion of the facts and conjectures concern- ing the iituation and production of the various ftrata of the earth, I ihall here fubjoin a fuppofed fection of the globe, but without any attempt to give the proportions of the parts, or the number of them, but only their re- fpective fituation over each other, and a geological recapitulation. GEOLOGICAL RECAPITULATION. 1. The earth was projected along with the other primary planets from the fun, which is fuppofed to be on fire only on its furface, emitting light without much internal heat, like a ball of burning camphor. 2. The rotation of the earth round its axis, was occafioned by its greater friction, or adhefion to one fide of the cavity from which it was ejected; and from this rotation it acquired its fpheroidical form. As it cooled in its afcent from the fun, its nucleus became harder; and its attendant vapours were condenfed, forming the ocean. 3. The mafles or mountains of granite, porphyry, bafalt, and ftones of fimilar ftructure, were a part of the original nucleus of the earth, or confift of volcanic productions fince formed. 4. On this nucleus of granite and bafaltes, thus covered by the ocean, were formed the calcareous beds of lime-ftone, marble, chalk, fpar, from the exuviae of marine animals, with the flints, or chertz, which accompany them. And were ftratified by their having been formed at different, and very diftant periods of time. 5. The whole terraqueous globe was burft by central fires; iflands and continents were raifed, confifting of granite, or lava, in fome parts, and of lime-flone in others; and great vallies were funk, into which the ocean re- tired. 6. During thefe central earthquakes the moon was ejected from the earth, caufmg new tides; and the earth's axis fuffered fome change in its inclina- tion, and its rotatory motion was retarded. 7. On fome parts of thefe iflands and continents of granite or lime-ftonc, were gradually produced extenfive morafles, from the recrements of vege- tables and of land animals ; and from thefe morafles, heated by fermenta- tion, were produced clay, marl, fand-ftone, coal, iron (with the bafes of variety of acids) ; all which were ftratified by their having been formed at different, and very diftant periods of time. 8. In the elevation of the mountains, very numerous and deep fiflures neceflarily were produced. In thefe fiflures many of the metals are formed, partly from defcending materials, and partly from afcending ones, raifed in vapour by fubterraneous fires. In the fiffures of granite or porphyry, quartz is formed; in the fiffures of lime-ftone, calcareous fpar is produced. 9. During thefe firft great volcanic fires, it is probable the atmofphere- was either produced, or much increafed; a procefs which is, perhaps, now going on in the moon; Mr. Herichell having difcovered a volcanic crater three miles broad, burning on her difk. jo. The fummits of the new mountains were cracked into innumerable loo BOTANIC GARDEN. PART J. lozenges by the cold dews, or fnows, falling upon them when red-hot. From thefe fummits, which were then twice as high as at prefent, cubes and lozenges of granite, and bafalt, and quartz, in fome countries, and of marbb and flints in others, defcended gradually into the valleys, and were rolled together in the beds of rivers (which were then fo large as to occupy the whole valleys, which they now only interfect) ; and produced the great beds of gravel, of which many valleys confift. II. In feveral parts of the earth's furface, fubfequent earthquakes, from the fermentation of moraffes, have, at different periods of time, deranged the pofition of the matters above described. Hence the gravel, which was before in the beds of rivers, has, in fome places, been railed into mountains, along with clay and coal ftrata, which were formed from moraffes, and wafhed down from eminences into the beds of rivers, or the neighbouring feas, and in part raifed again with gravel, or marine {hells, over them ; but this has only obtained in few places, compared with the general diftribution of fuch materials. Hence there feem to have exifted two fources of earth- quakes, which have occurred at great diftance of time from each" other; one from the granite beds, in the central parts of the earth, and the other from the moraffes on its furface. All the fubfequent earthquakes and volcanos of modern days, compared with thefe, are of fmall extent, and inlignificant 12. Befides the argillaceous fand-ftone produced from moraffes, which is ftratified with clay, and coal, and iron, other great beds of filiceous fand have been formed in the fea, by the combination of an unknown acid from moraffes, and the calcareous matters of the ocean. 13. The warm waters which are found in many countries, are owing to ileam arifmg from great depths, through the fiffures of lime-ilone or lava, elevated by fubterranean fires, and condenfed between the ftrata of the hills over them, and not from any decompofition of pyrites or manganefe near the furface of the earth. 14. The columns of bafaltes have been raifed by the congelation or ex* panfion of granite beds, in the act of cooling, from their lemUvitreous fufion. NOTE XXV. EVAPORATION. Aquatic Nymphs fvou lead iviib 'uieivlejs march T/JC luinged Vapours up the aerial arch. CANTO III. 1. IT,, I. THE atmofphere will diffolve a certain quantity of moifture, as a che- mical menftruum, even when it is much below the freezing point, as ap- pears from the diminution of ice fufpended in frofty air; but a much greater quantity of water is evaporated, and fufpended in the air, by means of heat, which is, perhaps, the univerfal caufe of fluidity ; for water is known to boil with kfs heat iu vacuo, which is a proof that it will evaporate fafter in va^ NOTE XXV. ADDITIONAL NOTES. 201 cuo, and that the air, therefore, rather hinders than promotes its cvaporat tion in higher degrees of heat. The quick evaporation occailoned in vacuo by a fraall degree of heat, is agreeably feen in what is termed a pulfe-glafs, which confifts of an exhaufted tube of glafs, with a bulb at each end of it, and with about two thirds of the cavity filled with alkohol, in which the fpirit is inftantly feen to boil, by the heat of the finger-end applied on a bub-, ble of fteam in the lower bulb, and is condenfed again in the upper bulb by the lead conceivable comparative coldnefs. a. Another circumftance, evincing that heat is the principal caufe of eva- poration, is, that at the time of water being converted into fteam, a great quantity of heat is taken away from the neighbouring bodies. If a ther- mometer be repeatedly dipped in ether, of in re&ified fpirit of wine, and. expofed to a blaft of air, to expedite the evaporation by perpetually remov- ing the faturated air from it, the thermometer will prefently fink below freezing. This warmth, taken from the ambient bodies at the time of eva- poration by the fteam, is again given put >vhen the fteam is condenfed into; water. Hence the water in a worm-tub, during diftillation, fp foon be? omes hot ; and hence the warmth accompanying the defcent of rain in cold weather. 1* The third circumftance, {hewing that heat is the principal caufe of evaporation, is, that fome of the fteam becomes again condenfed when any part of the heat is withdrawn. Thus, when warmer fouth-weft winds, re- plete with moifture, fucceed the colder north-eaft winds, all bodies that are .denfe and fubftantial, as {lone walls, brick floors, &c, abforb fome of the heat from the pafiing air, and its moifture becomes precipitated on them ; while the north-eaft winds become warmer on their arrival in this latitude, and are thence difpofed to take up more rnpifture, and are termed drying winds. 4. Heat feems to be the principal caufe of the folution pf many other bot dies, as common fait, or blue vitriol, diflolved in water, which, when ex- pofed to fevere cold, are precipitated, pr carried, to the part of the water hft frozen ; this 1 obferved in a phial filled with a folution of blue vitriol, which was frozen : the phial was burft, the ice thawed, and a blue column of cupreous vitriol was left {landing upright on the bottom of the broken glafs, as defcribed in note XIX. art 3. II. Hence water may either be diffolved in air, and may then be called an aerial fplution of water; or it may be diffolved in the fluid matter o h.eat, according to the theory of M. Lavoifier, and may then be called fteam. In the former cafe, it is probable, there are many other vapours which may precipitate it, as marine acid gas, or flupr acid gas. So alkaline gas and acid gas, diffolved in air, precipitate each other; nitrous gas precipitates vi.- tal air from its azote ; and inflammable gas, mixed with vital air, ignited by an ele&ric fp.ark, either produces or precipitates the water in both of them. Are there any fubtle exhalations, occafionally diffufed in the atmof^ phcre, which may thus caufe rain ? j. But as water is, pcrhap,?, many hundred times more fohible in the fluid matter of heat than in air, I fuppofe the eduction of this heat, by PART I. 2 D 202 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART I. whatever means it is occafioned, is the principal caufe of devaporation. Thus, if a region of air is brought from a warmer climate, as the S. W. winds, it becomes cooled by its contact with the earth in this latitude, and parts with fo much of its moifture as was diffolved in the quantity of calo- rique, or heat, which it now lofes, but retains that part which was f ufpendcd by its attraction to the particles of air, or by aerial folution, even in the mod fevere frofts. 2. A fecond immediate caufe of rain is a ftream of N. E. wind defcend- ing from a fuperior current of air, and mixing with the warmer S. W. wind below; or the reverfe of this, viz. a fuperior current of S. W. wind mixing with an inferior one of N. E. wind: in both thefe cafes the whole heaven becomes inftantly clouded, and the moifture contained in the S. W. current is precipitated. This caufe of devaporation has been ingenioufly explained by Dr. Hutton, in the Tranfact. of Edinburgh, voL I. and feems to arife from this circumftance ; the particles of air of the N. E. wind educe part of the heat from the S. W. wind, and therefore the water which was diffolved by that quantity of heat is precipitated; all the other part of the water, which was fufpended by its attraction to the particles of air, or diffolved in the remainder of the heat, continues unprecipitated. 3. A third method by which a region of air becomes cooled, and, in con- fequence, depofits much of its moifture, is from the mechanical expanfion of air, when part of the preffure is taken off. In this cafe the expanded air becomes capable of receiving or attracting more of the matter of heat into its interftices ; and the vapour, which was previoufly diffolved in this heat, is depofited, as is feen in the receiver of an air-pump, which becomes dewy, as the air within becomes expanded by the eduction of part of it. See note VII. Hence, when the mercury in the barometer finks without a change of the wind, the air generally becomes colder. See note VII. on Elementa- ry Heat. And it is probably from the varying preffure of the incumbent air, that in fummer days fmall black clouds are often thus fuddeniy produced, and again foon vanifh. See a paper in Phil. Tranf. voL LXXVIII. en- titled Frigorific Experiments on the Mechanical Expanfion of Air. 4. Another portion of atmofpheric water may poffibly be held in folution by the electric fluid, fmce, in thunder-ftorms, a precipitation of the water feems to be either the caufe or the confequence of the eduction of the elec- tricity. But it appears more probable that the water is condenfed into clouds by the eduction of its heat, and that then the furplus of electricity prevents their coalefcence into larger drops, which immediately fucceeds the departure of the lightning. 5. The immediate caufe why the barometer finks before rain, is, firft, be- caufe a region of warm air, brought to us in the place of the cold air which it had difplaced, muft weigh lighter, both fpecifically and abfolutely, if the height of the warm atmofphere be fuppofed to be equal to that of the pre- ceding cold one. And, fecondly, after the drops of rain begin to fall in any column of air, that column becomes lighter, the falling drops only adding to the preffure of the air in proportion to the refinance which they meet with in paffing through that fluid. NOTE XXVI. ADDITIONAL NOTES. 203 If we could fuppofe water to be diflblved in air without heat, or in very low degrees of heat, I fuppofe the air would become heavier, as happens in many chemical folutions; but if water, diffolved in the matter of heat, or calorique, be mixed with an aerial folution of water, there can be no doubt but an atmofphere confifting of fuch a mixture, muft become lighter in pro- portion to the quantity of calorique. On the fame circumftance depends the vifible vapour produced from the breath of animals in cold weather, or from a boiling kettle ; the particles of cold air with which it is mixed, fteal a part of its heat, and become themfeives raifed in temperature ; whence part of the water is precipitated in vifible vapour, which, if in great quan- tity, finks to the ground ; if in fmall quantity^ and the furrounding air is not previoufiy faturated, it fpreads itfelf till it becomes again diffolved. NOTE XXVI. SPRINGS. Tour lucid bands condenfe ivitb Jingers dill The blue mijl hovering round the gelid hill. CANTO III. 1. 19. THE furface of the earth confifts of ftrata, many of which were formed originally beneath the fea; the mountains were afterwards forced up by fub- terraneous fires, as appears from the fiffures in the rocks of which they confift, the quantity of volcanic productions all over the world, and the numerous remains of craters of volcanos in mountainous countries. Hence the ftrata which compofe the fides of mountains lie flanting downwards, and one or two, or more, of the external ftrata not reaching to the fummit when the moun- tain was raifed up, the fecond or third ftratum, or a more inferior one, is there expofed to day ; this may be well reprefented by iorceably thrufting a blunt inftrument through feveral fheets of paper; a bur will ftand up with the lowermoft flieet, ftanding higheft in the centre ef it. On this upper- mcft ftratum, which is colder as it is more elevated, the dews are condenfed in large quantities, and, fliding down, pafs under the firft, or fecond, or third ftratum, which compofe the fides of the hill, and either form a morafs below, or a weeping rock, by oozing out in numerous places, or many of thefe lefs currents meeting together, burft out in a more copious rill. The fummits of mountains are much colder than the plains in their vici- nity, owing to feveral caufes: I. Their being, in a manner, infulated or cut off from the common heat of the earth, which is always of 48 degrees, and perpetually counteracts the effect of external cold beneath that degree. 2. From their furfaces being larger in proportion to their folid contents, and hence their heat more expeditioufly carried away by the ever-moving atmof- phere. 3. The increafing rarity of the air as the mountain rifes. All thofe bodies which conduct electricity well or ill, conduct the matter of heat likc- wife well or ill. See note VII. Atmofpheric air is a bad conductor of electricity, and thence confines it on the body where it is accumulated; but, when it is made very rare, as in the exhaufted receiver, the electric aura 4o 4 fiOTANIC GARDEN. gaffes away immediately tb any diftance. The fame circumftance probably happens in refpect to heat, which is thud kept, by the dertfef air on the plains, from efcaping, but is diflipated on the hills, where the air is thinner. 4. As the currents of air rife up the fides of mountains, they become mecha- riically rarefied, the preffure of the incumbent column leifening as they fcfcend. Hence the expanding air abforbs heat from the mountain as it dfcends, as explained in note VII. 5. There is another, and, perhaps, more powerful caufe, I fufpect, which may occafion the great cold on mountains, and in the higher parts of the atmofphere, and which has not yet been at- tended to; I mean that the fluid matter of heat may probably gravitate round the earth, and form an atrhofphere dn its furface, mixed with the aerial at- mofphere, which may diriiinifii or become rarer, as it recedes from the earth's furface, in a greater proportion than the air diminilhes. 6. The great condenfation of nioiflure on the fummits of hills has ano- ther caufe, which is the dafhing of moving clouds againft them : in mifty "days this is often feen to have great effect on plains, where an eminent tree, by obftructing the mift as it moves along, {hall have a much greater quantity of moifture drop from its leaves, than falls at the fame time on the ground ill its vicinity. Mr. White, in his Hiftory of Selborne, gives an account of a large tree fo fituated, from which a ftream flowed, during a moving mift, fo as to fill the cart-ruts in a lane otherwife not very moift; and ingenioufly adds, that trees planted about ponds of ftagnant Water, contribute much, by thefe means, to fupply the refervoir. The fpherules which conftitute a mift or cloud, are kept from uniting by fo fmall a power, that a little agita- tion againft the leaves of a tree, or the greater attra6lion of a flat moift fur- face, condenfes or precipitates them. If a leaf has its furface moiftened, and particles of water feparate from teach other, as in a mift, be brought near the moiftened furface of & leaf, each particle will be attracted more by that plain furface of water oh the leaf, than it can be by the furrounding particles of the mift ; becaufe globules only at* tract each other irt one point, whereas a plain attracts a globule by a greater extent of its furface. The common cold fprings are thus formed on elevated grounds by the condenfed vapours, and hence are ftronger when the nights are cold, after hot days, in fpring, than even in the wet days of winter. For the warm atmofphere, during the day, has diffolved much more Water than it can fupport in foliation during the cold of the night, which is thus depofited in large quantities on the hills, and yet fo gradually as to foak in between the flrata of them, rather than to flide off over their furfaees, like fhoWers of rain. The common heat of the internal parts of the earth is afcertained by fprings which arife frorn ftrata of earth too deep tb be affected by the heat of fummcr or the frofts of winter. Thofe, in this country, are of 4$ degrees of heat; thofe about Philadelphia Were faid,by Dr. Franklin, to be 5; whether this variation is to be accounted for by the difference of the fun's heat on that country, according to the ingenious theory of Mr. Kir- wan, or to the vicinity of fubterranean fires, is not yet, I think, decided. There are, however, fubterrancous ftreams pf water not exactly produced NotE ^XVII. ADDITIONAL NOTES. 205 in this manner, as ftreams iffuing from fiffures in the earth, communicating with the craters of old volcanos : in the Peak of Derbyfhire are many hoU lows, called fwallows, where the land floods fink into the eaith, and come out at fomc miles diftant, as at Ilam, near Afhborne. See note on Fica> Vol. If. Other ftreams of ccld water arife from beneath the fnow on the Alps and Andes, and other high mountains, which is perpetually thawing at its un- der furface by the common heat of the earth, and gives rife to large rivers. For the origin of warm fprings fee note on Fucus, vol. II. NOTE XXVIL SHELL FISH. You round Echinus fay hh arrotvy mail. Give the keefd Nautilus his oar and fail ; Firm to his rock iviibfilver cords fufpend The anchored Pinna, and his Cancer-friend* CANTO III. 1. 6*. THE armour of the Echinus, or Sea hedge-hog, confifts generally of tnoveable fpines ; (Linnai Syjlem. Nat. vol. I. p. 1 102.) and, in that refpect, refembles the armour of the land animal of the fame name. The irregular protuberances on other fea-fhells, as on fome fpecies of the Purpura, and Murex, ferve them as a fortification againft the attacks of their enemies. It is faid that this animal forefees tempeftuous weather, and, finking to the bottom of the fea, adheres firmly to fea-plants, or other bodies, by means of a fubftance which refembles the horns of fnails. Above twelve hundred of thefe fillets have been counted, by which this animal fixes itfelf ; and when afloat, it contracts thefe fillets between the bafis of its points, the number of which often amounts to two thoufand. Diet. Raifonne. art* Ourfin. de mer. There is a kind of Nautilus, called, by Linhseus, Argonauta, whofe fhell has but orie cell: of this animal Pliny affirms, that having exonerated its fhell by throwing out the Water, it fvvims upon the furface, extending a web of wonderful tenuity, and bending back two of its arms, and rowing with the reft, makes a fail, and, at length, receiving the Water, dives again* Plin. IX. 29* Linnaeus adds to his defcription of this animal, that like the Crab Diogenes, or Bernhard, it occupies a houfe not its own, as it is not connected to its fhell, and is therefore foreign to it: who could huve given credit to this if it had not been attefted by fo many who have, with their own eyes, feen this argonaut in the act of failing? Syft. Nat. p. 1161. Th'e Nautilus, properly fo named by Linnaeus, has a fhell, confifting of many chambers, of which cups are made in the Eaft with beautiful paint- ing and carving on the mother-pearl. The animal is faid to inhabit only the uppermoft or open chamber, which is larger than the reft; and that th reft remain empty, except that the pipe, or fiphunculus, which communi- cates from on to the other of them, is filled with an appendage of the ani- aoft BOtANlC GARDEN. PART!. hial, like a gut or firing. Mr. Hook, in his Philof. Exper. p. 306, imagines this to be a dilatable or compreflible tube, like the air bladders of fifh, and that, by contracting or permitting it to expand, it renders its ihell buoyant, or the contrary. See note on Ulva, vol. II. The Pinna, or Sea-wing, is contained in a two-valve fhell, weighing fometimes fifteen pounds, and emits a beard of fine long gioffy filk-like fibres, by which it is fufpended to the rocks twenty or thirty feet beneath the fur- face of the fea. In this fituation it is fo fuccefsfully attacked by the eight- footed Polypus, that the fpecies, perhaps, could not exift but for the exer- tions of the Cancer Pinnotheris, who lives in the fame fhell as a guard and companion. Amcen. Acad. vol. II. p. 48. Lin. Syft. Nat. vol. I. p. 1159. and p. 1040. The Pinnotheris, or Pinnophylax, is a fmall crab, naked, like Bernard the Hermit, but is furnifhed with good eyes, and lives in the fame fhell with the Pinna; when they want food the Pinna opens it fhell, and fends its faithful ally to forage; but if the Cancer fees the Polypus, he returns fud- denly to the arms of his blind hoftefs, who, by clofing the fhell, avoids the fury of her enemy; otherwife, when it has procured a booty, it brings it to the opening of the fhell, where it is admitted, and they divide the prey. This was obferved by Hafiequifl, in his voyage to Paleftine. The Byffus of the ancients, according to Ariftotle, was the beard of the Pinna above-mentioned, but feems to have been ufed by other writers indif- criminately for any fpun material, which was eftecmed finer or more valu- able than wool. Reaumur fays, the threads of this Byffus are not lefs fine or lefs beautiful than the filk, as it is fpun by the filk-worm; the Pinna on the coaft of Italy and Provence (where it is fifhcd up by iron-hooks fixed on Jong poles) is called the filk-worm of the fca. The ftockings and gloves manufactured from it, are of exquifite finencfs, but too warm for common wear, and are thence efteemed ufeful in rhcumatifm and gout. Didt. Rai- fonne, art. Pinne-marine. The warmth of the Byffus, like that of filk, is probably owing to their being bad conductors of Treat, as well as of electricity. When thefe fibres are broken by violence, this animal, as well as the mufcle, has the power to re-produce them like the common ipidcrs, as was obferv- ed by M. Adanfon. As raw filk, and raw cobwebs, when fwallowed, are liable to produce great ficknefs (as I am informed) it is probable, the part of mufclcs, which fometimes difagrees with the people who eat them, may be this filky Web, by which they attach themfelves to ftones. The large kind of Pinna contains fome mother-pearl, of a reddilh tinge, ac- cording to M. d'Argenville. The fubftance fold under the name of Indian- weed, and ufed at the bottom of fifh-lines, is probably a production of this kind; which, however, is fcarcely to be diftinguifhed by the eye from the tendons of a rat's tail, after they have been feparated by putrefaction in water, and well cleaned and rubbed; a production, which I was once fhewn as a great curiofity ; it had the uppermoft bone of the tail adhering to it, and was faid to have been ufed as an ornament in a lady's hair. NOTE XXIX. ADDITIONAL NOTES. ao; NOTE XXVIIL STURGEON. With ivorm-like beard his tootblcfs lips array. And teach the uniusildy Sturgeon to betray. CANTO III. 1. 71, THE Sturgeon, Acipenfer, Strurio. Lin. Syft. Nat. vol. I. p. 403. is a filh of great curiolity, as well as of great importance ; his mouth is placed under the head, without teeth, like the opening of a purfe, which he has the power to pufh fuddenly out, or retract. Before this mouth, under the beak, or nofe, hang four tendrils, fome inches long, and which fo refemblc earth- worms, that at firft fight they may be miftaken for them. This clumfy toothlefs fifh is fuppofed, by this contrivance, to keep himfelf in good con- dition, the folidity of his flefh evidently fhewing him to be a filh of prey. He is faid to hide his large body amongft the weeds near the fea coaft, or at the mouths of large rivers, only expofing his cirrhi, or tendrils, which imall fifh, or fea infects, miftaking for real worms, approach for plunder, and arc fucked into the jaws of their enemy. He has been fuppofed by fome to root into the foil at the bottom of the fea or rivers; but the cirrhi, or ten- drils above-mentioned, which hang from his fnout over his mouth, mud themfelves be very inconvenient for this purpofe, and, as it has no jaws, it evidently lives by faction, and, during its refidence in the fea, a quantity of fea-infects are found in its itomach. The fleih was fo valued in the time of the Emperor Severus, that it was brought to table by fervants with coronets on their heads, and preceded by mufic, which might give rife to its being, in our country, prefented by the Lord Mayor to the King. At prefent it is caught in the Danube, and the Wolga, the Don, and other large rivers, for various purpofes. The fkin makes the beft covering for carriages ; ifinglafs is prepared from parts of the fkin ; cavear from the fpawn ; and the flefh is pickled, or failed, and fent all over Europe. NOTE XXIX. OIL ON WATER. Or ivith JineJUmsyfufpended o'er the decfiy Of oil ejfvfme lull the 'waves tojleef. CANTO III. 1. 87. THERE is reafon to believe, that when oil is poured upon water, the two furfaces do not touch each other, but that the oil is fufpended over the water by their mutual repulfion. This feems to be rendered probable by the following experiment: if one drop of oJl be dropped on a bafon of wa- ter, it will immediately diffufe itfelf over the whole, for there being no friction between the two furfaces, there is nothing to prevent its fpreadirig itfelf by the gravity of the upper part of it, except its own tenacity, into a pellicle of the greateil tenuity. But if a fecond drop of oil be put upon >68 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART I, the former, it does not fpread itfelf, but remains in the form of a drop, s the other already occupied the whole furface of the bafon; and there is friction in oil palling over oil, though none in oil paffing over water. Hence, when oil is diffqfed on the furface of water, gentle breezes have no influence in raifmg waves upon it; for a fmall quantity of oil will cover a very great furface of water (I fuppofe a fpoonful will diffufe itfelf over fome acres), and the wind blowing uppn this, carries it gradually forwards, and there being no fridion between the two furfaces, the water is not af- fected. On which account oil has no effect in frilling the agitation of the water after the wind ceafes, as was found by the experiments of Dr. Franklin. This circumftance, lately brought into notice by Dr. Franklin, had been mentioned by Pliny, and is faid to be in ufe by the divers for pearls, who, in windy weather, take down with them a little oil in their mouths, which they occafionally give out, when the inequality of the fupernatant waves prevents them from feeing fufficiently diftinctly for their purpofe. The wonderful tenuity with which oil can be fpread upon water, is evinced by a few drops projected from a bridge, where the eye is properly placed over it, paffing through all the prifmatic colours as it diffufes itfelf. And alfo from another curious experiment of Dr, Franklin's; he cut a piece of cork to about the fize of a letter-wafer, leaving a point ftanding off like a tangent, at one edge of the circle. This piece of coik was then dipped in oil, and thrown into a large pond of water, and as the oil flowed off at the point, the cork-wafer continued to revolve in a contrary direction for feve- ral minutes. The oil flpwing off all that time at the pointed tangent, in coloured ftreams. In a fmall pond of water this experiment does not fo ivell fucceed, as the .circulation of the cork flops as foon as the water be- comes covered wjth the pellicles of oil. See additional notes, NO. XIII. and nofe on Fucus, vol. II. The eafe with which oil and water Hide over each other, is agreeably feen if a phial be about half filled with equal parts of oil and water, and made to ofcillate, fufpended by a firing; the upper furface of the oil, and the lower one of the water, will always keep fmooth : but the agitation of the furfaces where the oil and water meet, is curious ; for their fpecific gravi- ties being not very different, and their friction on each other nothing, the higheft fide of the water, as the phial defcends in its ofcillation, having ac- quired a greater momentum than the loweft fide (from its having defcended further) woujd rife the higheft on the afcending fide of the ofcillation, and thence pufhes the then uppermoft part of the water amongft the oil. NOTE XXXI. ADDITIONAL NOTES, 009 NOTE XXX. SHIP- WORM. Jbfcet fell TerfJoj as be mines the keel With beaked head y and break bis lips of feel. CANTO III. 1. pZ, THE Teredo, or fhip-worm, has two calcareous jaws, hemifpherical, flat before, and angular behind. The {hell is taper, winding, penetrating fhipa and fubmarine wood, and was brought from India into Europe. Linnaei Syftcm. Nat. p. 1267. TheTarieres, or fea-worms, attack and erode fhip* with fuch fury, and in fuch numbers, as often greatly to endanger them. It is faid that our veffels have not known this new enemy above fifty years; that they were brought from the fea about the Antilles, to our parts of the ocean, where they have increafed prodigioufly. They bore their paffage in the direction of the fibres of the wood, which is their nourifhment, and cannot return or pafs obliquely, and thence when they come to a knot in the wood, or when two of them meet together, with their ftony mouths, they perilH for want of food. In the years 1731 and 1732, the United Provinces were under a dreadful alarm concerning thefe infedts, which had made great depredation on the piles which fupport the banks of Zealand; but it was happily difcovered a few years afterwards, that thefe infedb had totally abandoned that ifland" (Dicl. Raifonne, art. Vers Rongeurs), which might have been occafioned by their not being able to live in that latitude, when the winter was rather feyerer than ufual, NOTE XXXI. MAELSTROM. Turn the broad belm, the fluttering canvas urge From Maeljlrom* s Jierce innavigable furge. CANTO III. 1. pj ON the coaft of Norway there is an extenfive vortex, or eddy, which lief between the iflands of Mofkoe and Mofkenas, and is called Moflcoeftrom, or Maelftrom; it occupies fome leagues in circumference, and is faid to be very dangerous, and often deftru6tive, to veffels navigating thefe feas. It is not eafy to underftand the exiftence of a conftant defcending ftream, with- out fuppofing it muft pafs through a fubterranean cavity, to fome other part of the earth or ocean which may lie beneath its level; as the Mediterranean fcems to lie beneath the level of the Atlantic ocean, which, therefore, con- ftantly flows into it through the Straits; and the waters of the Gulph of Mexico lie much above the level of the fea tibout the Floridas, and farther northward, which gives rife to the Gulph-ftream, as defcribed in note on Caffia, in vol. It. The Maelibrom is faid to be ftill twice in about twenty-four hours, whe ihe tide is up, and moft violent at the oppofite times of the day. This if PARTI. 2 E no BOTANIC GARDEN. PART I. not difficult to account for, fmce, when fo much water is brought over the fubterraneous paffage, if fuch exifts, as completely to fill it, and ftand many feet above it, lefs difturbance muft appear on the furface. The Maelftrom is defcribed in the Memoiresof the Swedifh Academy of Sciences, and Pon- tcpiddan's Hiftory of Norway, and in the Univerfal Mufeum for 1763, p. 131. The reafon why eddies of water become hollow in the middle is, becaufe the water immediately over the centre of the well, or cavity, falls fafter, having lefs fri*5lion to oppofe its defcent, than the water over the circumfe- rence or edges of the well. The circular motion, or gyration of eddies, de- pends on the obliquity of the courfe of the flream, or to the friction or op- pofition to it being greater on one fide of the well than the other: I have obferved in water paffing through a hole in the bottom of a trough, which was always kept full, the gyration of the ftream might be turned either way by increafing the oppofition of one fide of the eddy with one's finger, or by turning the fpout, through which the water was introduced, a little more obliquely to the hole on one fide or on the other. Lighter bodies are liable to be retained long in eddies of water, while thofe rather heavier than water, are foon thrown out beyond the circumference, by their acquired mo- mentum becoming greater than that of the water. Thus, if equal portions of oil and water be put into a phial, and, by means of a ftring, be whirled in a circle round the hand, the water will always keep at the greater dif- tance from the centre; whence, in the eddies formed in rivers during a flood, a perfon who endeavours to keep above water, or to i'wim, is liable to be detained in them, but en fuffering himfelf to fink, or dive, he is faid readily to efcape. This circulation of water, in defcending through a hole in a veflel, Dr. Franklin has ingenioufly applied to the explanation of hur- ricanes, or ^eddies of air. NOTE XXX1L GLACIERS. IV here round dark crags indignant Walers bend T&rougb rifted ice, in ivory veins defcend. CANTO III. 1. 113. THE common heat of the interior parts of the earth being always 48 degrees, both in winter and fummer, the fnow which lies in contacT: with it is always in a thawing ftate. Hence, in ice-houfes, the external part of the collection of ice is perpetually thawing, and thus preferves the internal part of it, fo that it is neceflary to lay up many tons for the prefervation of one ton. Hence, in Italy, confiderable rivers have their fource from be- neath the eternal glaciers, or mountains of fnow and ice. In our country, when the air, in the courfe of a froft, continues a day or two at very near 32 degrees, the common heat of the earth thaws the ice on its furface, while the thermometer remains at the freezing point. This circuraftance is often obfervable in the rimy mornings of fpring ; the ther- NoTEXXXIir. ADDITIONAL NOTES. sit mometer fhall continue at the freezing point, yet all the rime will vanifh, except that which happens to lie on a bridge, a board, or on a cake of cow- dung, which, being thus, as it were, infulated or cut off from fo free a com- munication with the common heat of the earth, by means of the air undef the bridge, or wood, or dung, which are bad conductors of heat, continue* fomp time longer unthawed. Hence, when the ground is covered thick with fnow, though the froft continues, and the fun does not fhine, yet the fnow is obferved to decreafe very fenfibly. For the common heat of the earth melts the under furface of it, and the upper one evaporates by its folution in the air. The great evaporation of ice was obferved by Mr. Boyle, which experiment I repeated fome time ago. Having fufpended a piece of ice by a wire, and weighed it with care, without touching it with my hand, I hung it out 'the whole of a clear frofty night, and found, in the morning, it had loft nearly a fifth of its weight. Mr. N. Wallerius has fince obferved, that ice, at the time of its congelation, evaporates fafter than water in its fluid form; which may be accounted for from the heat given out at the in- ftant of freezing; (Sauflure's Effais fur Hygromet. p. 349.) but this effect is only momentary. Thus the vegetables that are covered with fnow are feldom injured ; fince, as they lie between the thawing fnow, which has 32 degrees of heat, and the covered earth, which has 48, they arepreferved in a degree of heat be- tween thefe, viz. in 40 degrees of heat. Whence the mofs on which the rein- deer feed, in the northern latitudes, vegetates beneath the fnow; (See note on Mufchus, vol. II.) and hence many Lapland and Alpine plants perifhed through cold in the botanic garden at Upfal; for, in their native fituations, though the cold is much more intenfe, yet at its very commencement they are covered deep with fnow, which remains till late in the fpring. For this fact fee Amaenit. Academ. vol. I. No. 48. In our climate fuch plants do well covered with dried fern, under which they will grow, and even flower, till the fevere vernal frofts ceafe. For the increafe of glaciers fee note on Canto 1. 1. .529. NOTE XXXIIL WINDS. While foutbern Gales o'er ivejlern oceans roll, And Eurus Jteals bis ice-winds from the Polt. CANTO IV. 1. 15. THE theory of the winds is yet very imperfect, in part, perhaps, owing to the want of obfervations fufliciently numerous of the exact times and places where they begin and ceafe to blow, but chiefly to our yet imperfect knowledge of the means by which great regions of air are either fuddcnly produced or fuddenly deftroyed. The air is perpetually fubject to increafe or diminution, from its com- bination with other bodies, or its evolution from them. The vital part of *he air, called oxygene, is continually produced in this climate, from the 4i2 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART L perfpiratiori of vegetables in the funfhine, and probably ffom the action of light on clouds, or on water, in the tropical climates, where the fun has greater power, and may exert fome yet unknown laws of luminous com- bination. Another part of the atmofphere, which is called azote, is perpe- tually fet at liberty from animal and Vegetable bodies by putrefa&ion or combuftion, from many fprings of water, from volatile alkali, and probably from fixed alkali, of which there is an exhauftlefs fource in the water of the ocean. Both thefe component parts of the air are perpetually again diminifhed by their contact with the foil, which covers the furface of the earth, producing nitre; The oxygene is diminilhed in the produ&ion of all acids, of which the carbonic and muriatic exift in great abundance. The azote is diminifhed in the growth of animal bodies, of which it conflitutes an important part, and in its combinations with many other natural pro- ductions. They are both probably diminifhed, in immenfe quantities, by uniting with the inflammable air, which arifes from the mud of rivers and lakes at fome feafons when the atmofphere is light; the oxygene of the air pro- ducing water, and the azote producing volatile alkali, by their combina- tions with this inflammable air. At other feafons of the year thefe prin- ciples may again change their combinations, and the atmofpheric air be re- produced. Mr. Lavoifier found that one pound of chaf coal, in burning, confumed two pounds nine ounces of vital air, or oxygene. The confumption of Vital air, in the procefs of making red-lead, may readily be reduced to cal- culation ; a fmall barrel contains about twelve hundred weight of this com- inodity; I2OO pounds of lead, by calcination, abforb about 144 pounds of vital air: now, as a cubic foot of water weighs 1000 averdupois ounces, and as vital air is above 800 times lighter than water, it follows, that every barrel of red-lead contains nearly 2000 cubic feet of vital air. If this can be performed in miniature in a fmall oven, what may not be done in the immenfe elaboratories of nature! Thefe great elaboratories of nature include almofl all her foffil, as well as her animal and vegetable productions. Dr. Prieftley obtained air of greater or lefs purity, both vital and azotic, from almoft all the foffil fub- Jlances he fubje6led to experiment. Four ounce-weight of lava, from Ice- land, heated in an earthen retort, yielded twenty ciuice-meafures of air. 4 ounce-weight of lava gave 20 ounce-meafures of air. 7 bafaltes . . . 104 a toad-ftone ... 40 ...... l granite . . . 2O I . . . . : elvain ... 30 7 gypfum . . . 230 . . * * 4 blue flate . . . 230 4 clay ... 20 . . 4 lime-flone fpar . . . 830 . . . . . 5 . lime-ftone . . .1160 . ...... t ... Kofi XXXIII. ADDltlONAL NOTES. at* 3 ounce-weight of chalk gave 630 ounce-meafures of aif. 3| white iron-ore . . . 560 4 dark iron-ore . . . 410 \ . . . molybclena ... 25 * . . \ ftream tin ... .20 ... % . fteatites ... 40 a barytes ... 26 i black wad ... 80 4 fand-ftone ... 75 3 coal . . . 700 In this account the fixed air was previoufly extracted from the lime-ftones by acids, and the heat applied was much lefs than was neceflary to extract all the air from the bodies employed. Add to this the known quantities of air which are combined with the calciform ores, as the ochres of iron, man- ganefe, calamy, grey ore of lead, and fome idea may be formed of the great produ<Stion of air in volcanic eruptions, as mentioned in note on Chunda, vol. II. and of the perpetual abforptions and evolutions of whole oceans of air from every part of the earth. But there would feem to be an officina aeris, a (hop where air is both manufactured and deftroyed in the greateft abundance within the polar cir- cles, as will hereafter be fpoken of. Can this be effected by fome yet un- known law of the congelation of aqueous or faline fluids, which may fet at liberty their combined heat, and convert a part both of the acid and alkali of fea-water into their component airs? Or, on the contrary, can the elec- tricity of the northern lights convert inflammable air and oxygenc into wa- ter, whilft the great degree of cold at the poles unites the azote with fome other bafe ? Another officina aeris, or manufacture of air, would feem to exift within the tropics, or at the line, though in a much lefs quantity than at the poles, owing, perhaps, to the action of the fun's light on the moiflurc fufpended in the air, as will alfo be fpoken of hereafter ; but in all other parts of the earth thefe abforptions and evolutions of air, in a greater or lefs de- gree, are perpetually going on in inconceivable abundance; increafed, pro- bably, and diminiihed, at different feafons of the year, by the approach or retroceflion of the fun's light : future difcoveries muft elucidate this part of the fubjecl. To this mould be added, that as heat and electricity, and per- haps magnetifm, are known to difplace air, that it is not impofiible but that the increafed or diminifhed quantities of thefe fluids diffufed in the atmof- phere, may increafe its weight as well as its bulk: fince their fpecific attrac- tions, or affinities to matter, are very ftrong, they probably alfo poffefs ge- neral gravitation to the earth; a fubjecl which wants further inveftigation. See note XXVI. S O U T H-W E S T "WINDS. The velocity of the furface of the earth, in moving round its axis, di-* miniflies from the equator to the poles. Whence, if a region of air, in this 2f4 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART I. Country, fhould be fuddenly removed a few degrees towards the north, it muft conftitute a weftern wind, becaufe, from the velocity it had previ- oufly acquired in this climate, by its friclion with the earth, it would, for a time, move quicker than the furface of the country it was removed to. The contrary muft enfue when a region of air is tranfported from this country a few degrees fouthward, beeaufe the velocity it had acquired in this climate would be lefs than that of the earth's furface where it was re- moved to ; whence it would appear to conftitute a wind from the eaft, while, in reality, the eminent parts of the earth would be carried againft the too flow air. But if this tranfportation of air from fouth to north be performed gradually, the motion of the wind will blow in the diagonal be- tween fouth and weft. And, on the contrary, if a region of air be gra- dually removed from north to fouth, it would alfo blow diagonally between the north and eaft; from whence we may fafely conclude, that all our winds in this country which blow from the north or eaft, or any point between them, confift of regions of air brought from the north ; and that all our winds blowing from the fouth or weft, or from any point between them, are re- gions of air brought from the fouth. It frequently happens, during the vernal months, that after a north-caft wind has paffed over us for feveral weeks, during which time the barome- ter has ftcod at above 30 \ inches, it becomes fuddenly fucceeded by a fouth- weft wind, which alfo continues feveral weeks, and the barometer finks to nearly 18 J- inches. Now, as two inches of the mercury in the barometer balance one-fifteenth part of the whole atmofphere, an important queftion here prefents itfelf: What is become of all ibis air? I. This great quantity of air cannot be carried in a fuperior current to- wards the line, while the inferior current flows towards the poles, becaufe then it would equally affedt the barometer, which fhould not, therefore, fub- fidefrom 30,- inches, to 28*, for fix weeks together. a. It cannot be owing to the air having loft all the moifture which was previously diffolved in it, becaufe thefe warm fouth-weft winds are replete with moifture ; and the cold north-eaft winds, which weigh up the mercury in the barometer to 31 inches, confift of dry air. 3. It cannot be carried over the polar regions, and be accumulated on the meridian oppofite to us, in its paffage towards the line, as fuch an accumu- lation would equal one-fifteenth of the whole atmofphere, and cannot be fup- pofed to remain in that fituation for fix weeks together. 4. It cannot depend on the exiftence of tides in the atmofphere, fmce it muft then correfpond to lunar periods. Nor to accumulations of air from the fpecific levity of the upper regions of the atmofphere, fmce its degree of fluidity muft correfpond with its tenuity, and confequently fuch great moun- tains of air cannot be fuppofed to exift for fo many weeks together as the fouth-weft winds fometimes continue. 5. It remains, therefore, that there muft be, at this time, a great and fud- dcn abforption of air, in the polar circle, by fome unknown operation of na- ture, and that the fouth wind runs in to fupply the deficiency. Now, as this fouth wind confifts of air brought from a part of the earth's furface NOTE XXXIII. ADDITIONAL NOTES. *i$ which moves fafter than it does in this climate, it muft have, at the fame time, a direction from the weft, by retaining part of the velocity it had prcvioufly acquired, Thefe fouth-weft winds, coming from a warmer country, and becoming colder by their contact with the earth of this cli- mate, and by their expanfion (fo great a part of the fuperincumbent atmof- phere having vanifhed), precipitate their moifture; and as they continue for fcveral weeks to be abforbed in the polar circle, would feem to receive a perpetual fupply from the tropical regions, efpecially over the line, as will hereafter be fpoken of. It may fometimes happen that a north-eaft wind, having pafled over us, may be bent down, and driven back, before it ha? acquired any heat from the climate, and may thus, for a few hours, or a day, have a fouth-weft direc- tion, and from its defcending from a higher region of the atmofphere, may poffefs a greater degree of cold, than an inferior north-eaft current of air. The extreme cold of Jan. 13, 1709, at Paris, came on with a gentle fouth wind, and was diminifhed when the wind changed to the north, which is ac- counted for by Mr. Homberg, from a reflux of air which had been flowing for fome time from the north. Chemical Eflays by R. Watfon, vol. V. p. i8z. It may happen that a northreaft current may, for a day or two, pafs over us, and produce inceffant rain, by mixing with the inferior fouth-weft cur- rent; but this, as well as the former, is of fhort duration, as its friction will foon carry the inferior current along with it, and dry or frofty weather will then fucceed. NORTH-EAST WINDS. The north-eaft winds of this country confift of regions of air from the north, travelling fometimes at the rate of about a mile in two minutes, during the vernal months, for feveral weeks together, from the polar regions to- ward the fouth, the mercury in the barometer ftanding above 30. Thefc winds confift of air greatly cooled by the evaporation of the ice and fnow over which it paffes, and, as they become warmer by their contact with the earth of this climate, are capable of diffolving more moifture as they pafs along, and are thence attended with frofts in winter, and with dry hot wea- ther in fummer. I. This great quantity of air cannot be fupplied by fuperior currents pafling in a contrary direction from fouth to north, becaufe fuch currents muft, as they arife into the atmofphere a mile or two high, become expofed to fo great cold as to occafion them to depofit their moifture, which would fall through the inferior current upon the earth in fome part of their paf- fage. a. The whole atmofphere muft have increafed in quantity, becaufe it ap- pears by the barometer that there exifts one-fifteenth part more air over u for many weeks together, which could not be thus accumulated by differ- ence of temperature in refpect to heat, or by any aeroftatic laws at prefent known, or by any lunar influence. ai6 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART!. From whence it would appear that immenfe mafies of air were fet at li- berty from their combinations with folid bodies, along with a fuffident quantity of combined heat, within the polar circle, or in fome region to the north of us; and that they thus perpetually increafe the quantity of the at- mofphere; and that this is again, at certain times, re-abforbed, or enters into new combinations at the line or tropical regions. By which wonderful contrivance the atmofphere is perpetually renewed, and rendered fit for the fupport of animal and vegetable life. SOUTH-EAST WINDS. The fouth-eaft winds of this country confift of air from the north, which had parted by us, or over us, and before it had obtained the velocity of the earth's furface in this climate, had been driven back, owing to a deficiency of air now commencing at the polar regions. Hence thefe are generally dry or freezing winds, and if they fucceed north-eaft winds, fhould prog- nofticate a change of wind from north-eaft to fouth-weft: the barometer is generally about 30. They are fometimes attended with cloudy weather, or rain, owing to their having acquired an increafed degree of warmth and moifture before they became retrograde; or to their being mixed with air from the fouth. a. Sometimes thefe fouth-eaft winds confift of a vertical eddy of north- eaft air, without any mixture of fouth-weft air; in that cafe the barometer continues above 30, and the weather is dry or frofty for four or five days to- gether. It mould here be obferved, that air being an elaftic fluid, muft be more liable to eddies than water, and that theft eddies muft extend into cylinders, or vortexes, of greater diameter, and that if a vertical eddy of north-eaft air be of fmall diameter, or has palled but a little way to the fouth of us before its return, it will not have gained the velocity of the earth's furface to the fouth of us, and will, in confequence, become a fouth-eaft wind. But if the vertical eddy be of large diameter, or has paffed much to the fouth of us, it will have acquired velocity from its friction with the earth's furface to the fouth of us, and will, in confequence, on its return, become a fouth-wefl wind, producing great cold. NORTH-WEST WINDS. There feem to be three fources of the north-weft winds of this hemifphere of the earth. I. When a portion of fouthern air, which was pafitng over us, is driven back by accumulation of new air in the polar regions. In this cafe I fuppofe they are generally moift or rainy winds, with the barometer under 30; and if the wind had previoufly been in the fouth-weft, it would feem to prognofticate a change to the north-eaft. 2. If a current of north wind is pafling over us but a few miles high, without any eafterly dire&ion, and is bent down upon us, it muft immedi- ately pofiefs a wefterly direction, becaufe it will now move fafter than the NOTE XXXIII. ADDITIONAL NOTES. ei)T i'urface of the earth where it arrives; and thus becomes changed from 4 north-eaft to a north-weft wind. The defcent of a north-eaft current of air producing a north-weft wind, may continue fome days with clear or freezing weather, as it may be limply owing to a vertical eddy of north-eaft q.ir, as will be fpoken of below. It may otherwife be forced down by a current of ibuth-weft wind paffing over it; and in this cafe it will be attended with rain for a few days, by the mixture of the two airs of different degrees of heat; and will prognoftjcate a change of wind from north-eaft to fouth-weft, if the wind was previoufiy in the north-eaft quarter. 3. On the eaftern coaft of North-America the north-weft winds bring froit, as the north-eaft winds do in this country, as appears from variety of teftimony. This feems to happen from a vertical fpiral eddy made in the ijtmolphere, between the fhpre and the ridge of mountains which form the fpine, or back-bone, of that continent. If a current of water runs along the hypothenufe of a triangle, an eddy will be made in the included angle, ivhich will turn round like a water-wheel as the ftream paffes in contact with one edge of it. The fame muft happen when a fheet of air, flowing ijlong from the north-eaft, rifes from the fhore, in a ftraight line, to the iumiiut of the Apalachian mountains ; a part of the ftream of north-eaft air will flow over the mountains, another part will revert, and circulate fpi- rally, between the fummit of the country and the eaftern fhore, continuing to move toward the fouth; and thus be changed from a north-eaft to * north-weft wind. This vertical fpiral eddy, having been in contact with the cold fummits of thefe mountains, and defcending from higher parts of the atmofphere, will lofe part of its heat, and thus conftitute one caufe of the greater cold- nefs of the eaftern fides of North- America than of the European fhores op- pofite to them, which is faid to be equal to twelve degrees of north lati- tude, which is a wonderful facft, not otherwife eafy to be explained, fince the heat of the fprings at Philadelphia is faid to be 52, which is greater than the medium heat of the earth in this country. The exiftence of vertical eddies, or great cylinders of air rolling on the furface of the earth, is agreeable to the obfervations of the conftruclors of wind-mills, who, on this idea, place the area of the fails leaning backwards, inclined to the horizon, and believe that then they have greater power than when they are placed quite perpendicularly. The fame kind ot' rolling cylinders of water obtain in rivers, owing to the fri&ion of the wa- ter agiiinft the earth at their bottoms, as is known by bodies having been observed to float upon their furfaces quicker than when immerfed to a cer- tain depth. Thcfe vertical eddies of air ptobably exift all over the earth's furface, but particularly at the bottom or fides of mountains, and more fo, < probably, in the courfe of the fouth-weft than of the north-eaft winds, be- c-iufe the foimer fall from an eminence, as it were, on a part of the earth where there is a deficiency of the quantity of air, 36 is fliewn by the linking of the barometer: whereas the latter are pufhed or fqueezed forward by an adcatioii to the atmofphere behind them, as appears by the rifing of the b TART I. 2 F i8 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART I. TRADE-WINDS. A column of heated air becomes lighter than before, and will therefore afccnd, by the preffure of the cold air which furrounds it, like a cork in water, or like heated fmoke in a chimney. Now, as the fun pafies twice over the equator for once over either tropic, the equator has not time to become cool ; and, on this account, it is in ge- neral hotter at the line than at the tropics; and, therefore, the air over the line, except in fome few inftances hereafter to be mentioned, continues to afcend at all feafons of the year, preffed upwards by regions of air brought from the tropics. This air, thus brought from the tropics to the equator, would conftitutc a north wind on one fide of the equator, and a fouth wind on the other ; but as the furface of the earth at the equator moves quicker than the fur- face of the earth at the tropics, it is evident that a region of air brought from either tropic to the equator, and which had previoufly only acquired the velocity of the earth's furface at the tropics, will now move too flow for the earth's furface at the equator, and will thence appear to move in a direction contrary to the motion .of the earth. Hence the trade-winds, though they confift of regions of air brought from the north on one fide of the line, and from the fouth on the other, will appear to have the diagonal direction of north-eaft and fouth-eaft winds. Now, it is commonly believed that there are fuperior currents of air pafs- ing over thefe north-eaft and fouth-eaft currents in a contrary direction, and which, defcending near the tropics, produce vertical whirlpools of air. An important queftion here again prefents itfelf : What becomes of the moijlure ivhich this heated air ought to Jepoftt, as it cools in the upper regions of the atmof- phcre, in its journey to the tropics ? It has been fhewn by Dr. Prieftley and Mr. Ingenhouz, that the green matter at the bottom of cifterns, and the frefh leaves of plants immerfed in water, give out confiderable quantities of vital air in the funfhine ; that is, the perfpirable matter of plants (which is water much divided in its egrefs from their minute pores), becomes decom- pofed by the fun's light, and converted into two kinds of air, the vital and inflammable airs. The moifture contained or diflblved in the afcending heated air at the line, muft exift in great tenuity ; and, by being expofed to the great light of the fun in that climate, the water may be decompofed, and the new airs fpread on the atmofphere from the line to the poles. I. From there being no conftant depofition of rains in the ufual courfe of the trade-winds, it would appear that the water rifmg at the line is decom- pofed in its afcent. a. From the obfervations of M. Bougner, on the mountain Pinchinca, one of the Cordelieres immediately under the line, there appears to be no condenfible vapour above three or four miles high. Now, though the at- mofphere at that height may be cold to a very confiderable degree, yet its total deprivation of condenfible vapour would feem to Ihew, that its water was decompofed, as there are no experiments to evince that any degree of NOTE XXXIII. ADDITIONAL NOTES. 219 cold hitherto known has been able to deprive air of its moifture; and great abundance of fnow is depofited from the air that flows to the polar regions, though it is expofed to no greater degrees of cold in its journey thither than probably exifts at four miles height in the atmofpher.e at the line. 3. The hygrometer of Mr. Sduffure alfo pointed to drynefs as he afcended into rarer air ; the fingle hair of which it was conftru&ed, contracting from deficiency of moifture. Efiais fur 1'Hygromet. p. 143. From thefe obfervations it appears, either that rare and cold air requires more moifture to faturate it than denfe air, or that the moifture becomes decompofed, and converted into air, as it afcends into thefe cold and rare regions of the atmofphere. 4. There fcems fome analogy between the circumftance of air being pro- duced or generated in the cold parts of the atmofphere, both at the line and at the poles. MONSOONS AND TORNADOES. I. In the Arabian and Indian feas are winds which blow fix months one way, and fix months the other, and are called Monfoons ; by the accidental difpofitions of land and fea, it happens, that in fome places the air near the tropic is fuppofed to become warmer when the fun is vertical over it, than at the line. The air in thefe places confequently afcends, preffed upon one fide by the north-eaft regions of air-, and on the other fide by the fouth- weft regions of air. For as the air brought from the fouth has previoufly obtained the velocity of the earth's furface at the line, it moves fafter than the earth's furface near the tropic, where it now arrives, and becomes a fouth-weft wind, while the air from the north becomes a north-eaft wind, as before explained. Thefe two winds do not fo quietly join and afcend as. the north-eaft and fouth-eaft winds, which meet at the line with equal warmth and velocity, and form the trade-winds; but as they meet in con- trary directions before they afcend, and cannot be fuppofed accurately to ba- lance each other, a rotatory motion will be produced^ as they afcend, like water falling through a hole, and an horizontal or fpiral eddy is the con- fequence; thefe eddies are more or lefs rapid, and are called Tornadoes in their moft violent ftate, railing water from the ocean in the weft, or fand from the deferts of the eaft ; in lefs violent degrees, they only mix together the two currents of north-eaft and fouth-weft air, and produce, by this means, inceffant rains, as the air of the north-eaft acquires fome of the heat from the fouth-weft wind, as explained in Note XXV. This cir- cumftance of the eddies produced by the monfoon-winds, was fecn by Mr. Bruce in Abyffinia: he relates, that for many fucceflive mornings, at the commencement of the rainy monfoon, he obferved a cloud, of apparently fmall dimenfion, whirling round with great rapidity, and, in a few minutes, the heavens became covered with dark clouds, with confequent great rains. See note on Canto III. 1. 129. a. But it is not only at the place where the air afcends, at the northern extremity of the rainy monfoon, and where it forms tornadoes, as obferved fiio BOtANlC GARDEN, PAftf T, above by Mr. Bruce, but over a great trad of country, fcveral degree* irt length, in certain parts, as in the Arabian fea, a perpetual rain for feveral months defcends, fimilar to what happens* for weeks together, in our own climate, in a lefs degree, during the fouth-weft winds. Another important queftion prefents itfelf here : If the climate to which this fuuth-wejl wind ar~ rives is not colder than that it comes from, why ftould it di'pojit its moijlure during its iufjolf journey ? If it be a colder climate, why does it come thither? The. totnadoes of air above defcribed can extend but. a little way, and it is cot eafy to conceive, that a fuperior cold current of air can mix with an infe- rior one, and thus produce fhowers over ten degrees of country, fince, at about three miles high, there is perpetual froft ; and what can induce theffl narrow and fhallow currents to flow over each other fo many hundred miles? Though the earth, at the northern extremity of this monfoon$ may ba jrnore heated by certain circumftances of fituation than at the line, yet it feems probable that the intermediate country between that and the line, hiay continue colder than the line (as in other parts of the earth), and hence, that the air coming from the line to fupply this afcent, or deftru&ion of air, at the northern extremity of the monfoon, will be cooled all the way in its approach, and, in confequence, depofit its water. It feems proba- ble, that at the northern extremity of this monfoon, where the tornadoes or hurricanes exift, that the air not only afcends, but is in part converted into water, or otherwife diminifhed in quantity, as no account is given of the exiflence of any fuperior currents of it. As the fouth-weft winds are always attended with a light atmofphcre, an incipient vacancy, or a great diminution of air, muft have taken place to the northward of them, in all parts of the earth wherever they exift; and a depofition of their moifture fucceeds their being cooled by the climate they arrive at, and not by a contrary current of cold air over them, fince, in that cafe, the barometer would not fink. They may thus, in our own country, be termed monfoons without very regular periods, 3. Another caufe of TORNADOES, independent of the monfoons, is inge- fiioufiy explained by Dr, Franklin; when> in the tropical countries, a ftra- tum of inferior air becomes fo heated by its contact: with the warm earth, that its expanfion is increafed more than is equivalent to the preffure of the ftratum of air over it ; or when the fuperior ftratum becomes more condenfed by cold than the inferior -one by preffure, the upper region will defcend, and the lower one afcend. In this fituation, if one part of the atmofphere be hotter, from fome fortuitous circumftances, or has lefs pref- fure over it, the lower ftratum will begin to afcend at this part, and re- femble water falling through a hole, as mentioned above. If the lower re- gion of air was going forwards with considerable velocity, it will gain an eddy by rifing up this hole in the incumbent heavy air, fo that the whirl- pool, or tornado, has not only its progreffive velocity, but its circular one alfo, which thus lifts up or overturns every thing within its fpiral whirL By the weaker whirlwinds in this country, the trees are fometimes thrown down in a line of only twenty or forty yards in breadth, making a Not a fcXXttr. ADDITIONAL NOTES. kind of avenue through a country. In the Weft-Indies the fea rife* lik a cone in the whirl, and is met by black clouds, produced by the cold up* per air and the warm lower air being rapidly mixed; wherlce are produced the great and fudden rains called water-fpouts; while the upper and lower airs exchange their plus or minus electricity in perpetual lightnings. LAND AND SEA BREEZES. The fea, being a tranfparent mafs, is lefs heated at its furface by the fun's irays than the land, and its continual change of furface contributes to prc- ferve a greater uniformity in the heat of the air which hangs over it* Hence the furface of the tropical iflands is more heated during the day than the fea that furrounds them, and cools more in the night, by its greater elevation ; whence, in the afternoon, when the lands of the tropical iflands have been much heated by the fun, the air over them afcends, prefled up- wards by the cooler air of the incircling ocean; in the morning, again, the land becoming cooled more than the fea, the air over it defcends by its in crcafed gravity, and blows over the ocean, near its fhorcs. CONCLUSION* 1. There are various irregular winds besides thofe above defcribedj which confift of horizontal or vertical eddies of air, owing to the inequality of the earth's furface, or the juxtapofition of the fea. Other irregular winds have their origin from increafed evaporation of water, or its fudden ^evaporation and defcent in fhowers; others from the partial expanfion and condenfution of air by heat and cold; by the accumulation or defect of electric fluid, or to the air's new production or abforption, occafioned by lo- cal caufes not yet difcovered. See notes VII. and XXV. 2. There feem to exift only two original winds: one confiding of air brought from the north, and the other of air brought from the fouth. The former of thefe winds has alfo generally an apparent direction from the eaft, and the latter from the weft, arifing from the different velocities of the earth's furface* All the other winds above defcribed are deflections or retrogref- lions of fome parts of thefe currents of air from the north or fouth. 3. One fifteenth part of the atmofphere is. occafionally deftroyed, and occafionally reproduced, by unknown caufes. Thefe caufes are brought into immediate activity over a great part of the furface of the earth, at nearly the fame time, but always more powerful to the northward than to the fouthward of any given place, and would hence feem to have their princi- pal effect in the polar circles; exifting, neverthelefs, though with lefs power, toward the tropics or at the line. For when the north-eaft wind blows the barometer rifes, fometimes from 28 \ inches to 30-, which mews a great new generation of air in the north; and when the fouth-weft wind blows the barometer finks as much, which Ihews a great deftruction of air in the north. But as the north-eaft winds fometimes continue for five or fix weeks> the newly generated air muft be 6*2 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART!. deftroyed at thofe times in the warmer climates to the fouth of us, or circu- late in fuperior currents, which has been {hewn to be improbable from its not depofiting its water. And as the fouth-weft winds fometimes continue for fome weeks, chere muft be a generation of air to the fouth at thofe times, or fuperior currents, which laft has been fhewn to be improbable. 4. The north-eaft winds, being generated about the poles, are pufiied for- wards towards the tropics or line, by the preffure from behind, and hence they become warmer, as explained in note VII. as well as by their coming into contact with a warmer part of the earth, which contributes to make thefe winds greedily abforb moifture in their paflfage. On the contrary, the fouth-weft winds, as the atmofphere is fuddenly diminifhed in the polar re- gions, are drawn, as it were, into an incipient vacancy, and become, there- fore, expanded in their paffage, and thus generate cold, as explained in note VII. and are thus induced to part with their moiflure, as well as by their contact with a colder part of the earth's furface. Add to this, that the dif- ference in the found of the north-eaft and fouth-weft winds may depend on the former being pufhed forwards by a prcffure behind, and the latter fall- ing, as it were, into a partial or incipient vacancy before ; whence the for- iner becomes more condenfed, and the latter more rarefied, as it paffes. There is a whiftle termed a lark-call, which confifts of a hollow cylinder of tin-plate, clofed at each end, about half an inch in diameter, and a quar- ter of an inch high, with oppofite holes, about the fize of a goofe-quill, through the centre of each end ; if this lark-whiftle be held between the lips, the found of it is manifeftly different \vhen the breath is forcibly Mown through it from within outwards, and when it is fucked from with- out inwards. Perhaps this might be worthy the attention of organ build- ers. 5. A flop is put to this new generation of air, when about a fifteenth of the whole is produced, by its increafing preffure; and a fimilar boundary is fixed to its abforption or dcftruction by the clecreafe of atmofpheric preffure. As water requires more heat to convert it into vapour under a heavy atmof- phere than under a light one, fo in letting off the water from muddy fifh- ponds, great quantities of air-bubbles are feen to afcend from the bottom, which were prcvioufly confined there by the preffure of the water. Similar bubbles of inflammable air are feen to arife from lakes in many feafons of the year, when the atmofphere fuddenly becomes light. 6. The increafed abforptions and evolutions of air muft, like its fimple cxpanfions, depend much on the prefence or abfence of heat and light, and will hence, in refpect to the times and places of its production and deftruc- tion, be governed by the approach or retroceffion of the fun, and on the temperature, in regard to heat, of various latitudes, and parts of the fame latitude, fo well explained by Mr. Kirwan. 7. ( Though the immediate caufe of the deftruction or re-production of great maffes of air at certain times, when the wind changes from north to fouth, or from fouth to north, cannot yet be afcertained; yet, as there appears greater difficulty in accounting for this change of wind from any ether known cauies, we may ftill fufpect that there exifts in the arctic and NOTE XXXIII. ADDITIONAL NOTES. 223 antarctic circles, a BEAR or DRAGON, yet unknown to philofophers, which, at times, fuddenly drinks up, and as fuddenly, at other times, vomits out one- fifteenth part of the atmofphere; and hope that this or fome future age will learn how to govern and domefticate a monfter which might be rendered of fuch important fervice to mankind. INSTRUMENTS. If, along with the ufual regifters of the weather, obfervations were made on the winds in many parts of the earth, with the three following inftru- ments, which might be conftructed at no great expence, fome ufeful infor- mation might be acquired. I. To mark the hour when the wind changes from north-eaft to fouth- weft, and the contrary. This might be managed by making a communica- tion from the vane of a weather-cock to a clock, in fuch a manner, that if the vane mould revolve quite round, a tooth on its revolving axis mould flop the clock, or put back a fmall bolt on the edge of a wheel, revolving once in twenty -four hours* a. To difcover whether in a year more air patted from north to fouth, or the contrary. This might be effected by placing a wind-mill-fail of cop- per, about nine inches diameter, in a hollow cylinder, about fix inches long, open at both ends, and fixed on an eminent fituation, exactly north and fouth. Thence only a part of the north-eaft and fouth-weft currents would affect the fail fo as to turn it; and if its revolutions were counted by an adapt- ed machinery, as the fail would turn one way with the north currents of air, and the contrary one with the fouth currents, the advance of the counting finger either way, would mew which wind had prevailed moft at the end of the year. 3. To difcover the rolling cylinders of air, the vane of a weather-cock might be fo fufpended as to dip or rife vertically, as welj as to have its hori- zontal rotation. RECAPITULATION. NORTH-EAST WINDS confift of air flowing from the north, where it feems to be occafionally produced ; has an apparent direction from the eaft, owing to its not having acquired in its journey the increafing velocity of the earth's furface ; thefe winds are analogous to the trade-winds between the tropics, and frequently continue, in the vernal months, for four and fix weeks together, with a high barometer, and fair or frofty weather, a. They fome- times confift of fouth-weft air, which had paffed by us or over us, driven back by a new accumulation of air in the north. Thefe continue but a day or two, and are attended with rain. See note XXV. SOUTH-WEST WINDS confift of air flowing from the fouth, and feeming occafionally abforbed at its arrival to the more northern latitudes. It has a real dire9.ion from the weft, owing to its not having loft in its journey the greater vtlocity it had acquired from the earth's furface," from whence it 424 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART I, came. Thefe winds are analogous to the monfoons between the tropics, and frequently continue for four or fix weeks together, with a low barometer, and rainy weather, 2. They fometimes confift of north-eaft air, which had paffed by us or over us, which becomes retrograde by a commencing defi- ciency of air in the north. Thefe winds continue but a day or two, attended with fevcrer froft, with a finking barometer ; their cold being increafed by their expanfion, as they return, into an incipient vacancy. NORTH-WEST WINDS confift, firft, of fouth-weft winds, which have paffed over us, bent down, and driven back, towards the fouth, by newly generated northern air. They coptinue but a day or two, and are attended with rain or clouds. 2. They confift of north-eaft winds bent down from the higher parts of the atmofphere, and having there acquired a greater velocity than the earth's furface, are frofty and fair. 3. They confift of north-eaft winds formed into a vertical fpiral eddy, as on the eaftern coafts cf North-America, and bring fevere froft. SOUTH-EAST WINDS confift, firft, of north-eaft winds become retrograde; continue for a day or two; frofty or fair; finking barometer, 2. They confift of north-eaft winds formed into a vertical eddy, not a fpiral one; froft or fair. NORTH WINDS confift, firft, of air flowing flowly from the north, fo that they acquire the velocity of the earth's furface as they approach; are fair or frofty; feldom occur. 2. They confift of retrograde fouth winds; thefe continue but a day or two; are preceded by fouth-weft winds; and arc generally fucceeded by north-eaft winds; cloudy or rainy; barometer riling. SOUTH WINDS confift, firft, of air flpwing flowly from the fouth, lofing their previous weftern velocity by the friction of the earth's furface as they approach; moift; feldom occur. 2. They coufift of retrograde north winds; thefe continue but a day or two; are preceded by north-eaft winds; and generally fucceeded by fouth-weft winds, colder, barometer finking. E/VST WINDS confift of air brought haftily from the north, and not im- pelled farther fouthward, owing to a fudden beginning abforption of air in the northern regions, very cold, barometer high, generally fucceeded by fouth-weft wind. WEST WINDS confift of air brought haftily from the fouth, and checked from proceeding further to the north, by a beginning production of air iij the northern regions, warm nnd moift, generally fucceeded by north-eaft wind. 2. They confift of air bent down from the higher regions of the atmofphere; if this air be from the foufh, and brought haftily, it becomes a wind of great velocity, moving perhaps 60 miles in an hour, is warm and rainy ; if it confifts of northern air bent down, it is pf lefs velocity and colder. Application of t'js preceding Theory to feme Extra??* from a "Journal of tie Dec. I, 1790, The barometer funk fuddenly, and the wind, which had been fome days north-eaft, with froft, changed to fouth-eaft with an incelTant though moderate fall of fnpw. A part of the northern air, which had. NOTE XXXIII. ADDITIONAL NOTES. aaj paflecl by us I fuppofe, now became retrograde before it had acquired th velocity of the earth's furface to the fouth of us, and being attended by fomc of the fouthern air in its journey, the moiilure of the latter became condenfed and frozen by its mixture with the former. Dec. 2, 3. The wind changed to north- weft and thawed the fnow. A part of the fouthern air, which had paffed by us or over us, with the retro- grade northern air above defcribed, was now in its turn driven back, before it had loft the velocity of the furface of the earth to the fouth of us, and, confequently, became a north-weft wind; and not having loft the warmth it brought from the fouth, produced a thaw. Dec. 4, 5. Wind changed to north-eaft, with froft and a rifing barometer, The air from the north continuing to blow, after it had driven back the fouthern air as above defcribed, became a north-eaft wind, having lefs velo- city than the furface of the earth in this climate, and produced froft from its coldnefs. Dec. 6, 7. Wind now changed to the fouth-weft, with incefiant rain and a finking barometer. From unknown caufes, I fuppofe the quantity of iir to be diminifhed in the polar regions, and the fouthern air cooled by the earth's furface, which was previoufly frozen, depofits its moifture for a day .or two ; afterwards the wind continued fouth-weft without rain, as the fur- face of the earth became warmer. March 18, 1785. There has been a long froft; a few days ago th barometer funk to zp T -, and the froft became more fevere. Becaufe the air being expanded, by a part of the preffure being taken off, became colder. This day the mercury rofe to 30, and the froft ceaied, the wind continuing as be- fore, between north and eaft. March 19. Mercury above 30, weather ftill milder, no froft, wind north-eaft. March ao. The fame; for the mercury rifing, {hews that the air becomes more compreffed by the weight above and, in confequence, gives out warmth. April 4, 5. Froft, wind north-eaft ; the wind changed in the middle of the day to the north-weft, without rain, and has done fo for three or four days, becoming again north-eaft at night. For the fun now giving greater degrees of heat, the air afcends a* the fun paffes the zenith, and is fupplied below by the air on the weftern fide, as well as on the eaftern fide of the zenith, during the hot part of the day; whence, for a few hours, on the ap- proach of the hot part of the day, the air acquires a wefterly direction in this longitude. If the north-weft wind had been caufed by a retrograde mo- tion of fome fouthern air, which had paffed over us, it would have been at- tended with rain or clouds. April 10. It rained all day ycfterday, the wind north-weft; this morning there was a fharp fr.oft. The evaporation of the moifture (which/ell yef- lerday), occufioned by the continuance of the wind, produced fo much cold as to freeze the dew. May 11. Frequent Ihowers, with a current of colder wind preceding every fhowcr. The finking of the rain or cloud prefled away the air from beneath it in its defce-nt, which, having been for a time (haded from the fuif by the floating cloud, became cooled in fome degree. PART I. 2 G 226 fcOTANlC GARDEN. PART!. June 20. The barometer funk, the wind became fouth-weft, and the whole heaven was inftantly covered with clouds. A part of the incumbent atmofphere having vaniflied, as appeared by the finking of the barometer, the remainder became expanded by its elafticity, and thence attracted fome of the matter of heat from the vapour intermixed with it, and thus, in a few minutes, a total devaporation took place, as in exhaufting the receiver of an air-pump. See note XXV. At the place where the air is deflroyed, currents both from the north and fouth flow in to fupply the deficiency (far it has been Ihewn that there are no other proper winds but thefe two), and the mixture of thefe winds produces fo fudden condenfation of the moifture, both by the coldnefs of the northern air and the cxpanfion of both of them, that lightning is given out, and an incipient tornado takes place ; whence thunder is faid frequently to approach againft the wind. Augnjl 28, 1732. Barometer was at 31, and Dec. 30, in the fame year, it was at 28 2-tenths. Medical ElTays, Edinburgh, vol. IT. p. 7. It appears from thefe journals that the mercury at Edinburgh varies fometimes nearly three inches, or one-tenth of the whole atmofphere. From the journals kept by the Royal Society at London, it appears feldom to vary more than two inches, or one-fifteenth of the whole atmofphere. The quantity of the variation is faid ftill to decreafe nearer the line, and to increafe in the more northern latitudes; which much confirms the idea that there exifts, at cer- tain times, a great deflruction or production of air within the polar circle. July 2, 1732.- The wefterly winds in the journal in the Medical Efiays, vol. II. above referred to, are frequently marked with the number three, to fttew their greater velocity, whereas the eafterly winds feldom approach to the number two. The greater velocity of the wefterly winds than the eafterly ones is well known, I believe, in every climate of the world; which may be thus explained, from the theory above delivered. I. When the air is ftill, the higher parts of the atmofphere move quicker than thofe parts which touch the earth, becaufe they are at a greater diftance from the axis of motion. 2. The part of the atmofphere where the north or fouth wind comes front, is higher than the part of it where it comes to; hence the more elevated parts of the atmofphere continue to defcend towards the earth as cither of thofe winds approach. 3. When fouthern air is brought to us it poffeffes a wefterly direction alfo, owing to the velocity it has previously acquired from the earth's furface ; and if it cbnfifts of air from the higher parts of the atmofphere defcending nearer the earth, this wefterly velocity becomes increafed. But when northern air is brought to us, it polTeffes an apparent eufterly direction alfo, owing to the velocity which it has pre- vioufly acquired from the earth's furface being lefs than that of the earth's furface in this latitude: now, if the north-eaft wind corififts of air defcend- ing from higher parts of the atmofphere, this deficiency of velocity will "be lefs, in confequence of the fame caufe, viz. the higher parts of the atmof- phere defcending, as the wind approaches, increafes the real velocity of the weitern winds, and decreafes the apparent velocity of the eaftern ones. Oftober 22. Wind changed from fouth-eaft to fouth-weft. There is a popular prognoftication that if the wind changes from the north towards NOTE XXXIV. ADDITIONAL NOTES. 227 the fouth, paffing through the eaft, it is more likely to continue in the fouth, than if it pafies through the weft, which may be thus accounted for. If the north-eaft wind changes to a north- weft wind, it fhews either that a part of the northern air defcends upon us in a fpiral eddy, or that a fuperior current of fouthern air is driven hack; but if a north-eaft wind be changed into a fouth-eaft wind, it fhews that the northern air is become retrograde, and that in a day or two, as foon as that part of it has patted which has not gained the velocity of the earth's furface in this latitude, it will become a fouth wind for a few hours, and then a fouth-weft wind. The writer of this imperfecl {ketch of anemology, wiflies it may incite fome perfon of greater leifure and ability to attend to this fubjed:, and by comparing the various meteorological journals and obfervations already pub- lifhed, to conftrucT: a more accurate and methodical treatife on this inter eft- ing branch of philofophy. NOTE XXXIV. VEGETABLE PERSPIRATION. nd ived tie enamoured Qxygene to Light-. CANTO-, IV. 1. 34. WHEN points or hairs are put into fpring-water, as in the experiments of Sir B. Thompfon, (Phil. Tranf. LXXVII.) and expofed to the light of the fun, much air, which loofely adhered to the water, rifes in bubbles, as explained in the note on Fucus, vol. II. A ftill greater quantity of air, and of a purer -kind, is emitted by Dr. Prieilley's green matter, and by vegeta- ble leaves growing in water in funfhine, according to Mr. Ingenhouz's ex- periments; both which I fiifpe^l to be owing to a decwnpofition of the wa- ter perfpired by the plant ; for the edge of a capillary tube of great tenuity may be confidered as a circle of points, and as the oxygene, or principle of vital air, may be expanded into a gas by the fun's light,, the hydrogene, or inflammable air, may be detained in the pores of the vegetable. Hence plants growing in the fhade are white, and become green by be- ing expofed to the fun's light; for their natural colour being blue, the ad- dition of hydrogene adds yellow to this blue, and tans them green. I fup- pofe a fimilar circuinftance takes place in animal bodies; their perfpirablc matter, as it efcapes in the funfhine, becomes decompofed by the edges of their pores, as in vegetables, though in lefs quantity, as their perfpiration is lefs, and by their hydrogene being retained the fkin becomes tanned yel- low. In proof of this it muft be obferved, that both vegetable and animal fub fiances become bleached white by the fun-beams when they are dead, as cabbage-ftalks, bones, ivory, tallow, bees-wax, linen and cotton cloth; and hence, I fuppofe, the copper-coloured natives of funny countries might become etiolated, or blanched, by being kept from their infancy in the dark, or removed, for a few generations, to more northerly climates. It is probable that on a funny morning much pure air becomes feparated from the dew, by means of the points of vegetables, on which it adheres, 2$ BOTANIC GARDEN. I>A*T L and much inflammable air imbibed by the vegetable, or combined v/ith it; and by the fun's light thus decompofing water, the effects of it in bleach- ing linen feems to depend (as defcribed in note X.): the water is decom- pofed by the light at the ends or points of the cotton or thread, and the vital air unites with the phlogiilic or colouring matters of the cloth, and produces a netv acid, which is either itfelf colourlefs, or waihes out; at the iame time the inflammable part of the water efcapes. Hence there feem* a reafon why cotton bleaches fo much fooner than linen, viz. becaufe its fi- bres are three or four tunes fhorter, and therefore protrude fo many more points, which feem to facilitate the liberation of the vital air from the in- flammable part of the water. Bees-wax becomes bleached by expofure to the fun and dews, in a fimi- lar manner as metals become calcined or rufly, viz. by the water on their furface being decomposed; and hence the inflammable material, which caufed the colour, becomes united with vital air, forming a new acid, and is wafhed away. Oil, clofe flopped in a phial not full, and expofed long to the fun's light , becomes bleached, as I fuppofe, by the decompofition of the water it con- tains; the inflammable air rifing above the furface, and the vital air unit- ing with the colouring matter of the oil. For it is remarkable, that by Shutting up a phial of bleached oil in a dark drawer, it, in a little time, becomes coloured again. The following experiment {hews the power of light in feparating vital air from another bafis, viz. from azote. Mr. Scheele inverted a glafs vef- fel, filled with colourlefs nitrous acid, into another glafs, containing the fame acid, and, on expofmg them to the fun's light, the inverted glafs be- came partly filled with pure air, and the acid, at the fame time, became co- loured. Scheele, in Crcll's Annal. 1786. But if the veflel of colourlefs nitrous acid be quite full, and flopped, fo that no fpace is left for the air produced to expand itfelf into, no change of colour takes place. Pricftley's Exp. VI. p. 344. See Keir's very excellent Chemical Dictionary, p. 99. new edition. A fun-flowcf , three feet and a half high, according to the experiment of Dr. Hales, perfpired two pints in one day (Vegetable Statics), which is many times as much, in proportion to its furface, as is perfpired from the furface and lungs cf animal bodies; it follows, that the vital air liberated from the furfaces of plants by the funfhine, muft much exceed the quan- tity of it abforbed by their refpiration, and that hence they improve the air in which they live during the light part of the day ; and thus blanched ve- getables will fooner become tanned into green by the fun's light, than etiolated animal bodies will become tanned yellow by the fame means. It is hence evident, that the curious difcovery of Dr. Priefllcy, that his green vegetable matter, and other aquatic plants, gave out vital air iv hen the fun flione upon them, and the leaves of other plants did the fame when hnmerfed in water, as obfcrved by Mr. Ingenhouz, refer to the per- fpiration of vegetables, not to their refpiration. Becaufe Dr. Prieflley ob- fcrved the pure air to come from both fides of the leaves, and even from Note XXXV. ADDITIONAL NOTES. 219 the flalks of a water-flag, whereas one fide of the leaf only fervcs the officfc of lungs, and certainly not the flalks. Exper. on Air, vol. III. And thus, in refped to the circumftance in which plants and animals feemed the far- theft removed from each other, I mean in their fuppofed mode of refpira* tion, by which one was believed to purify the air whkh the other had in- jured, they feem to differ only in degree, and the analogy between them remains unbroken. Plants are faid, by many writers, to grow much f after in the night than in the day, as is particularly obfervable in feedlings, at their rifing out of the ground. This probably is a confequence of their fleep rather than of the abfence of light ; and in this, I fuppofe, they alfo refemble animal bodies. NOTE XXXV. VEGETABLE PLACENTATION. While in bright veins the filvery Sap afcends. CANTO IV. 1. 43!. AS buds are the viviparous offspring of vegetables^ it becomes neceffary that they fliould be furnifhed with placental veffels for their nourifhment, till they acquire lungs, or leaves, for the purpofe of elaborating the com- mon juices of the earth into nutriment. Thefe veffels exift in bulbs and in feeds, and fupply the young plant with a fvveet juice, till it acquires leaves, as is feen in converting barley into malt, and appears from the fweet tafte of onions and potatoes, when they begin to grow. The placental veflels belonging to the buds of trees are placed about the roots of moil, as the vine ; fo many roots are furnifhed with fweet of mealy matter, as fern-root, bryony, carrot, turnip, potatoe, or in the albur- num, or fap-wood, as in thofe trees which produce manna, which is depo- fited about the month of Auguft, or in the joints of fugar-cane, and grafles; early in the fpring the abforbent mouths of thefe veffels drink up moifturc from the earth, with a faccharine matter lodged for that purpofe during the preceding autumn, and pufh this nutritive fluid up the veffels of the al- burnum, to every individual bud, as is evinced by the experiments of Dr. Hales, and of Mr. Walker, in the Edinburgh Philofophical Tranf. The for- mer obferved, that the fap from the ftump of a vine, which he had cut off in the beginning of April, arofe twenty-one feet high, in tubes affixed to it for that purpofe ; but in a few Weeks it ceafed to bleed at all, and Dr. Walker marked the progrefs of the afcending fap, and found likewife that as foort as the leaves became expanded, the fap ceafed to rife: the afcending juice of fome trees is fo copious and fo fweet during the fap-feafon, that it is ufed to make wine, as the birch, betula, and fycamore, acer pfcudo-platanus, and particularly the palm, and maple acer. During this afcent of the fap-juice, each individual leaf-bud expands its new leaves, and moots down new roots, covering, by their intermixture, the old bark with a new one; and as foon as thefe new roots (or bark) are capable of abforbing fufficient juices from the earth for the fupport of each BOTANIC GARDEN. PART I. bud, and the new leaves are capable of performing their office of expofing thefe juices to the influence of the air, the placental velTels ceafe to act, co- alefce, and are transformed from fap-wood, or alburnum, into inert wood, ferving only for the fupport of the new tree, which grows over them. Thus from the pith of the new bud of the horfe-chefnut five veflels pafs out through the circle of the placental vefiels above defcribed, and carry with them a minuter circle of thofe veflels; thefe five bundles of veflels unite after their exit, and form the foot-ftalk or petiole of the new five-fin- gered leaf, to be fpoken of hereafter. This ftructure is well feen by cutting off a leaf of the horfe-chefnut (jEfculus Hippocaftanum) in September, be- fore it falls, as the buds of this tree are fo large that the flower may be feen in them with the naked eye. After a time, perhaps about midfummer, another bundle of veflels paf- fes from the pith through the alburnum, or fap-veflels, in the bofom of each kaf, and unites, by the new bark, with the leaf, which becomes either a flower-bud or leaf-bud, to be expanded in the enfuing fpring, for which purpofe an apparatus of placental veffels is produced, with proper nutri- ment, during the progrefs of the fummer and autumn; and thus the vege- table becomes annually increafed, ten thoufand buds often exifting on one tree, according to the eftimate of Linnxus. Phil. Eot. The vafcular connection of vegetable buds with the leaves in whofe ho- foms they are formed, is confirmed by the following experiment, (Oct. 20, 1781.) On the extremity of a young bud of the Mimofa (fenfitive plant) a fmall drop of acid of vitriol was put, by means of a pen, and, after a few feconds, the leaf in whofe axilla it dwelt clofed, and opened no more, though the drop of vitriolic acid was fo fmall as apparently only to injure the fummit of the bud. Does not this feem to fhew that the leaf and it bud have connecting veflels, though they arife at different times, and from different parts of the medulla, or pith ? And, as it exifts previoufly to it, that the leaf is the parent of the bud? This placentation of vegetable buds is clearly evinced from the fweetnefs cf the rifing fap, and from its ceafing to rife as foon as the leaves are ex- panded,, and thus completes the analogy between buds and bulbs. Nor need we wonder at the length of the Umbilical cords of buds, fince that muft correfpond with their fituation on the tree, in the fame manner as their lymphatics and arteries are proportionally elongated. It does not appear probable that any umbilical artery attends thefe pla- cental abforbents, fince, as there feems to be no fyilem of veins in vegeta- bles to bring back the blood from the extremities of their arteries (except their pulmonary veins), there could not be any vegetable fluids to be re- turned to their placenta, which, in vegetables, feems to be fimply an organ for nutrition, \vhereas the placenta of the animal foetus feems likewife t* ferve as a refpiratory organ, like the gilk of fifhes. NOTE XXXVI. ADDITIONAL NOTES. 23:, NOTE XXXVL VEGETABLE CIRCULATION. And refluent blood in milky eddies bends. CANTO IV. 1. 43 3. THE individuality of vegetable buds was fpoken of before, and is con- firmed by the method of railing all kinds of trees, by Mr. Barnes. (Method of propagating Fruit Trees. 1759. Lond. Baldwin.) He cut a branch into as many pieces as there were buds or leaves upon it, and wiping the two wounded ends dry, he quickly applied to each a cement, previoufly warmed a little, which confided principally of pitch, and planted them in the earth. The ufe of this cement I fuppofe to conlift in its preventing the bud from bleeding to death, though the author afcribes it to its antifeptic quality. Thefe buds of plants, which are thus each an individual vegetable, ia many circumftances referable individual animals ; but as animal bodies are detached from the earth, and move from place to place in fearch of food, and take that food at confiderable intervals of time, and prepare it for their nourilhment within their own bodies after it is taken, it is evident they muft require many organs and powers which are not necefiary to a flationary bud. As vegetables are immoveably fixed to the foil from whence they draw their nourifhment ready prepared, and this uniformly, not at returning intervals, it follows, that in examining their anatome, we are not to look for mufcles of locomotion, as arms and legs; nor for organs to receive and prepare their nouiiftiment, as a flomach and bowels; nor for a refervoir for it after it is prepared, as a general fyftem of veins, whieh, in locomotive animals, contains and returns the fuperfluous blood which is left after the various organs of fecretion have been fupplied, by which contrivance they arc enabled to live a long time without new fupplies of food. The parts which we may expeil to find in the anatome of vegetables, cor- refpondent to thofe in the animal economy, are, I. A fyftem of abforbent veflels, to imbibe the moifture of the earth fimilar to the Ia6teal veflels, as in the roots of plants; and another fyftem of abforbents, fimilar to the lym- phatics of animal bodies, opening its mouths on the internal cells and ex- ternal furfaces of vegetables; and a third fyftem of abforbent veflels, cor- refpondent v/ith thofe of the placentation of the animal foetus. 2. A pulmo- nary fyftem, correfpondent to the lungs or gills of quadrupeds and fifh, by which the fluid abforbed by the lacleals and lymphatics may be expofed to the influence of the aif : this is done by the green leaves of plants, thofe in the air refembling lungs, and thofe in the water refembling gills; and by the petals of flowers. 3. Arterial fyftems to convey the fluid thus elaborated to the various glands of the vegetable, for the purpofes of its growth, nutrition, and various fecretions. 4. The various glands which feparate from the ve- getable blood the honey, wax, gum, refin, ftarch, fugar, eflential oil, &c. 5. The organs adapted for their propagation or reproduction. 6. Mufcles to perform fcveral motions of their parts. I. The exiftence of that branch of the abforbent Veffels of vegetable* which refonbles the li&eak of animal bodies, and imbibes their nutriment 232 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART I. from the moift earth, is evinced by their growth fo long as moiilure is ap- plied to their roots, and their quickly withering when it is withdrawn, Befides thefe abforbents in the roots of plants there are others, which open their mouths on the external furfaces of the bark and leaves, and on the in- ternal furfaces of all the cells, and between the bark and the alburnum, or fup-wood; the exiftence of thefe is fhewn, becaufe a leaf plucked off, and laid with its under fide on water, will not wither I'o foon as if left in the dry air, the fame if the bark alone of a branch which is feparated from a tree be kept moifl with water, and, laftly, by moiftening the alburnum or fap- wood alone of a branch detached from a tree, it will not fo foon wither as it left in the dry air. By the following experiment thefe veffels were agree- ably vilible by a common magnifying glafs: I placed, in the fummer of 1781, the foot-ilalks of fome large fig-leaves about an inch deep in a decoction of madder (rubia tinctorum) and others in a decoction of logwood (haematoxy- lum campechenfe), along with fome fprigs cut off from a plant of picris; thefe plants were chofen becaufe their blood is white; after fome hours, and on the next day, on taking out either of thefe, and cutting off from its bottom about a quarter of an inch of the ftalk, an internal circle of red points ap- peared, which were the ends of abforbent veffel?, coloured red with the de- coction, while an external ring of arteries was feen to bleed out haflily a milky juice, and, at once, evinced both the abforbent and arterial fyftem. Thcfe abforbent veffels have been called by Grew, and Malphigi, and fome other philofophers, bronchi, and erroneoufly fuppofed to be air-veffels. It is probable that thefe veffels, when cut through, may effufe their fluids, and receive air, their fides being too ftiff to collapie ; fmce dry wood emits air- bubbles in the exhaufted receiver in the fame manner as moift wood. The ftructure of thefe vegetable abforbents confiils of a fpiral line, and not of a veffel interrupted with valves like the animal lymphatics, fmce oa breaking almoft any tender leaf, and drawing out fome of the fibres, which adhere longeft, this fpiral ftructure becomes vifible, even to the naked eye, and diftinctly fo by the ufe of a common lens. See Grew, plate 51. In fuch a ftructure it is eafy to conceive how a vermicular or periftaltic motion of the veffel, beginning at the loweft part of it, each fpiral ring fucceffively contracting itfelf till it fills up the tube, mult forcibly pufh for- wards its contents, as from the roots of vines in the bleeding feafon; and if this vermicular motion fhould begin at the upper end of the veffel, it is as eafy to fee how it muft carry its contained fluid in a contrary direction. The retrograde motion of the vegetable abforbent veffels is fhewn by cut- ting a forked branch from a tree, and immerfing a part of one of the forks in water, which will, for many days, prevent the other from withering; or, it is fhewn by planting a willow branch with the wrong end upwards. This ftructure, in fome degree, obtains in the cefophagus, or throat of cows, \vho, by iimilar means, convey their food firft downwards, and afterward upwards, by a retrograde motion of the annular mufcles, or cartilages, for the purpofe of a fecond maftication of it. II. The fluids thus drank up by the vegetable abforbent veffels from the earth, or from the atmofphere, or from their own cells and interftices, afc NoTEXXXVL ADDITIONAL NOTES. 233 carried to the foot-ftalk of every leaf, where the abforbents belonging to each leaf unite into branches, forming fo many pulmonary arteriei, and are thenco difperfed to the extremities of the leaf, as may be feen in cutting away, flicc after flice, the foot-ftalk of a horfe-chefnut in September, before the leaf falls. There is then a complete circulation in the leaf; a pulmonary vein receiving the blood from the extremities of each artery, on the upper fide of the leaf, and joining again in the foot-ftalk of the leaf, thefe veins produce fo many arteries, or aortas, which difperfe the new blood over the new bark, elongating its vefiels, or producing its fecretions; but as a refervoir of blood could not be wanted by a vegetable bud which takes in its nutriment at all times, I ima- gine there is no venous fyftem, no veins, properly fo called, which receive the blood which was to fpare, and return it into the pulmonary or arterial fyftem. The want of a fyftem of veins was countenanced by the following experi- ment: I cut off feveral ftems of tall fpurge (Euphorbia heliofcopia) in au- tumn, about the centre of the plant, and obferved tenfold the quantity of milky juice ooze from the upper than from the lower extremity, which could hardly have happened if there had been a venous fyftem of veflels to re- turn the blood from the roots to the leaves. Thus the vegetable circulation, complete in the lungs, but, probably, in the other part of the fyftem deficient, in refpedt to a fyftem of returning veins, is carried forwards without, a heart, like the circulation through the livers of animals, where the blood brought from the inteftines and mefen- tery by one vein, is difperfed through the liver by the vena portarum, which affumes the office of an artery. See note XXXVII. At the fame time fo minute are the veflels in the intertexture of the barks of plants, which belong to each individual bud, that a general circulation may poffibly exift, though we have not yet been able to difcover the venous part of it. There is, however, another part of the circulation of vegetable juices vU Cble to the naked eye, and that is in the corol or petals of flowers, in which a part of the blood of the plant is expofed to the influence of the air and light in the fame manner as in the foliage, as will be mentioned more at large in notes XXXVII and XXXIX. Thefe circulations of their refpedive fluids feem to be carried on in the veflels of plants precifely as in animal bodies, by their irritability to the ftimulus of their adapted fluids, and not by any mechanical or chemical at- traction, for their abforbent veflels propel the juice upwards, which they drink up from the earth, with great violence ; I fuppofe with much greater than is exerted by the lacleals of animals, probably owing to the greater minutenefs of thefe veflels in vegetables, and the greater rigidity of their coats. Dr. Hales, in the fpring feafon, cut off a vine near the ground, and, by fixing tubes on the remaining ftump of it, found the fap to rife twentyr one feet in the tube, by the propulfive power of thefe abforbtnts of the roots of it. Veget. Stat. p. loa. Such a power cannot be produced by capil- lary attraction, as that could only raife a fluid nearly to the upper edge of the attracting cylinder, but not enable it to flow over that edge, and much PART 1. 2 H 234 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART I. Icfs to rife ai feet above it. What then can this power be owing to? Doubtlefs to the living activity of the abforbent veffels, and to their increaf- ed vivacity, from the influence of the Avarmth of the fpring fucceeding the winter's cold, and their thence greater fufceptibility to irritation from the juices which they abforb, refembling, in all circumftances, the adlion of the living vcflels of animals. NOTE XXXVIL VEGETABLE RESPIRATION. While y fpread 'in air, the leaves rcf firing play. CANTO IV. 1. 433. I. THERE have been various opinions concerning the ufe of the leaves of plants in the vegetable economy. Sonic have contended that they arc perfpiratory organs ; this does not feem probable from an experiment of Dr. Hales. Veget. Stat. p. 30. He found, by cutting off branches of trees with apples on them, and taking off the leaves, that an apple exhaled about as much as two leaves, the furfaces of which were nearly equal to the apple; whence it would appear that apples have as good a claim to be termed per- fpiratory organs as leaves. Others have believed them excretory organs of excrementitious juices ; but as the vapour exhaled from vegetables has no tafte, this idea is no more probable than the other; add to this, that in moift weather they do not appear to perfpire or exhale at all. The internal furface of the lungs or ah>veiTels in men, is faid to be equal to the external furface of the whole body, or about fifteen fquare feet; on this furface the blood is expofed to the influence of the refpired air, through the medium, however, of a thin pellicle ; by this expofure to the air it has its colour changed front deep red to bright fcarlet, and acquires fomething fo neceflary to the exiftence of life, that we can live fcarcely a minute without this Wonderful procefs. The analogy between the leaves of plants and the lungs or gills of ani- mals, feems to embrace fo many circumftances, that we can fcarcely with- hold our aiTent to their performing limilar offices. 1. The great furface of the leaves, compared to that of the trunk and branches of trees, is fuch, that it would feem to be an organ well adapted for the purpofe of expofing the vegetable juices to the influence of the air; this, however, we fhall fee afterwards, is probably performed only by their upper furfaces; yet even in this cafe the furface of the leaves in ge- neral bears a greater proportion to the furface of the tree, than the lungs of animals to their external furfaces. 2. In the lungs of animals, the blood, after having been expofed to the air in the extremities of the pulmonary artery, is changed in colour from deep red to bright fcarlet, and certainly in fome of its eflential properties; it is then collected by the pulmonary vein, and returned to the heart. To fhew a fi- milarity of circumftances in the leaves of plants, the following experiment was made, June 24, 1781. A Halk, with leaves and feed-veffels, of large NOTE XXXVJI. ADDITIONAL NOTES. 23$ fpurge (Euphorbia heliofcopia) had been feveral days placed in a deco&ioft of madder (Rubia tin&orum), fo that the lower part of the ftem, and two of the undermoft leaves, were immerfed in it. After having walhed the immerfed leaves in clear water, I could readily difcern the colour of the madder pafling along the middle rib of each leaf. This red artery was beau- tifully vifible both on the under and upper furface of the leaf; but on the upper fide many red branches were feen going from it to the extremities of the leaf, which, on the other fide, were not vifible, except by looking through it againft the light. On this under fide a fyftem of branching veffels, car- rying a pale milky fluid, were feen coming from the extremities of the leaf, and covering the whole under fide of it, and joining into two large veins, one on each fide of the red artery, in the middle rib of the leaf, and along with it defcending to the foot-ftalk or petiole. On flitting one of thefe leaves with fciffars, and having a common magnifying lens ready, the milky blood was feen oozing out of the returning veins on each fide of the red ar- tery, in the middle rib, but none of the red fluid from the artery. All thefe appearances were more eafily feen in a leaf of picris treated in the fame manner; for in this milky plant the ftems and middle rib of the leaves are fometimes naturally coloured reddifh, and hence the colour of the madder feemed to pafs. further into the ramifications of their leaf-arte- ries, and was there beautifully vifible, with the returning branches of milky veins on each fide. 3. From thefe experiments, the upper furface of the leaf appeared to be the immediate organ of refpiration, becaufe the coloured fluid was carried to the extremities of the leaf by veflels moft confpicuous on the upper fur- face, and there changed into a milky fluid, which ia the blood of the plant, and then returned, by concomitant veins, on the under furface, which were feen to ooze when divided with fciflars, and which, in picris particularly, render the under furface of the leaves greatly whiter than the upper one. 4. As the upper furface of leaves conftitutes the organ of refpiration, on which the fap is expofed, in the terminations of arteries, beneath a thin pellicle, to the adlion of the atmofphere, thefe furfaces, in many plants, ftrongly repel moifture, as cabbage-leaves; whence the particles of rain ly- ing over their furfaces without touching them, as obferved by Mr. Melville (EfTays Literary and Philofoph. Edinburgh), have the appearance of globu- les of quick-filver. And hence leaves, laid with the upper furfaces on wa- ter, wither as foon as in the dry air, but continue green many days if placed with the under furfaces on water, as appears in the experiments of Monf. Bonnet (Ufage des Feuilles). Hence fome aquatic plants, as the water-lily (Nymphoea), have the lower fides of their leaves floating on the water, while the upper furfaces remain dry in the air, 5. As thofe infers which have many fpiracula, or breathing aperture?, as wafps and flies, are immediately fuffocated by pouring oil upon them, I carefully covered with oil the furfaces of feveral leaves of Phlomis, of Portu- gal Laurel, and Balfams ; and though it would not regularly adhere, I found them all die in a day or two. Of aquatic leaves, fee note on Trapa and on Fucus, in vol II. to which *$6 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART L fnuft be added, that many leaves are furniflied with mufcles about their foot-flalks, to turn their upper furfaces to the air or light, as Mimofa and Hedyi'arum gyrans. From all thefe analogies, I think there can be no doubt but that leaves of trees are their lungs, giving out a phlogiftic material to the atmofphere, and abforbing oxygene or vital air. 6. The great ufe of light to vegetation would appear, from this theory, to be, by difengaging vital air from the water which they perfpire, and thence to facilitate its union with their blood, expofed beneath the thin fur- face of their leaves; fmce, when pure air is thus applied, it is probable that it can be more readily abforbed. Hence, in the curious experiments of Dr. Prieftley and Mr. Ingenhouz, fome plants purified air lefs than others, that is, they perfpired lefs in the funfhine; and Mr. Scheele found, that by put- ting peas into water which about half covered them, they converted the vital air into fixed air, or carbonic acid gas, in the fame manner as in ani- mal refpiration. See note XXXIV. 7. The circulation in the lungs or leaves of plants is very fimilar to that of fifh. In fifh, the blood, after having paffed through their gills, does not return to the heart, as from the lungs of air-breathing animals, but the pulmonary vein, taking the ftru&ure of an artery, after having received the blood from the gills, which there gains a more florid colour, diftribute* it to the other parts of their bodies. The fame ftrucfture occurs in the li- vers of fifli, whence we fee, in thofe animals, two circulations -independent pf the power of the heart, viz. that beginning at the termination of the veins of the gills, and branching through the mufcles, and that which pafies through the liver ; both which are carried on by the action of thofe re- fpe5Hve arteries and veins. Monro's Phyfiology of Fifh, p. 19. The courfe of the fluids in the roots, leaves, and buds of vegetables, feems to be performed in a manner fimilar to both thcfe. Firft the abforbent veffels of the roots and furfaces unite at the foot-ftalk of the leaf, and then, like the vena portarum, an artery commences without the intervention of a heart, and fpreads the fap, in its numerous ramifications, on the upper furface of the leaf: here it changes its colour and properties, and becomes vegetable blood ; and is again collected by a pulmonary vein on the under furface of the leaf. This vein, like that which receives the blood from the gills of fifh, affumes the office and name of an artery, and, branching again, difperfes the blood upward to the bud, from the foot-ftalk of the leaf, and downward to the roots; where it is all expended in the various fecretions, the nourilhment and growth of the plant, as faft as it is prepared. II. The organ of refpiration already fpoken of belongs particularly to the {hoots or buds ; but there is another pulmonary fyftem, perhaps totally in- dependent of the green foliage, which belongs to the fructification only ; I mean the corcl or petals. In this there is an artery belonging to each pe- tal, which conveys the vegetable blood to its extremities, expofing it to the light and air under a delicate membrane, covering the internal furface of the petal, where it often changes its colour, as is beautifully ieen in fome party-coloured poppies; though it is probable fome of the iridcfcent colours ef flowers may be owing to the different degrees of tenuity of the exterior NOTE XXXVII. ADDITIONAL NOTES. 237 membrane of the leaf, refracting the light like foap-bubbles ; the vegetable blood is then returned by correfpohdent vegetable veins, exactly as in the green foliage; for the purpofes of the important fecretions of honey, wax, the finer effential oil, and the prolific dufl of the anthers. 1. The vafcular ftru&ure of the corol, as above defcribed, and which is vifible to the naked eye, and its expofing the vegetable juices to the air and light during the day, evinces that it is a pulmonary organ. 2. As the glands which produce the prolific duft of the anthers, the honey, wax, and frequently fome odoriferous effential oil, are generally attached to the corol, and always fall off, and perifh with it, it is evident that the blood is elaborated or oxygenated in this pulmonary fyftem, for the purpofe of thefe important fercretions. 3. Many flowers, as the Colchicum, and Hamamelis, arife naked in au- tumn, no green leaves appearing till the enfuing fpring; and mahy others put forth their flowers, and complete their impregnation, early in the fpring, before the green foliage appears, as Mezerion, cherries, pears, which mews that thefe corols are the lungs belonging to the fructification. 4. This organ does not feem to have been neceffary for the defence of the flamens and piftils, fince the calyx of many flowers, as Tragopogon, performs this office; and, in many flowers, thefe petals themfelves are fo tender as to require being fhut up in the calyx during the night; for what other ufe then can fuch an apparatus of vefTels be defigned? 5. In the Helleborus niger, Chriftmas-rofe, after the feeds are grown to a certain fize, the nectaries and ftamens drop off, and the beautiful large white petals change their colour to a deep green, and gradually thus become a calyx, inclofing and defending the ripening feeds; hence it would feem that the white veffels of the corol ferved the office of expofing the blood to the action of the air, for the purpofes of feparating or producing the ho- ney, wax, and prolific duft ; and when thefe were no longer wanted, that thefe veffels coalefced like the pjacental veffels of animals, after their birth, and thus ceafed to perform that office, and loft, at the fame time, their white colour. Why fhould they lofe their white colour, unlefs they, at the fame time, loft fome other property befides that of defending the feed-vef-r fel, which they ftill continue to defend? 6. From thefe obfervations I am led to doubt whether green leaves be ab- folutely neceffary to the progrefs of the fruit-bud, after the laft year's leaves are fallen off. The green leaves ferve as lungs to the fhoots, and fofter the new buds in their bofoms, whether thefe buds be leaf-buds or fruit-buds ; but in the early fpring the fruit-buds expand their corols, which are their lungs, and feem no longer to require green leaves; hence the vine bears fruit at one joint without leaves, and puts out a leaf-bud at another joint without fruit. And, I fuppofe, the green leaves which rife out of the earth, in the fpring, from the Colchicum, are for the purpofe of producing the new bulb and its placenta, and not for the giving maturity to the feed. When currant or goofberry trees lofe their leaves by the depredation of infects, the fruit flill continues to be formed, though lefs fweet and lefs in fize. 238 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART I. 7. From thefe facts it appears, that the flower-bud, after the corol fall* eff (which is its lungs), and the ftamens and ne&ary along v/ith it, becomes {imply an uterus for the purpofe of fupplying the growing enibryon with nourifhment, together with a fyftem of abforbent veffels, which bring the juices of the earth to the foot-ftalk of the fruit, and which there changes into an artery, for the purpofe of diftributing the fap for the fecretion of the faccharine, or farinaceous, or acefcent materials, for the ufe of the em- bryon. At the fame time as all the veffels of the different buds of trees inofculate or communicate with each other, the fruit becomes fweeter and larger when the green leaves continue on the tree, but the mature flowers themfelves (the fuccecding fruit not confidered), perhaps fuffer little injury from the green leaves being taken off, as fome florifts have obferved. 8, That the veffels of different vegetable buds inofculate in various parts of their circulation, is rendered probable by the increafed growth of one bud, when others in its vicinity are cut away; as it thus feems to receive the nourifhment which was before divided amongft many. NOTE XXXVIII. VEGETABLE IMPREGNATION. Love out his hour, and leave his life in ait:. CANTO IV. 1. 472. FROM the accurate experiments and obfervations of Spallanzani, it ap- pears, that in the Spartium Junceum, rufh-broom, the very minute feeds were difcerned in the pod at leaft twenty days before the flower is in full bloom, that is, twenty days before fecundation. At this time alfo the pow- der of the anthers was vifible. but glued fail to their fummits. The feeds, however, at this time, and for ten days after the blolTom had fallen off, ap- peared to confift of a gelatinous fubftance. On the eleventh day after the falling of the bloffom, the feeds became heart-fhape, with the bafis attached by an appendage to the pod, and a white point at the apex; this white point was, on preffure, found to be a cavity including a drop of liquor. On the 25th day, the cavity, which at firft appeared at the apex, was much enlarged, and ftill full of liquor; it alfo contained a very fmall lemi- tranfparent body, of a yellowifh colour, gelatinous, and fixed by its two op- pofite ends to the fides of the cavity. In a month the feed was much enlarged, and its fhape changed from a heart to a kidney; the little body contained in the cavity was increafed in bulk, and was lefs tranfparent and gelatinous, but there yet appeared no or- ganization. On the 4Oth day, the cavity, now grown larger, was quite filled with the body, which was covered with a thin membrane; after this membrane was removed, the body appeared of a bright green, and was eafily divided, "by the point of a needle, into two portions, which manifeftly formed the two lobes, and within thefe, attached to the lower part, the exceedingly fmall plantule was eafily perceived. NOTE XXXVIII, ADDITIONAL NOTES. 239 The foregoing obfervations evince, I. That the feeds exift in the ova- rium many days before fecundation, a. That they remain for fome time folid, and then a tavity, containing a liquid, is formed in them. 3. That after fecundation a body begins to appear within the cavity, fixed by two points to the fides, which, in procefs of time, proves to be two lobes contain* ing a plantule. 4. That the ripe feed confiits of two lobes adhering to a plantule, and furrounded by a thin membrane, which is itfelf covered with a hufk or cuticle. Spallanzani's Diflertations, vol. II. p. 253. The analogy between feeds and eggs has long been obferved, and is con- firmed by the mode of their production. The egg is known to be formed within the hen long before its impregnation. C. F. Wolf aflerts, that the yolk of the egg is nourifhed by the veflels of the mother, and that it has from thofe its arterial and venous branches, but that after impregnation thefe veflels gradually become impervious and obliterated, and that new ones are produced from the foetus, and difperfed into the yolk. Haller's Phyfiolog. Tom. VIII. p. 94. The young feed, after fecundation, I fup- pofe, is nourifhed in a fimilar manner, from the gelatinous liquor, which is previoufly depofited for that purpofe; the uterus of the plant producing or fecreting it into a refervoir or amnios, in which the embryon is lodged, and that the young embryon is furnifhed with veflels to abforb a part of it, as in the very early embryon in the animal uterus. The fpawn of frogs and of fifh is delivered from the female before its im- pregnation. M. Bonnet fays, that the male falamander darts his femea into the water, where it forms a little whitifh cloud, which is afterwards received by the fwoln anus of the female, and me is fecundated. He adds, that marine plants approach near to thefe animals, as the male does not project a fine powder, but a liquor, which, in like manner, forms a little cloud in the water. And further adds, who knows but the powder of the ftamina of certain plants may make fome impreffion on certain germs be- longing to the animal kingdom! Letter XLIU. to Spallanzani, Oeuvres Philof. Spallanzani found that the feminal fluid of frogs and dogs, even when diluted with much water, retained its prolific quality. Whether this quality be fimply a ftimulus exciting the egg into animal action, which may be called a vivifying principle, or whether part of it be actually conjoined with the egg, is not yet determined, though the latter feems more probable, from the frequent refemblance of the foetus to the male parent. A con- junction, however, of both the male and female influence feems neceflary for the purpofe of reproduction throughout all organized nature, as well in hermaphrodite infects, microfcopic animals, and polypi, and exifts as welt in the formation of the buds of vegetables, as in the production of their feeds, which is ingenioufly conceived and explained by Linnaeus. After having compared the flower to the larva of a butterfly, confiding of petals inttead of wings, calyxes inftead of wing-fheaths, with the organs of reproduction ; and having fhewn the ufe of the farina in fecundating the egg or feed, he proceeds to explain the production of the bud. The calyx of a flower, he fays, is an expanfion of the outer bark; the petals proceed from the inner 240 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART!. bark, or rind, the flatnens from the alburnum, or woody circle, and the ftyle from the pith. In the production and impregnation of the feed, a commix* ture of the fecretions of the ftamens and ftyle are neceflary ; and for the pro- duction of a bud, he thinks the medulla, or pith, burfts its integuments, and mixes with the woody part, or alburnum, and thefe, forcing their paflage through the rind and bark, conflitute the bud, or viviparous progeny of the vegetable. Syflem of Vegetables tranflated from Linnaeus, p. 8. It has been fuppofed that the embryon vegetable, after fecundation, by ks living activity, or ftimulus exerted on the veffels of the parent plant, may produce the fruit or feed-lobes, as the animal foetus produces its pla- centa, and as vegetable buds may be fuppofed to produce their umbilical veflels or ropts, down the bark of the tree. This, in refpect to the produc- tion of the fruit furrounding the feeds of trees, has been aflimilated to the gall-nuts on oak-leaves, and to the bedeguar on briars; but there is a power- ful objection to this doctrine, viz. that the fruit of figs, all which are female in this country, grow nearly as large without fecundation, and, therefore, the embryon has in them no felf-living principle. NOTE XXXIX. VEGETABLE GLANDULATION. Seeksy ivhere Jine pares their dulcet balm dijl'il. CANTO IV. 1. 533. THE glands of vegetables, which feparate from their blood the mucilage, ftarch, o'r fugar, for the placentation or fupport of their feeds, bulbs, and buds; or thofe which depofit their bitter, acrid, or narcotic juices for their defence from depredations of infects or larger animals; or thofe which fecrete refins or wax for their protection from moifture or frofts, confift of veflels too fine for the injection or abforption of coloured fluids, and have not, therefore, yet been exhibited to the infpection even of our glafles, and can, therefore, only be known by their effects; but one of the molt curious and important of all vegetable fecretions, that of honey, is apparent to our naked eyes, though, before the difcoveries of Linnasus, the nectary, or honey- gland, had not even acquired a name. The odoriferous eflential oils of feveral flowers feem to have been defign- cd for their defence againft the depredations of infects, while their beautiful colours were a neceflary confequence of the fize of the particles of their blood, or of the tenuity of the exterior membrane of the petal. The ufc of the prolific duft is now well afcertained ; the wax which covers the an- thers prevents this duft from receiving moifture, which would make it burft prematurely, and thence prevent its application to the ftigma, as fome- times happens in moift years, and is the caufe of deficient fecundation, both of our fields and orchards. The univerfality of the production of honey in the vegetable world, and the very complicated apparatus which natnre has conftructed in many flow- ers, as well as the acrid or deleterious juices flae has furniihed thofe flowers NOTE XXXIX. ADDITIONAL NOTES. 241 with (as in the Aconite) to protect this honey from rain, and from the depredations of infects, feem to imply that this fluid is of very great im- portance in the vegetable economy; and alfo, that it was neceffary to expofe it to the open air previous to its re-abforption into the vegetable vefiels. In the animal fyilem the lachrymal gland feparates its fluid into the open air, for the purpofe of moiftening the eye; of this fluid, the part which does not exhale is abforbed by the pun<5ta lachrymalia, and carried into the noftrils; but as this is not a nutritive fluid, the analogy goes no further than its fecretion into the open air, and its re-abforption into the fyftem ; every other fecreted fluid in the animal body is in part abforbed again into the fyftem; even thofe which are efteemed excrementitious, as the urine and perfpirable matter, of which the latter is fecreted, like the honey, into the external air. That the honey is a nutritious fluid, perhaps the moft fo of any vegetable production, appears from its great fimilarity to fugar, and from its affording fuftenance to fuch numbers of infects, which live upon it folely during fummer, and lay it up for their winter provifion. Thefe proofs of its nutritive nature evince the neceflity of its re-abforption into the vegetable fyftem, for fome ufeful purpofe. This purpofe, however, has, as yet, efcaped the refearches of philofophi- cal botanifts. M. Pontedera believes it deligned to lubricate the vegetable uterus, and compares the horn-like nectaries of fome flowers to the appen- dicle of the czecum inteftinum of animals. (Antholog. p. 49.) Others have fuppofed, that the honey, when re-abforbed, might ferve the purpofe of the liquor amnii, or white of the egg, as a nutriment for the young embryon, or fecundated feed, in its early ftate of exiftence. But as the nectary is found equally general in male flowers as in female ones; and as the young embryon, or feed, grows before the petals and nectary are expanded, and after they fall off; and, thirdly, as the nectary fo foon falls off after the fecundation of the piftillum ; thefe fcem to be infurmoun table objec- tions to both the above-mentioned opinions. In this ftate of uncertainty, conjectures may be of ufe fo far as they lead to further experiment and inveftigation. In many tribes of infects, as the filk-worra, and, perhaps, in all the moths and butterflies, the male and fe- male parents die as foon as the eggs are impregnated and excluded; the eggs remaining to be perfected and hatched at fome future time. The fame thing happens in regard to the male and female parts of flowers; the anthers and filaments, which conftitute the male parts cf the flower, and the ftigma and ftyle, which confcitute the female parts of the flower, fall off, and die, as foon as the feeds arc impregnated, and along with thefe the petals and nectary. Now, the moths and butterflies above-mentioned, as foon as they acquire the paflion and the apparatus for the reproduction of their fpccies, lofe the power of feeding upon leaves as they did before, and become nourilhed by what ? by honey alone. Hence we acquire a ftrong analogy for the ufe of the nectary, or fecre- tion of honey in the vegetable economy, which is, that the male parts of flowers, and the female parts, as foon as they leave their foetus-ftate, ex- panding their petals (which conftitute tlicir lungs), become fenfible to the PART I. 2 I 2 4 s BOTANIC GARDEN. PART I. paffion, and gain the apparatus for the reproduction of their fpecies, and are fed and nourifhed with honey, like the infects above defcribed; and that hence the nectary begins its office of producing honey, and dies, or ceafes to produce honey, at the fame time with the birth and death of the ftamens and the piftils; which, whether exifting in the fame or in different flowers, are feparate and diftinct animated beings. Previous tq this time, the anthers with their filaments, and the ftigmaa with their ftyles, are, in their foetus-ftate, fuftained by their placental vef- fels, like the unexpanded leaf-bud, with the feeds exifting in the vegetable womb, yet un impregnated, and the dull, yet unripe, in the cells of the an- thers. After this period they expand their petals, which have been fhewn above to conftitute the lungs of the flower; the placental veflcls, which be- fore nourifhed the anthers and the ftigmas, coalelce, or ceafe to nourifh them; and they now acquire blood more oxygenated by the air, obtain the pafllon and power of reproduction, are fenfible to heat, and cold, and moifture, and to mechanic ftimulus, and become, in reality, infects fed with honey, fimikr in every refpect, except their being attached to the tree on which they were produced. Some experiments I have made this fummer, by cutting out the nectaries of feveral flowers of the aconites, before the petals were open, or had be- come much coloured : fume of thefe flowers, near the fummit of the plants, produced no feeds; others, lower down, produced feeds; but they were not fufficiently guarded from the farina of the flowers in their vicinity; nor have I had opportunity to try if thcfe feeds would vegetate. I am acquainted with a philofopher, who, contemplating this fubjeet, thinks it not impofilble, that the firft infects were the anthers or ftigmas of flowers ; which had, by fome means, loofed themfelves from their parent plant, like the male flowers of Vallifneiia ; and that many other infects have gradually, in long procefs of time, been formed from thefe; fome ac- quiring wings, others fins, and others claws, from their ceafelefs efforts to procure their food, or to fecure themfelves from injury. He contends, that none of thefe changes are more incomprehenfible than the transformation of tadpoles into frogs, and caterpillars into butterflies. There are parts of animal bodies which do not require oxygenated blood for the purpofe of their fecretions, as the liver, which, for the production of bile, takes its blood from the mefenteric veins, after it muft have loft the whole or a great part of its oxygenation, which it had acquired in its paffage through the lungs. In like manner the pericarpium, or womb of the flower, continues to fecrete its proper juices for the prefent nourifh- ment of the newly animated embryon-feed; and the faccharine, acefcent, or ftarchy matter of the fruit or feed-lobes, for its future growth, in the fame manner as thefe things went on before fecundation ; that is, without any circulation of juices in the petals, or production of honey in the nec- tary; thefe having perifhed, and fallen off, with the male and female ap- paratus for impregnation. It is probable that the depredations of infects on this nutritious fluid, mufl be injurious to the products of vegetation, and would be much more fo, NOTE XXXIX. ADDITIONAL NOTES. 243 but that the plants have either acquired means to defend their honey in part, or have learned to make more than is abfolutely neceflary for their own economy. In the fame manner the honey-dew on trees is very inju- rious to them; in which difeafe the nutritive fluid, the vegetable fap-juice, feems to be exfuded by a retrograde motion of the cutaneous lymphatics, as in the fweating ficknefs of the laft century. To prevent the depreda- tion of infects on honey, a wealthy man in Italy is faid to have poifoned his neighbour's bees, perhaps by mixing arfenic with honey, againft which there is a moft flowery declamation in Quintilian, No. XIII. As the ufc of the wax is to preferve the duft of the anthers from moifture, which would prematurely burft them, the bees which collect this for the conftruc- tion of the combs or cells, muft, on this account, alfo injure the vegetation of a country where they too much abound. It is not eafy to conjecture why it was neceflary that this fecretion of ho- ney fhould be expofed to the open air in the nectary, or honey-cup, for which purpofe fo great an apparatus for its defence from infects and from fhowers became neceffary. This difficulty increafes when we recollect that the fugar in the joints of grafs, in the fugar-cane, and in the roots of beets, and in ripe fruits, is produced without expofu*e to the air. On fuppofition of its ferving for nutriment to the anthers and fligmas, it may thus acquire greater oxygenation, for the purpofe of producing greater powers of fenfi- bility, according to a doctrine lately advanced by a French philofopher, who has endeavoured to fhew, that the oxygene, or bafe of vital air, is the conftituent principle of our power of fenfibility. So caterpillars are fed upon the common juices of vegetables found in their leaves, till they acquire the organs of reproduction, and then they feed on honey ; all, I believe, except the filk-worm, which, in this country, takes, no nourifhment after it becomes a butterfly. Thus alfo the maggot of the bee, according to the obfervations of Mr. Hunter, is fed with raw vegeta- ble matter, called bee-bread, which is collected from the anthers of flowers, and laid up in cells for that purpofe, till the maggot becomes a winged bee, acquires greater fenfibility, and is fed with honey. Phil. Tranf. 1792. See Zoonomia, Sect. XIII. on vegetable animation. From this provifion of honey for the male and female parts of flowers, and from the provifion of fugar, ftarch, oil, and mucilage, in the fruits, feed-cotyledons, roots, and buds of plants, laid up for the nutriment of the expanding foetus, not only a very numerous clafs of infects, but a great part cf the larger animals procure their food, and thus enjoy life and plea- fure without producing pain to others ; for thefe feeds or eggs, with the nutriment laid up in them, are not yet endued with fenfitive life. The fecretions from various vegetable glands, hardened in the air, pro- duce gums, refins, and various kinds of faccharine, faponaceous, and wax- like fubftances, as the gum of cherry or plumb trees, gum tragacanth from the aftragulus tragacantha, camphor from the laurus camphora, elemi from amyris elemifera, aneme from hymencea courbaril, turpentine from pif- tacia terebinthus, balfam of Mecca from the buds of amyris opobalfamum, branches of which are placed in the temples of the Eaft, on account of their 444 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART!. fragrance; the wood is called xylobalfamum, and the fruit carpobalfamum ; aloe from a plant of the fame name, myrrh from a plant not yet defcribed; the remarkably elaftic refin is brought into Europe principally in the form of flaflcs, which look like black leather, and are wonderfully elaftic, and not penetrable by water ; rectified ether dillblves it ; its inflexibility is increafed by warmth, and deftroyed by cold; the tree which yields this juice is the jatropha elaftica ; it grows in Guaiana and the neighbouring tracls of Ame- rica ; its juice is faid to refemble wax, in becoming foft by heat, but that it acquires no elafticity till that property is communicated to it by a fecret art, after which it is poured into moulds, and well dried, and can no longer be rendered fluid by heat. Mr. de la Borde, pbyfician at Cayenne, has given this account. Manna is obtained at Naples from the fraxinus ornus, or manna-aih ; it partly iffues fpontaneoufly, which is preferred, and partly exfudes from wounds made purpofely in the month of Auguft ; many other plants yield manna more fparingly. Sugar is properly made from the fac- charum officinale, or fugar-cane, but is found in the roots of beet and many other plants; American wax is obtained from the myrica cerifera, candle- berry myrtle ; the berries are boiled in water, and a green wax feparates; with lukc-warm water, the wax is yellow: the feeds of croton febifcrum arc lodged in tallow: there are many other vegetable exfudations ufed in the various arts of dyeing, varnifliing, tanning, lacquering, and which fupply the fhop of the druggifl with medicines and with poifons. There is another analogy, which would feem to aflbciate plants with ani- mals, and which, perhaps, belongs to this note on Glandulation ; I mean the fimilarity of their digeitive powers. In the roots of growing vegeta- bles, as in the procefs of making malt, the farinaceous part of the feed is converted into fugar by the vegetable power of digeftion, in the fame manner as the farinaceous matter of feeds is converted into fweet chyle by the animal digeftion. The fap-juice which rifes in the vernal months from the roots of trees, through the alburnum, or fap-wood, owes its fweetnefs, I fuppofe, to a fimilar digeftive power of the abforbent fyf- tem of the young buds. This exifts in many vegetables in great abundance, as in vines, fycamore, birch, and moft abundantly in the palm-tree (Ifert's Voyage to Guinea), and feems to be a fimilar fluid in all plants, as chyle is fimilar in all animals. Hence, as the digefted food of vegetables confifls principally of fugar, and from that is produced again their mucilage, ftarch, and oil, and fince ani- mals are fuftained by thefe vegetable productions, it would feem, that the fugar-making procefs carried on in vegetable veflels was the great fource of life to all organized beings. And that, if our improved chemiftry fhould ever difco.ver the art of making fugar from foflile or aerial matter, without the afliftance of vegetation, food for animals would then become as plentiful as water, and mankind might live upon the earth as thick as blades of grafs, with no reftraint to their numbers but the want of local room. It would feem, that roots fixed in the earth, and leaves, innumerable, waving in the air, were necefiary for the decompofition of water, and the fcnvcrfion of it into faccharine matter, which would have been not only NOTE XXXIX. ADDITIONAL NOTES. 244 cumberous, but totally incompatible with the locomotion of animal bodies. For how could a man or quadruped have carried on his head or back a foreft of leaves, or have had long branching ladleal or abforbent veffels terminat- ing in the earth? Animals, therefore, fubfift on vegetables; that is, they take the matter fo far prepared, and have organs to prepare it further for the purpofes of higher animation, and greater fenfibility. In the fame man- ner the apparatus of green leaves and long roots were found inconvenient for the more animated and fenfitive parts of vegetable flowers ; I mean the anthers and ftigmas, which are, therefore, feparate beings, endued with the paflion and power of reproduction, with lungs of their own, and fed with honey, a food ready prepared by the long roots and green leaves of the plant, and prefented to their abforbent mouths. From this outline, a phUofopher may catch a glimpfe of the general eco* nomy of nature ; and, like the mariner call upon an unknown fhorc, who rejoiced when he faw the print of a human foot upon the fand, he may cry out with rapture, " A GOD DWELLS HERE," VISIT OF HOPE TO SYDNEY COVE, NEAR BOTANY-BAY. Referred to in Canto II. 1. 317. WHERE Sydney Cove her lucid bofom fwells, And with wide arms the indignant ftorm repels; High on a rock, amid the troubled air, HOPE flood fublime, and wav'd her golden hair; Calm'd with her rofy fmile the toiling deep, And with fweet accents charm'd the winds to fleep; To each wild plain fhe ftretchM her fnowy hand, High-waving wood, and fea-encircled ftrand. " Hear me," fhe cried, " ye riling realms! record " Time's opening fcenes, and Truth's prophetic word. - " 'There fhall broad ftreets their ftately walls extend, " The circus widen, and the crefcent bend; " There, ray'd from cities o'er the cultur'd land, " Shall bright canals, and folid roads expand. " There the proud arch, coloffus-like, beftride " Yon glittering ftreams, and bound the chafing tide; " Embellifh'd villas crown the landfcape-fcene, " Farms wave with gold, and orchards blufh between. " There fhall tall fpires, and dome-capt towers afcend, " And piers and quays their mafiy ftru&ures blend; " While with each breeze approaching veflels glide, " And northern treafures dance on every tide!" Then ceas'd the nymph tumultuous echoes roar, And Joy's loud voice was heard from fhore to fhore Her graceful fteps, defcending, prefs'd the plain, 'And PEACE, and ART, and LABOUR, join'd her train. Mr. Wedgwood, having been favoured by Sir Jofeph Banks with a fpe- cimen of clay from Sydney Cove, has made a few medallions of it, repre- fenting HOPE encouraging ART and LABOUR, under the influence of PEACE, to purfue the employments necefiary for rendering an infant colony fecurc and happy. The above verfes were written by the author of the Botanic Garden, to accompany thefe medallions. THE BOTANIC GARDEN. CONTENTS OF THE ADDITIONAL NOTES. NOTE I. METEORS. JL HERE arc four ftrata of the atmofphere, and four kinds of meteors. I. Lightning is electric, exifts in vifible clouds, its fhort courfe, and red light. 2. Shooting {tars exift in vifible vapour, without found, white light, have no luminous trains. 3. Twilight; fire-balls move thirty miles in a fecond, and are about fixty miles high; have luminous trains, occafioned by an electric fpark palling between the aerial and inflammable ftrata of the atmofphere, and mixing them and fetting them on fire in its paiTage ; attracted by volcanic eruptions ; one thoufand miles through fuch a medium refills lefs than the tenth of an inch of glafs. 4. Northern lights not at- tracted to a point, but diffufed; their colours; paflage of electric fire in va- cuo dubious ; Dr. Franklin's theory of northern lights countenaced in part by the fuppofition of a fuperior atmofphere of inflammable air; antiquity of their appearance; defcribed in Maccabees. NOTE II. PRIMARY COLOURS. THE rainbow Was in part understood before Sir Ifaac Newton; the feveti colours were difcovered by him; Mr. Gallon's experiments on colours; manganefe and lead produce colourlefs glafs. NOTE III. COLOURED CLOUDS. THE rays refracted by the convexity of the atmofphere; the particles of air and of water are blue; fhadow by means of a candle in the day; halo round the moon in a fog; bright fpot in the cornea of the eye; light from cat's eyes in the dark, from a horfe's eyes in a cavern, coloured by the choroid coat within the eye. NOTE IV. COMETS. TAILS of comets from rarified vapour, like northern lights, from elec- tricity; twenty millions of miles long; expected comet; 7 a comets already defcribed. 248 BOTANIC GARDEN. PA RT I. NOTE V. SUN'S RAYS. DISPUTE about phlogifton; the fun the fountain from whence all phlo-^ gifton is derived; its rays not luminous till they arrive at our atmofphere ; light owing to their combuftion with air, whence an unknown acid; the fun is on fire only on its furface; the dark fpots on it are excavations through its luminous cruft. NOTE VI. CENTRAL FIRES. SUN'S heat much lefs than that from the fire at the earth's centre; fun's heat penetrates but a few feet in fummer ; fome mines are warm ; warm fprings owing to fubterraneous fire ; fituations of volcanos on high moun- tains; original nucleus of the earth; deep vallies of the orean; diftant per- ception of earthquakes; great attraction of mountains; variation of the com- pafs; countenance the exiftence of a cavity or fluid lava within the earth. NOTE VII ELEMENTARY HEAT. COMBINED and fenfible heat; chemical combinations attract heat, folu- tions reject heat; ice cools boiling water fix times as much as cold water cools it; cold produced by evaporation; heat by devaporation ; capacities of bodies in refpeA to heat : I. Exiilence of the matter of heat fhewn from the mechanical condenfation and rarefaclion of air, from the fteam produc- ed in exhaufting a receiver, fnow from rarified air, cold from difcharging an air-gun, heat from vibration or fridtion ; 2. Matter of heat analogous to the eledric fluid in many'circumftances, explains many chemical phenomena. NOTE VIII. MEMNON'S LYRE. MECHANICAL impulfe of light dubious; a glafs tube laid horizontally before a fire revolves; pulfe-glafs fufpended on a centre; black leather con- tracls in the funfhine ; Memnon's ftatue broken by Cambyfes. NOTE IX. LUMINOUS INSECTS. EIGHTEEN fpecies of glow-worm, their light owing to their refpiration in tranfparent lungs; Acudia of Surinam gives light enough to read and draw by; ufe of its light to the infect; luminous fea-infecls adhere to the fkin of thofe who bathe in the ports of Languedoc; the light may arifc from putrefcent flime. NOTE X. PHOSPHORUS. DISCOVERED by Kunkel, Brandt, and Boyle ; produced in refpiration, and by luminous infecls, decayed wood, and calcined fhells; bleaching a flow combuftion in. which the water is decompofed; rancidity of animal fat owing to the decompofition of water on its furface; aerated marine acid does not whiten or bleach the hand. NOTE XI. STEAM-ENGINE. HERO of Alexandria firft applied fteam to machinery, next a French wri- ter in 1630, the Marquis of Worcefter in 1655, Capt. Savery in 1689, CONTENTS OF ADDITIONAL NOTES. 249 Ncwcomen and Cawley added the pifton ; the improvements of Watt and Boulton; power of one of their large engines equal to two hundred horfes. NOTE XII. FROST. EXPANSION of water in freezing; injury done by vernal frofts; fifli, eggs, feeds, refill congelation; animals do not refift the increafe of heat; frofts do not meliorate the ground, nor are, in general, falubrious; damp air produces cold on the fkin by evaporation; fnow lefs pernicious to agriculture than heavy rains for two reafons. NOTE XIII. ELECTRICITY, I. Points preferable to knobs for defence of building's; why points emit the electric fluid; diffufion of oil on water; mountains are points on the earth's globe; do they produce afcending currents of air? 1. Fairy-rings ex- plained ; advantage of paring and burning ground. NOTE XIV. BUDS and BULBS. A TREE is a fwarm of individual plants ; vegetables are either oviparous or viviparous ; are all annual productions like many kinds of infects ; hy- bernacula; a new bark annually produced over the old one, in trees and in fome herbaceous plants, whence their roots feem end-bitten; all bulbous roots perifli annually; experiment on a tulip-root; both the leaf-bulbs and flower-bulbs are annually renewed. NOTE XV. SOLAR VOLCANOS. THE fpots in the fun are cavities, fome of them four thoufand miles deep, and many times as broad; internal parts of the fun are not in a ftate of combuftion; volcanos vifible in the fun; all the planets together are lefs than one fix hundred and fiftieth part of the fun; planets were ejected from the fun by volcanos; many reafons fhewing the probability of this hypo- thefis ; Mr. Buffon's hypothefis, that planets were flruck off from the fun by comets; why no new planets are ejected from the fun; fome comets, and the georgium fidus, may be of later date; fun's matter decreafed; Mr. Ludlam's opinion, that it is poffible the moon might be projected from the earth. NOTE XVI. CALCAREOUS EARTH. HIGH mountains and deep mines replete with fhells; the earth's nucleus covered with lime-ftone ; animals convert water into lime-ftone ; all the cal- careous earth in the world formed in animal and vegetable bodies; folid parts of the earth increafe; the water decreafes; tops of calcareous moun- tains diflblved; whence fpar, marble, chalk, ftalactites; whence alabafter, fluor, flint, granulated lime-ftone, from folution of their angles, and by at- trition ; tupha depofited on mofs; lime-ftones from fhells with animals in them; liver-ftone from frefh-watcr mufcles; calcareous earth from land- animals and vegetables, as marl; beds of marble foftened by fire; whence Bath-ftone contains lime as well as lime-ftone. PART I. 2 K BOTANIC GARDEN. PART I. NOTE XVII. MORASSES. production of moraffes from fallen woods; account by the Earl Cro- 1 martie of a new morafs; moratfes lofe their falts by folution in water ; then their iron ; their vegetable acid is converted into marina, nitrous, and vi- triolic acid; whence gypfum, alum, fulphur; into fluor-acid, whence fluor; into iiliceous acid, whence flint, the faud of the fea, and other ftrata of Siliceous fan'd and marl; fonie m'oraffes ferment like new hay, and, fub lim- ing their phlogiftic part, form coal-beds above and clay below, which are alfo produced by elutriation ; fhell-fiih in fome moraffes, hence {hells fome- times found on coals, and over iron-Hone. NOTE XVIIL IRON. CALCIFORM ores ; combuition of iron in vital air; fteelfrom deprivation of vital air; welding; hardnefs; brittlenefs like Rupert's drops; fpecific levity; hardnefs and brittlenefs compared; fteel tempered by its colours-; modern production of iron, manganefe, calamy; feptaria of iron-ftonc ejected from volcanos ; red-hot cannon-balls. NOTE XIX. FLINT. I. Siliceous roc-h from moraifes ; their cements. 2. Siliceous tree s ; coloured by iron or manganefe; Peak-diamonds ; Briftol-ftones; flint in form of cal- careous fpar ; has been fluid without much heat; obtained from powdered quartz and fluor-acid by Bergman and by Achard. 3. Agates and onyxes found in fand-rocks; of vegetable origin; have been in complete fufion; their concentric coloured circles not from fuperindu<5lion, but from congela- tion; experiment of freezing a folution of the blue-vitriol; iron and manganeic repelled in fpheres, as the nodule of flint cooled ; circular ftains of marl in falt-mines; fome flint nodales referable knots of wood or roots. 4. Sand of tie fea; its acid from moraffes; its bafe from (hells. Chert or petroftle* ftra- tificd in cooling; their colour and their acid from fea-animals; Labradore- ftone from mother-pearl. 6. Flints in chalk-beds -, their form, colour, and acid, from the flcfh of fea-animals; fome are hollow, and lined with cryflal.s; contain iron ; not produced by injection from without ; coralloids converted to flint; French mill-flones; flints fometimes found in folid ftrata. 7. An- gles of fund deftroyed by attrition and folution in fleam; filiceous breccia ce- mented by folution in red-hot water. 8. Bafaltcs and granites are ancient lavas; bafaltes raifed by its congelation, not by fubterraneous fire. NOTE XX. CI.AY. FIRE and water two g'reat agents; {^ratification from predpitation ; many ftratified materials not foluble in water. I. Stratification of lava from fuc- ceffive accumulation. 2. Stratifications of lime-ftone from the different pe- riods of time in which the fhells were depoiited. 3. Stratifications of coal, and clay, and fand-fcone, and iron-ores, not from currents of water, but from the production of morafs-beds, at different periods of time; morafs- beds become ignited; their bitumen and fulphur is fublimed, the clay, lime, and iron, remain; whence faifd, marl, coal, white clay in valley*, and gravel- 'CONTENTS OF ADDITIONAL NOTES. 251 beds, and fome ochres, and fome calcareous depofitions, owing to alluvia- tion; clay from decompofed granite; from the lava of Vefuvius; from vi- treous lavas. NOTE XXI. ENAMELS. ROSE-COLOUR and purple from gold; precipitates of gold by alkaline fait preferable to thofe by tin; aurum fulminans long ground; tender co- lours from gold or iron not diffolved, but fufpended in the glafs; cobalts; calces of cobalt and copper require a ftrong fire ; Ka-o-lyi and Pe-tun-tfe the fame as our own materials. NOTE XXII. PORTLAND VASE, ITS figures do not allude to private hiftory ; they reprefent a part of the Eleufinian myfteries ; marriage of Cupid and Pfyche ; proceffion of torches ; the figures in one compartment reprefent MORTAL LIFE in the adl of ex- piring, and HUMANKIND attending to her with concern; Adam and Eve hieroglyphic figures; Abel and Cain other hieroglyphic figures: on the other compartment is reprefented IMMORTAL LIFE; the Manes, or Ghoft, defcending into Elyfium, is led on by DIVINE LOVE, and received by IMMOR- TAL LIFE, and conducted to Pluto; Trees of Life and Knowledge are em- blematical: the figure at the bottom is of Atis, the firft great Hierophant, or teacher of myfteries. KOTE XXIII. COAL. I. A FOUNTAIN of foffile tar in Shropfhire ; lias been diftflled from the coal-beds beneath, and condenfed in the cavities of a fand-rock; the coal beneath is deprived of its bitumen in part ; bitumen fublimed at Matlock> into cavities lined with fpar. a. Coal has been expofed to heat; woody fi- bres and vegetable feeds in coal at Bovey and Polefworth ; upper part of coal-beds more bituminous at Beaudefert; thin ftratum of afphaltum near Caulk ; upper part of coal-bed worfe at AJfreton ; upper ftratum of no Va- lue at Widdrington; alum at Weft-Hallum ; at Bilfton. 3. Coal at Coal- brook-Dale has been immerfed in the fea, fhewn by fea-fhells; marks of vio- lence in the colliery at Mendip and at Ticknal; lead-ore and fpar in coal- beds; gravel over coal near Lichfield; coal produced from moraffes, fhewn by fern-leaves, and bog-fhells, and mufcle-fhells; by fome parts of coal be- ing ftill woody ; from Loch Neagh, aud Bovey, and the Temple of the De- vil; fired alkali; oil. NOTE XXIV. GRANITR. GRANITE the lowed ftratum of the earth yet known; porphyry, trap, moor-ftone, whin-ftone, flate, bafaltes, all volcanic productions diffolved in red-hot water; volcanos in granite ftrata; differ from the heat of moraffes from fermentation; the nucleus of the earth ejected from the fun; wastkc fun originally a planet? fuppofed fe&ion of the globe. z$z BOTANIC GARDEN. PART I. NOTE XXV. EVAPORATION. I. I. SOLUTION of water in air; in the matter of heat; pulfe-glafs. a. Heat is the principal caufe of evaporation ; thermometer cooled by evapo- ration of ether; heat given from fleam to the worm-tub; warmth accom- panying rain. 3. Steam condenfed on the eduction of heat; moifture on cold walls; fouth-weft and north-eaft winds. 4. Solution of fait and of blue vitriol in the matter of heat. II. Other vapours may precipitate fteam, and form rain. I. Cold the principal caufe of devaporation ; hence the fteam dif- folved in heat is precipitated, but that diffolved in air remains even in frofts ; fouth-weft wind. 2. North-eaft winds mixing with fouth-weft winds produce rarn; becaufe the cold particles of air of the north-eaft acquire fome of the matter of heat from the fouth-weft winds. 3. Devaporation from me- chanical expanfion of air , as in the receiver of an air-pump ; fummer clauds appear and vanifh ; when the barometer finks without change of wind, the \veather becomes colder. 4. Solution of water in electric fluid dubious. 5. Barometer finks from the leffened gravity of the air, and from the rain having lefs preffure as it falls; a mixture of a folution of water in calo- rique, with an aerial folution of water, is lighter than dry air ; breath of ani- mals in cold weather, why condenfed into vifible vapour, and diffolved again. NOTE XXVI. SPRINGS. LOWEST ftrata of the earth appear on the higheft hills; fprings from dews Hiding between them; mountains are colder than plains; I. From their being infulated in the air; 2. From their enlarged furface ; 3. From the rarity of the air it becomes a better conductor of heat; 4. By the air on mountains being mechanically rarefied as it afcends; 5. Gravitation of the matter of heat; 6. The dafhing of clouds againft hills; of fogs againft trees; fprings ftrongcr in hot days with cold nights; ftreams from fubtcrranean caverns; from beneath the fnow on the Alps. NOTE XXVII. SHELL-FISH. TH> E armour of the Echinus movcable ; holds itfelf in ftorms to ftones, by 1 200 or 2CCO firings: Nautilus rows and fails; renders its fhell buoyant: Pinna and cancer; EyiTus of the ancients was the beard of the Pinna ; as fine as the filk is fpun by the filk-worm; gloves made of it; the beard of muf- cles produces ficknefs; Indian-weed; tendons of rats' tails. NOTE XXVIII. STURGEON. STURGEON'S mouth like a purfe ; without teeth; tendrils like worms hang before his lips, which entice fmall nfh and fea-infects, miftaking them for worms; his fkin ufed for covering carriages; ifinglafs made from it; ca- viare from the fpawn. CONTENTS OF ADDITIONAL NOTES. 253 NOTE XXIX. OIL ON WATER. OIL and water do not touch; a fecond drop of oil will not diffufe itfelf on the preceding one; hence it ftills the waves; divers for pearl carry oil in their mouths ; oil on water produces prifmatic colours; oiled cork circu- lates on water; a phial of oil and water made to ofcillate. NOTE XXX. SHIP-WORM. THE Teredo has calcareous jaws; a new enemy; they perifh when they meet together in their ligneous canals; United Provinces alarmed for the piles of the banks of Zealand; were deftroyed by a fevere winter. NOTE XXXI. MAELSTROM. A WHIRLPOOL on the coaft of Norway, pafles through a fubterraneou* cavity; lefs violent when the tide is up; eddies become hollow in the mid- dle; heavy bodies are thrown out by eddies; light ones retained; oil and water whirled in a phial; hurricanes explained. NOTE XXXII. GLACIERS. SNOW in contact with the earth is in a ftate of thaw; ice-houfes; ri- vers from beneath the fnow; rime, in fpring, vanifhes by its contact with the earth ; and fnow by its evaporation and contact with the earth ; mofs vegetates beneath the fnow; and Alpine plants perilh at Upfal for want of fnow. NOTE XXXIII. WINDS. -. .,; AIR is perpetually fubject to increafe and to diminution ; Oxygene is per- petually produced from vegetables in the funfnine, and from clouds in the light, and from water; Azote is perpetually produced from animal and ve- getable putrefaction, or combuftion; from fprings of water ; volatile alkali ; fixed alkali; fea-water; they are both perpetually diminilhed by their con- tact with the foil, producing nitre; Oxygene is diminifhed in the produc- tion of all acids ; Azote by the growth of animal bodies; charcoal in burn- ing confumes double its weight of pure air; every barrel of red-lead ab- forbs 2000 cubic feet of vital air; air obtained from variety of fubftances by Dr. Prieftley ; Officina aeris in the polar circle, and at the line. South- ivtjl 'winds- their wefterly direction from the lefs velocity of the earth's fur- face; the contrary in refpect to north-eaft winds; South-weft winds confifl of regions of air from the fouth ; and north-eaft winds of regions of air from the north; when the fouth- weft prevails for weeks, and the barometer finks to 28, what becomes of above one fifteenth part of the atmofphere? I. It is not carried back by fuperior currents; a. Not from its lofs of moifture; 254 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART I. 3. Not carried over the pole ; 4. Not owing to atmofpheric tides or moun- tains; 5. It is abforbed at the polar circle; hence fouth-weft winds and rain; fouth-weft fometimes cold. North-eajl ivinds confift of air from the north ; cold by the evaporation of ice; are dry winds; I. Not fupplied by fuperior currents; 2. The whole atmofphere increafed in quantity by air fet at liberty from its combinations in the polar circles. Soutb-eaft winds confift of north winds driven back. North-tvejl ivinds confift of fouth-weft winds driven back; north- weft winds of America bring froft; owing to a vertical fpiral eddy of air between the eafttrn coaft and the Apalachian mountains ; hence the greater cold of North- America. Trade-winds ; air over the line always hotter than at the tropics; trade-winds gain their eafterly direction from the greater velocity of the earth's furface at the line; not fupplied by fu- perior currents; fupplied by dccompofed water in the fun's great light; I. Becaufe there are no conftant rains in the tra& of the trade-winds; 2. Be- caufe there is no condcnfible vapour above three or four miles high at the line. Monfcons and Tornadoes ; fome places at the tropic become warmer when the fun is vertical than at the line; hence the air afcends, fupplied on one fide by the north-eaft winds, and on the other by the fouth-weft; whence an afcending eddy or tornado, railing water from the fea, or fand from the defert, and inceffant rains; air diminilhed to the northward produces fouth-weft winds; tornadoes from heavier air above finking through lighter air below, which rifes through a perforation; hence trees are thrown down in a narrow line of twenty or forty yards broad, the fea rifes like a cone, with great rain and lightning. Land and fea breezes ; fea lefs heated than land; tropical iffands more heated in the day than the fea, and are cooled more in the night. Concliifion ; irregular winds from other caufes ; only two original winds, north and fouth ; different founds of north-eaft and fouth-weft winds; a Bear or Dragon in the ar6lic circle that fwallows at times, and difem- bogues again, above one fifteenth part of the atmofphere; wind-inftrumentsj recapitulation. NOTE XXXIV. VEGETABLE PERSPIRATION. PURE air from Dr. PriefUey's vegetable matter, and from vegetable leaves, owing to decompofition of water; the hydrogene retained by the vegetables; plants in the fhade arc tanned green by the fun's light; animnl flcins are tanned yellow by the retention of hydrogene ; much pure air from dew on a funny morning; bleaching, why fooner performed on cotton than linen; bees wax bleached; metals calcined by decompofition of water; oil bleached in the light becomes yellow again in the dark; nitrous acid co- loured by being expofed to the fun; vegetables perfpire more than animals, hence in the funfhine they purify air more by their peripiration than they injure it by their refpiration ; they grow faftfcft in their fleep. CONTENTS OF ADDITIONAL NOTES. 255 NOTE XXXV. VEGETABLE PLACENTATION. BUDS the viviparous offspring of vegetables; ptacentation in bulbs and feeds; placentation of buds in the roots, hence the riling of fap in the fpring, as in vines, birth, which ceafes as foon as the leaves expand; produ&ion of the leaf of Horferchefnut, and of its new bud; oil of vitriol on the bud of Mimofa killed the leaf alfo ; placentation ftiewn from the fweetnefs of the fap; no umbilical artery in vegetables. NOTE XXXVI. VEGETABLE CIRCULATION. BUDS fet in the ground will grow if prevented from bleeding to death by a cement; vegetables require-no mufcles of locomotion, no ftomach or bow- els, no general fyftem of veins ; they have, I. Three fyftems of abforbent veflels; 1. Two pulmonary fyftems; 3. Arterial fyftems; 4. Glands; 5. Organs of reproduction ; 6. mufcles. I. Abforbent fyftem evinced by experi- ments by coloured abforptions in fig-tree and picris ; called air-veffels erro- neoufly; fpiral ftrudlure of abforbent veffels ; retrograde motion of them like the throats of cows. II. Pulmonary arteries iu the leaves ; and pul- monary veins; no general fyftem of veins fliewn by experiment; no heart; the arteries a6t like the vena portarum of the liver; pulmonary fyftem in the petals of flowers ; circulation owing to living irritability ; vegetable ab- forption more powerful than animal, as in vines; not by capillary attraction. NOTE XXXVII. VEGETABLE RESPIRATION. I. LEAVES not perfpiratory organs, nor excretory ones; lungs of animals. I. Great fur faces of leaves. 2. Vegetable blood changes colour in the leaves; experiment with fpurge ; with picris. 3. Upper furface of"~the leaf only ads as a refpiratory organ. 4. Upper furface repels moifture ; leaves laid on water. 5. Leaves killed by oil like infecls; mufcies at the foot-ftalks of leaves. 6. Ufe of light to vegetable leaves ; experiments of Prieftley, Ingenhouz, and Scheele. 7. Vegetable circulation Cmilar to that of fifh. II, Another pulmonary fyftem belongs to flowers; colours of flowers. I. Vafcular ftructure of the corol. ^. Glands producing honey, wax, &c. perifli with the corol. 3. Many flowers have no green leaves attending them, as Colchicum. 4. Corols not for the defence of the ftamens. 5. Co- rol of Helleborus Niger changes to a calyx. 6. Green leaves not neceffary to the fruit-bud ; green leaves of Colchicum belong to the new bulb, not to the flower. 7. Flower-bud after the corol falls is fimply an uterus; mature flowers not injured by taking off the green leaves. 8. Inofculation of vege- table veflels. NOTK XXXVIII. VtGETABLE IMPREGNATION. SEEDS in broom difcovered twenty days before the flower opens; pro- grefs of the feed$ after impregnation ; feed* x& before fecundation ; analo- 256 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART I. gy between feeds and eggs ; progrefs of the egg within the hen ; fpawn of frogs and fifties ; male Salamander ; marine plants project a liquor, not a powder ; feminal fluid diluted with water, if a ftimulus only ? Male and fe- male influence neceffary in animals, infects, and vegetables, both in produc- tion of feeds and buds; does the embryon feed produce the furrounding fruit, like infects in gall-nuts ? NOTE XXXIX. VEGETABLE GLANDULATION. VEGETABLE glands cannot be injected with coloured fluids; efiential oil; wax; honey; nectary, its complicate apparatus; expofes the honey to the air like the lachrymal gland ; honey is nutritious ; the male and female parts of flowers copulate and die like moths and butterflies, and are fed like them with honey; anthers fuppofed to become infects; depredation of the honey and wax injurious to plants ; honey-dew; honey oxygenated by expo- fure to air ; neceffary for the production of fenfibility ; the provifion for the embryon plant of honey, fugar, ftarch, &c. fupplies food to numerous claf- fes of animals; various vegetable fecretions, as gum tragacanth, camphor, elemi, anime, turpentine, balfam of Mecca, aloe, myrrh, elaftic refm, manna, fugar, wax, tallow, and many other concrete juices; vegetable digeflion; chemical production of fugar would multiply mankind; economy of nature. END OF PART I. THE BOTANIC GARDEN, PART II. CONTAINING THE LOVES OF THE PLANTS. A POEM. WITH PHILOSOPHICAL NOTES. Vivunt in Venerem frondes; nemus omne per altum Felix arbor amat ; nutant ad mutua Palmas Fcedera, Populeo fufpirat Populus i6tu, Et Platani Platanis, Alnoque aflibilat Alnus. CLAOD. EPITH, The first American^ from the fourth London Edition. NEW-YORK: Printed by T. & J. SWORDS, Printers to the Faculty of Phyfic of Columbia College, No. 99 Pearl-ftrect, I 79 8. PREFACE. JLlNN^EUS has divided the vegetable world into 24 Claf- fes; thefe Clafles into about 12 Orders; thefe Orders con- tain about 2000 Families, or Genera; and thefe Families about 20,000 Species; befides the innumerable Varieties, which the accidents of climate or -.cultivation have added to thefe Species. * * The Clafles are diflinguifhed from each other in this inge- nious fyftem, by the number, fituation, adhefion, or recipro- cal proportion of the males in each flower. The Orders, in many of thefe Clafles, are diflinguiihed by the number, or other circumflances of the females. The Families, or Ge- nera, are characterized by the analogy of all the parts of the flower or fructification. The Species are diflinguifhed by the foliage of the plant; and the Varieties by any accidental circumftance of colour, tafte, or odour ; the fee^ls of thefe do not always produce plants flmilar to the parent ; as in our numerous fruit-trees and garden flowers ; which are propagat- ed by grafts or layers.. 5 > The firft eleven Clafles include the plants, in whofe flow- ers b)th the e*es refide ; and in which the Males or Stamens are -neither united, nor unequal in height when at maturity; and are, therefore, diftinguifhed from each other fimply by the number of males in each flower, as is feen in the annexed PLATE, copied from the Di&ionaire Botanique of M. BUL- LIARD, in which the numbers of each divifion refer to the Botanic Claries. CLASS I. ONE MALE, Monandria\ includes the plants which poflefs but One Stamen in each flower. II. Two MALES, Dlandria. Two Stamens, iv PREFACE. III. THREE MALES, Triandria. Three Stamens. IV. FOUR MALES, Tetrandria. Four Stamens. V. iFivE MALES, Petandria. Five Stamens. VI. Six MALES, Hexandria. Six Stamens. VIF. SEVEN MALES, Heptandria. Seven Stamens. VIII. EIGHT MALES, Oftandria. Eight Stamens. IX. NINE MALES, Enneandria. Nine Stamens. X. TEN MALES, Decandria. Ten Stamens. XL TWELVE MALES, Dodecandria. Twelve Stamens. The next two Gaffes are diftinguifhed not only by the number of equal and difunited males, as in the above eleven Clafles, but require an additional circumftance to be attended to, viz. whether the males or ftamens be fituated on the ca- lyx, or not XII. TWENTY MALES, Icofandrla. Twenty Stamens inserted on the calyx, or flower-cup ; as is well feen in the laft 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 feen in the firft figure of No. xiii. in the annexed Plate. In the next two Claries, not only the number of ftamens are to be obferved, but the reciprocal proportions in refpecl: to height. XIV. Two POWERS, Didynamia. Four Stamens, of* which two are lower than the other two ; as is feen in the two firft Figures of No. xiv. XV. FOUR POWERS, Tetr adynamia. Six Stamens, of which four are taller, and the two lower ones oppofite to each other ; as is feen in the third Figure of the upper row, in No. xv. The five fubfequcnt ClafTes are diftinguiflied not by the num- ber of the males, or ftamens, but by their union or adhefion, either by their anthers or filaments, or to the female, or piftil. XVI. ONE BROTHERHOOD, Monadclphia. Many Sta- mens united by their filaments into one company; as in the fecond Figure below of No. xvi. PREFACE. v XVII. Two BROTHERHOODS, Diadelphia. Many Sta- mens united by their filaments into two companies ; as in the uppermoft Figure, No. xvii. XVIII. MANY BROTHERHOODS, Polyadelphla. Many Stamens united by their filaments into three or more compa- nies; as in No. xviii. XIX. CONFEDERATE MALES, Syngene/ia. Many Sta- mens united by their anthers ; as in the firft and fecond Fi- gures, No. xix. XX. FEMININE MALES, Gynandria. Many Stamens attached to the piftil. The next three Claffes confift of plants, whofe flowers con- tain but one of the fexes; or if fome of them contain both fexes, there are other flowers accompanying them of but one fex. XXI. ONE HOUSE, Moncecia. Male flowers and fe- male flowers feparate, but on the fame plant. XXII. Two HOUSES, Dioecia. Male flowers and fe- male flowers feparate, on different plants. XXIII. POLYGAMY, Polygamia. Male and female flow- ers on one or more plants, which have, at the fame time, flowers of both fexes. The laft Clafs contains the plants whofe flowers are not difcernible. XXIV. CLANDESTINE MARRIAGE, Cryptogamla. The Orders of the firft thirteen ClafTes are founded on the number of Females, or Piftils, and diftinguifhed by the names, ONE FEMALE, Monogynia. Two FEMALES, Digynia. THREE FEMALES, Trigynia, &c. as is feen in No. i. which reprefents a plant of one male, one female; and in the firft Figure of No. xi. which reprefents a flower with twelve males, and three females ; (for, where the piftils have no ap- parent ftyles, the fummits, or ftigmas, are to be numbered,) and in the firft Figure of No. xii. which reprefents a flower with twenty males, and many females ; and in the laft Figure of the fame No. which has twenty males, and one female; vl P R E F A C E. and in No. xiii. which reprefents a flower with many males, and many females. The Clafs of Two POWERS, is divided into two natural Orders; into fuch as have their feeds naked at the bottom of the calyx, or flower-cup; and fuch as have their feeds co-s vered; as is feen in No. xiv. Fig. 3 and 5. The Clafs of FOUR POWERS, is divided alfo into two Orders; in one of thefe the feeds are inclofed in a filicule, as in Shepherd's purfc, No. xv. Fig. 5. In the other they are inclofed in a iilique ; as in Wall-flower, Fig. 4. In all the other Claffes, excepting the Clafles Confederate Males and Clandeftine Marriage, as the character of each Clafs is diflinguifhed by the lltuations of the males ; the cha- racter of the Orders is marked by the numbers of them. In the Clafs ONE BROTHERHOOD* Nek xvi. Fig. 3. the Ordetf of ten males is reprefented. And in the Clafs Two BRO- THERHOODS, No. xvii. Fig. 2. the Order of ten males is reprefented. In the Clafs CONFEDERATE MALES, the Orders are chiefly diftinguifhed by the fertility or barrennefs of the flo- rets of the difk, or ray of the compound flower. And in the Clafs of CLANDESTINE MARRIAGE, the four Orders are termed FERNS, MOSSES, FLAGS, and FUN- GUSSES. The Orders are again divided into Genera, or Families, which are all natural aflbciations, and are defcribed from the general refemblances of the parts of fructification, in refpect to their number, form, fituation, and reciprocal proportion. Thefe are the Calyx, or Flower-cup; as feen in No. iv. Fig. i. No. x. Fig. i, and 3. No. xiv. Fig. i, 2, 3, 4. Se- cond, the Corol, or Bloflbm ; as feen in No. i. ii. &c. Third, the Males, or Stamens; as in No. iv. Fig. i. and No. viii. Fig. i. Fourth, the Females or Piftils ; as in No. i. PREFACE. vii No. xii. Fig. I. No. xiv. Fig. 3. No. xv. Fig. 3. Fifth, the Pericarp, or Fruit-veflel ; as in No. xv. Fig. 4, 5. No. xvii. Fig. 2. Sixth, the Seeds. The illuftrious author of the Sexual Syftem of Botany, in his preface to his account of the Natural Orders, ingenioufly imagines, that one plant of each Natural Order was created in the beginning; and that the intermarriages of thefe pro- duced one plant of every Genus, or Family ; and that the in- termarriages of thefe Generic, or Family plants, produced all the fpecies : and, laftly, that the intermarriages of the indi- viduals of the fpecies produced the Varieties. In the following POEM, the name or number of the Clafs or Order .of each plant is printed in Italics, as " Two bro- ther f wains." " One houfe contains them;" and the word " fecret" expreflfes the clafs of Clandeftine Marriage. The Reader who wi flies to become further acquainted with this delightful field of fcience, is advifed to fludy the works of the Great Matter, and is apprized that they are exactly and literally tranflated into Englifli, by a Society at LICH- FIELD, in four Volumes O6lavo. To the SYSTEM OF VEGETABLES is prefixed a co- pious explanation of all the Terms ufed in Botany, tranflated from a thefis of Dr. ELMSGREEN, with the plates and re- ferences from the Philofophia Botannica of LINNAEUS. To the FAMILIES OF PLANTS is prefixed a Cata- logue of the names of plants, and other Botanic Terms, care- fully accented, to (hew 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! , here a CAMERA OBSCUR A is prefented to thy view, in which are lights and ihades dancing on a whited canvas, and magnified into apparent life ! If thou art perfectly at leifure for fuch trivial amufe- ment, walk in, and view the wonders of my IN- CHANTED GARDEN. Whereas P. OVIDIUS NASO, a great Necro- mancer in the famous Court of AUGUSTUS CAESAR, did, by art poetic, tranfmute Men, Women, and even Gods and GoddeiTes, into Trees and Flowers; I have undertaken, by fimilar art, to reftore fome of them to their original animality, after having re- mained prifoners fo long in their refpeclive vegeta- ble manfions ; and have here' exhibited them before thee. Which thou may'ft contemplate as diverfe little pi&ures, fufpended over the chimney of a PART II. B Lady's drefiing room, connected only by a flight fef- toon of ribbons. And which, though thou may 'ft not be acquainted with the originals, may amufe thee by the beauty of their perfons, their graceful attitudes, or the brilliancy of their drefs. FAREWELL. JII.XM I AX r t L_ . THE f BOTANIC GARDEN. ' ;V LOVES OF THE PLANTS. CANTO I. JL/ESCEND, ye hovering Sylphs! aerial Quires, Aftd fweep with little hands your filver lyres ; With fairy footfteps print your grafly rings, Ye Gnomes ! accordant to the tinkling firings : While in foft notes I tune to oaten reed 5 Gay hopes, and amorous forrows of the mead. From giant Oaks, that wave their branches dark, To the dwarf Mofs that clings upon their bark, What Beaux and Beauties crowd the gaudy groves, And woo and win their vegetable Loves. 10 How Snow-drops cold, and blue-eyed Harebels blend Their tender tears, as o'er the ftream they bend ; The love-fick Violet, and the Primrofe pale, Bow their fweet heads, and whifper to the gale ; With fecret fighs the Virgin Lily droops, 15 And jealous Cowflips hang their tawny cups. How the young Rofe, in beauty's damafk pride, Drinks the warm blufhes of his bafhful bride; With honey'd lips enamoured Woodbines meet, Clafp with fond arms, and mix their kifles fweet. 20 Vegetable Loves. 1. io. Linnaeus, the celebrated Swedifli naturalift, has demonftrated, that all flowers contain families of males or females, or both; and on their marriages has conihu&ed his invaluable fyftem of Botany. t BOTANIC GARDEN. PART II. Stay thy foft-murmuring waters, gentle Rill; Hufh, whifpering Winds ; ye ruftling Leaves be flill ; Reft, filver Butterflies, your quivering wings ; Alight, ye Beetles, from your airy rings ; Ye painted Moths, your gold-eyed plumage furl, 25 Bow your wide horns, your fpiral trunks uncurl ; Glitter, ye Glow-worms, on your mody beds ; Defcend, ye Spiders, on your lengthened threads ; Slide here, ye horned Snails, with varnifti'd fhells ; Ye Bee -nymphs, liften in your waxen cells ! 3Q BOTANIC MUSE ! who, in this latter age, Led by your airy hand the Swedifh fage, Bade his keen eye your fecret haunts explore On dewy dell, high wood, and winding ihore ; Say on each leaf how tiny graces dwell ; 3 How laugh the Pleafures in a blofTorrTs bell ; How infecl: Loves arife on cobweb wings, Aim their light fliafts, and point their little flings. " Firft the tall CANNA lifts his curled brow Eret to heaven, and plights his nuptial vow ; 40 The virtuous pair, in milder regions born, Dread the rude blaft of Autumn's icy morn ; Round the chill fair he folds his crimfon veft, And clafps the timorous beauty to his breaft. Thy love CALLITRICHE, two Virgins {hare, 45 Smit with thy ftarry eye and radiant hair ; On the green margin fits the youth, and laves His floating train of tre^fles in the waves; Canna. 1. 39. Cane, or Indian Reed. One male and one female Inhabit each flower. It is brought from between the tropics to our hot-houfes, and bears a beautiful crimfon flower; the feeds are ufed as fhot by the Indians, and are ftrung for prayer-beads in fome catholic countries. Callltrlcle. 1. 45. Fine-Hair, Stargrafs. One male and two females inha- bit each flower. The upper leaves grow in form of a ftar, whence it is call- ed Stellaria Aquatica by Ray and others; its ftems and leaves float far on the xvater, and are often fo matted together, as to bear, a perfon walking on them. The male fometimes lives in a ieparate flower. CANTO I. LOVES OF THE PLANTS. 13 Sees his fair features paint the ftreams that pafs, And bends for ever o'er the watery glafs. 50 Two brother fwains, of COLLIN'S gentle name, The fame their features, and their forms the fame, With rival love for fair COLLINIA figh, Knit the dark brow, and roll the unfteady eye. With fweet concern the pitying beauty mourns, $$ And fooths with fmiles the jealous pair by turns. Sweet blooms GENISTA in the myrtle fhade, And ten fond brothers woo the haughty maid. Two knights before thy fragrant altar bend, Adored MELISSA ! and two fquires attend. 6q Collinfonia. 1. 51. Two males, one female. I Tiave lately obferved a very fingular circumftance in this flower; the two males ftand widely di- verging from each other, and the female bends herfelf into contact firft with one of them, and after fome time leaves this, and applies herfelf to the other. It is probable one of the anthers may be mature before the other. See note on Gloriofa and Genifta. The females in Nigella, devil in the bufh, are very tall compared to the males; and bending over in a circle to them, give the flower fome refemblance to a regal crown. The female of the Epi- lobium Auguftifolium, rofe bay willow herb, bends down amongft the males for feveral days, and becomes upright again when impregnated. Genijla. 1. 57. Dyer's broom. Ten males and one female inhabit this flower. The males are generally united at the bottom in two fets, whence Lin- nseus has named the clafs " two brotherhoods." Tn the Genifta, however, they are united in but one fet. The flowers of this clafs are called papilio- naceous, from their refemblance to a butterfly, as a pea-bloffom. In the Spartium Scoparium, or common broom, I have lately obferved a curious circumftance ; the males, or ftamens, are in two fets, one fet rifing a quarter of an inch above the other; the upper fet does noc arrive at their ma- turity fo foon as the lower, and the ftigma, or head of the female, is produc- ed amongft the upper or immature fet ; but as foon as the piftil grows tall enough to burft open the keel-leaf, or hood of the flower, it bends itfelf round in an inftant, like a French horn, and inferts its head, or ftigma, amongft the lower or mature fet of males. The piftil, or female, continues to grow in length; and in a few days the ftigma arrives again amongft the upper fet, by the time they become mature. This wonderful contrivance is readily feen by opening the keel-leaf of the flowers of broom before they burft fpontaneoufly. See note on Collinfonia, Gloriofa, Draba. Mclijj'a. \. 60. Balm. In each flower there are four males and one fe- male; two of the males ftand higher than the other two; whence the name of the clafs " two powers." I have obferved in the Ballota, and others of this clafs, that the two lower ftamens, or males, become mature before the two higher. After they have flied their duft, they turn themfelves away outwards; and the piftil, or female, continuing to grow a little taller, is ap- plied to the upper ftamens. See Gloriofa and Genifta. 14 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART R,. MEADIA'S foft chains five fuppliant beaux confefs, And, hand in hand, the laughing belle addrefs ; Alike to all, fhe bows with wanton air, Rolls her dark eye, and waves her golden hair. Woo'd with long care, CURCUMA, cold and fhy, 65 Meets her fond hufband with averted eye : All the plants of this clafs, which have naked feeds, are aromatic. The Marum, and Nepeta are particularly delightful to cats; no other brute ani-. mals feem delighted with any odours but thofe of their food or prey. Meadia. 1. 6r. Dodecatheon, American Cowflip. Five males and one fer male. The males, or anthers, touch each other. The uncommon beauty of this flower occafioned Linnaeus to give it a name fignifying the twelve heathen gods; and Dr. Mead to affix his own name to it. The piftil is much longer than the ftamens ; hence the flower-ftalks have their elegant Bend, that the ftigma may hang downwards to receive the fecundating duft of the anthers. And the petals ate fo beautifully turned back to prevent the rain or dew-drops from Hiding down and wafhing off this duft prema- turely; and at the lame time expofing it to the light and air. As foon as the feeds are formed, it erects all the flower-ftalks to prevent them from falling out, and thus lofes the beauty of its figure. Is this a mechanical ef- fe<5t, or does it indicate a vegetable ftorge to preferve its offspring? See note, on Ilex, and Gloriofa. In the Meadia, the Borago, Cyclamen, Solanum, and many others, the filaments are very fhort compared with the ftyle. Herice it became ne- ceffary, ift. To furnifh the ftamens with long anthers, ad. To lengthen and bend the peduncle or flovver-ftalk, that the flower might hang downwards. 3d. To refleA the petals. 4th. To ercA thefe peduncles when the germ was fecundated. We may reafon upon this by obferving, that all this appa- ratus might have been fpared, if the filaments alone bad grown longer; and that thence, in thefe flowers, that the filaments are the.moft unchangeable parts; and that thence their comparative length, in refpedt to the ftyle, would afford a moft permanent mark of their generic character. Curcuma. 1. 65. Turmeric. One male and one female inhabit this flower; but there are befides four imperfect males, or filaments, without anthers upon them, called by Linnaeus eunuchs. The flax of our country has ten filaments, and but five of them are terminated with anthers; the Portugal flax has ten perfe& males, or ftamens; the Verbena of our country has four males; that of Sweden has but two; the genus Albuca, the Bignonia Ca- talpa, Gratiola, and hemlock-leaved Geranium, have only half their fila- ments crowned \vith anthers. In like manner the florets, which form the rays of the flowers of the order fruftraneous polygamy of the clafs fynge- nefia, or confederate males, as the fun-flower, are furnifhed with a ftyle only, and no ftigma, and are thence barren. There is alfo a ftyle without a ftigma in the whole order dioecia gynandria; the male flowers of which are thence barren. The Opulus is another plant which contains fome n- prolific flowers. In like manner fome tribes of infeds have males, females, and neuters among them ; as bees, wafps, ants. There is a curious circumftance belonging to the clafs of infe&s which have two wings, or diptera, analogous to the rudiments of ftamens above ftf. CANTO I. LOVES OF THE PLANTS. 13 Four beardlefs youths the obdurate beauty move With foft attentions of Platonic love. With vain defines the penfive ALCEA burns, And, like fad ELOISA, loves and mourns. 70 The freckled IRIS owns a fiercer flame, And three unjealous hufbands wed the dame. CUPRESSUS dark difdains his dulky bride, One dome contains them, but two beds divide. defcribed; viz. two little knobs are found placed, each on a ftalk or pedun- cle, generally under a little arched fcale; which appear to be rudiments of hinder wings; and are called by Linnaeus halteres, or poifers, a term of his introduction. A. T. Bladh. Amoen. Acad. V. 7. Other animals have marks of having, in a long procefs of time, undergone changes in fdme parts of their bodies, which may have been effected to accommodate them to new ways of procuring their food. The exiftence of teats on the breafts of male animals, and which are generally replete with a thin kind of milk at their nativity, is a wonderful inftance of this kind. Perhaps all the pro- ductions of nature are in their progrefs to greater perfection ? an idea coun- tenanced by the modern difcoveries and deductions concerning the progref- five formation of the folid parts of the terraqueous globe, and confonant to the dignity of the Creator of all things. Alcea. 1. 69. Flore pleno. Double hollyhock. The double flowers, fo much admired by the florifts, are termed, by the botanift, vegetable monfters : in fame of thefe the petals are multiplied three or four times, but without excluding the ftamens; hence they produce fome feeds, as Campanula and Stramonium ; but in others the petals become fo numerous as totally to ex- clude the ftamens, or males, as Caltha, Peonia, and Alcea; thefe produce no ieeds, and are termed eunuchs. Philof. Botan. No. 150, Thefe vegetable monfters are formed in many ways: I ft. By the mul- tiplication of the petals, and the exclufion of the nectaries, as in larkfpur. ad. By the multiplication of the nectaries, and exclufion of the petals, as in columbine. 3d. In fome flowers growing in cymes, the wheel-fhape flowers in the margin are multiplied to the exclufion of the bell-ftiape flowers in the centre, as in gelder-rofe. 4th. By the elongation of the florets in the centre. Inftances of both thefe are found in daify and feverfew : for other kinds of vegetable monfters, fee Plantago. The perianth is not changed in double flowers; hence the genus, or fa- mily, may be often difcovered by the calyx, as in Hepatica, Ranunculus, Alcea. In thofe flowers which have many petals, the loweft feries of the petals remains unchanged in refpect to number ; hence the natural number of the petals is eafily difcovered, as in poppies, rofes, and Nigella, or devil in a bufli. Phil. Bot. p. 128. Iris. 1. 71. Flower de Luce. Three males, one female. Some of the fpecies have a beautifully freckled flower; the large ftigma, or head of the female, covers the three males, counterfeiting a petal with its divifions. Cupreffut. 1. 73. Cyprefs. One houfe. The males live in feparate flow- ers, but on the fame plant. The males of fome of thefe plants, which are i6 BOTANIC GARDEN:, PA*T II. The proud OSYRIS flies his angry fair, 75 Two houfes hold the fafhionable pair. With flrange deformity PLANTAGO treads, A monfter-birth ! and lifts his hundred heads ; Yet with foft love a gentle belle he charms, And clafps the beauty in his hundred arms; 80 So haplefs DESDEMONA, fair and young, Won by OTHELLO'S captivating tongue, Sigh'd o'er each ftrange and piteous tale, diftrefs'd, And funk, enamour'd, on his footy breaft, in fepairate flowers from the females, have an elaftic membrane ; which dif- perfes their duft to a confiderable diftance, when the anthers burft open. This duft, on a fine day, may often be feen like a cloud hanging round the common nettle. The males and females of all the cone-bearing plants are in feparate flowers, either on the fame or on different plants ; they produce refins, and many of them are fuppofed to fupply the moft 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 exfudes; Sandarach is procured from common juniper; and incenfe from a juniper with yellow fruit. The unperifhable chefts, which contain the Egyptian mummies, were of Cyprefs ; and the Cedar, with which black-lead pencils are covered, is not liable to be eaten by worms. See Miln's Bot. Didt. art. coni- ferse. The gates of St. Peter's church at Rome, which had lafted from the time of Conftantine to that of Pope Eugene the Fourth, that is to fay, ele- ven hundred years, were of Cyprefs, and had in that time fuffered no decay. According to Thucydides, the Athenians buried the bodies of their heroes in coffins of Cyprefs, as being not fubjecl to decay. A iimilar durability has alfo been afcribed to Cedar. Thus Horace, fperamus carmlna fitipi PoJJe Unenda ccdro & lavi fer'vanda cubrcJJ'o* Ofyrls. 1. 75. Two houfes. The males and females are on different plants. There are many inftances on record, where female plants have been impregnated at very great diftance from their male; the duft difrharged from the anthers is very light, fmall,and copious, fo that it may fpread very wide in the atmofphere, and be carried to the diftant piftils, without the fuppofition of any particular attradlion ; thefe plants referable fome infects, as the ants, and cochineal infect, of which the males have wings, but not the females. Plantago. 1. 77- Rofea. Rofe-Plantain. In this vegetable monfter the bradtes, or divifions of the fpike, become wonderfully enlarged; and are con- verted into leaves. The chaffy fcales of the calyx in Xeranthemum, and in a fpecies of Dianthus, and the glume in fome alpine graffes, and the fcales of the ament in the Salix Rofea, rofe -willow, grow into leaves ; and produce other kinds of monfters. The double flowers become monfters by the multi- plication of their petals or nedtaries. See note on Alcea. CANTO I. LOVES OF THE PLANTS. j; Two gentle fhepherds, and their fifter-wives, 85 Withthee, ANTHOXA! lead ambrofial lives; Where the wide heath in purple pride extends, And fcatter'd furze its golden luftre blends, Clofed in a green recefs, unenvy'd lot ! The blue fmoak rifes from their turf-built cot ; 90 Bofom'd in fragrance blufh their infant train, Eye the warm fun, or drink the filver rain. The fair OSMUND A feeks the filent dell, he ivy canopy, and dripping cell ; There, hid in (hades, clandestine rites approves, gt} TiH the green progeny betrays her loves. With charms defpotic fair CHONDRILLA reigns O'er the foft hearts of fve fraternal fwains; AnthoKanthiim. 1. 86. Vernal grafs. Two males, two females. The other graffes have three males and two females. The flowers of this grafs give the fragrant fcent to hay. I am informed it is frequently viviparous, that is, that it bears fometimes roots or bulbs inftead of feeds, which, after a time, drop off, and ftrike root into the ground. This circumftance is faid to obtain in many of the alpine graffes, whofe feeds are perpetually devoured by fmall birds. The Fefluca Dumetorum, fefcue grafs of the bufhes, pro- duces bulbs from the faeaths of its ftraw. The Allium Magicum, or magi- cal onion, produces onions on its head, inftead of feeds. The Polygonum Viviparum, viviparous biftort, rifes about a foot high, with a beautiful fpike of flowers, which are fucceeded by buds or bulbs, which fall off, and take root. There is a twafti frequently &en on birch-trees, like a bird's nefl, which feems to be a fimilar attempt of nature, to produce another tree, ivhich, falling off, might take root in fpongy ground. There isi, an inftance of this double mode of production in the animal kingdom, which is equally extraordinary: the fame fpecies of Aphis is vi- viparous in fummer, and oviparous in autumn. A- T. Bladh. Aincen. Acad. V. 7- Ofmunda. 1. 93, This plant grows on moift rocks; the parts of its flower or its feeds are fcarce discernible; whence Linnaeus has given the name of clandefline marriage to this clafs. The younger plants are of a beautiful vi- vid green. Chondrilla. 1. 97. Of the clafs Confederate Males. The numerous flo- rets, which conftitute the dific pf the flowers in this clafs, contain in each five males furrounding one female, which are conne\5ted.at top, whence the name of the c'lafs. An Italian writer, in a difcourfe on the irritability of flowers, afferts, that if the top of the floret be touched, all the filaments which fupport the cylindrical anther will contract themfelves, and that, by thus railing or deprefling the anther, the whole of the prolific dufl is col- PART II. C 1 8 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART 11. If fighs the changeful nymph, alike they mourn ; And, if flie fmiles, with rival raptures burn. 100 So, tun'd in unifon, Eolian Lyre ! Sounds in fweet fymphony thy kindred wire ; Now, gently fwept by Zephyr's vernal wings, Sink in foft cadences the love-fick firings ; And now with mingling chords, and voices higher, 105 Peal the full anthems of the aerial choir. Five fitter- nymphs to join Diana's train With thee, fair LYCHNIS ! vow, but vow in vain; Beneath one roof refides the virgin band, Flies the fond fwain, and fcorns his offered hand; no But when foft hours on breezy pinions move, And fmiling May attunes her lute to love, Each wanton beauty, trick'd in all her grace, Shakes the bright dew-drops from her blufhing face; In gay undrefs difplays her rival charms, 115 And calls her wondering lovers to her arms. When the young Hours, amid her tangled hair, Wove the frefh rofe-bud, and the lily fair, Proud GLORIOSA led three choien fwains, The blufhing captives of her virgin chains 120 lefted on the fligma. He adds, that If one filament be touched after it is fcparated from the floret, that it will contract like the mufcular fibres of animal bodies: his experiments were tried on the Centaurea Calcitrapoides, and on artichokes and globe-thiflles. Difcourfe on irritability of plants. Dodiley. Lychnis. 1. 108. Tea males and five females. The flowers which con- tain the five females, and thofe which contain the ten males, are found on different plants, and often at a great diftance from each other. Five of the ten males arrive at thqjr maturity fome days before the other five, as may be feen by opening the corol before it naturally expands itfelf. When the females arrive at their maturity, they rife above the petals, as if look- ing abroad for their diftant hulbands : the fcarlet ones contribute much to the beauty of our meadows in May and June. Gloriofa. 1. 119. Superba. Six males, one female. The petals of this beautiful flower, with three of the ftamens, which are firft mature, Hand up in apparent diforcler; and the piftil bends at nearly a right angle, to in- fert its ftigma amongft them. In a few days, as thefe decline, the other three ftamens bend over, and approach the piftil. In the Fritillaria PerCca, the fix ftamens are of equal lengths, and the anthers lie at a diftance from m-m I J ' CANTO I. LOVES OF THE PLANTS. 19 When Time's rude hand a bark of wrinkles fpread Round her weak limbs, and filver'd o'er her head, Three other youths her riper years engage, The flatter'd vi&ims of her wily age. So, in her wane of beauty, NINON won 125 With fatal fmiles her gay unconfcious fon. Clafp'd in his arms, fhe own'd a mother's name, " Defift, rafh youth ! reftrain your impious flame, " Firft on that bed your infant-form was prefs'd, " Born by my throes, and nurtured at my breaft." 130 Back as from death he fprung, with wild amaze Fierce on the fair he fix'd his ardent gaze ; Dropp'd on one knee, his frantic arms outfpread, And ftole a guilty glance toward the bed ; Then breath'd from quivering lips a whifper'd vow, 135 And bent on heaven his pale repentant brow; " Thus, thus !" he cried, and plung'd the furious dart, And life and love gufh'd, mingled, from his heart. The fell SILENE, and her fitters fair, Skill'd in deftru&ion, fpread the vifcous fnare. 140 the piftil, and three alternate ones approach firft; and, when thefe 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, fix. of the males arrive at maturity, and fur round the female fome time be- fore the other fix ; when thefe decline, the other fix rife up, and fupply their places. Several other flowers have, in a fimilar manner, two fets of ftamens of different ages, as Adoxa, Lychnis, Saxifraga. See Genifta. Perhaps a difference in the time of their maturity obtains in all thefe flow- ers, which have numerous ftamens. In the Kalmiu, the ten ftamens lie round the piftil like the radii of a wheel; and each anther is concealed in a nich of the corol, to protect it from cold and moifture ; thefe anthers rife feparately from their niches, and approach the piftil for a time, and then recede to their former fituations. Silene. 1. 139. Catchfly. Three females and ten males inhabit each flower ; the vifcous material, which furrounds the ftalks under the flowers of this plant, and of the Cucubalus Otites, is a curious contrivance to pre- vent various infects from plundering the honey, or devouring the feed. In the Dionaea Mufcipula there is a ftill more wonderful contrivance to prevent the depredations of infects: the leaves are armed with long teeth, like the antennas of infects, and lie fpread upon the ground round the ftem; and are fo irritable, that when an infect creeps upon them, they fold up, id BOTANIC GARDEN, PART The harlot-band ten lofty bravoes fcreen, And, frowning, guard the magic nets unfeen. Hafte glittering nations, tenants of the air, Oh, fleer from hence your viewlefs courfe afar ! If with foft words, fweet blufhes, nods, and fmiles, The three dread Syrens lure you to their toils, Limed by their art in vain you point your flings, In vain the efforts of your whirring wings ! Go, feek your gilded mates and infant hives, Nor tafte the honey purchafed with your lives ! 150 When heaven's high vault condenfmg clouds deform, Fair AMARYLLIS flies the incumbent florin. and crufh or pierce it .to death. The laft ProfefTor Linnjeus, in his Sup- plementum Plantarum, gives the following account of the Arum Mufci- vorum. The flower has the fmell of carrion ; by which the flies are in- vited to lay their eggs in the chamber of the flower, but, in vain, endea- vour to efcape, being prevented by the hairs pointing inwards, and thus pe- rifh in the flower; -whence its name of fly-eater. P. 411. In the Dypfa- cus is another contrivance for this purpofe : a bafon of water is placed round each joint of the ftem. In the Drofera is another kind of fly-trap. See Dypfacus and Drofera. The flowers of Silene and Cucubalus are clofed all day, but are open, and give an agreeable odour in the night. See Cerea. See additional notes at the end of the po rj m. Amaryllis. 1. 152. Formofifilma. Moft beautiful Amaryllis. Six males, one female. Some of the bell-flowers clofe their apertures at night, or in rainy or cold weather, as the convolvulus, and thus prou.ct their included ftamens and piftils. Other bell-flowers hang their apertures downwards, as many of the lilies; in thofe the piftil, when at maturity, is longer than the ftamens; and by this pendant attitude of the bell, when the anthers burft, their duft falls on the ftigma; and thefe are, at the fame time, fhel- tered as with an umbrella from rain and dews. But, as a free expofure to the air is neceffary for their fecundation, the ftyle and filaments in many of thefe 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 divifions are reflected Upwards, that they may not prevent the ac- cefs of air, and, at the fame time, afford fome fhelter from perpendicular rain or dew. Other bell-flowers, as the Hemerocallis and Amaryllis, have their bells nodding only, as it were, or hanging obliquely towards the ho- rizon ; which, as their ftems are flender, turn like a weathercock from the wind, and thus very effectually preferve their inclofed ftamens and an- thers from the rain and cold. Many of thefe flowers, both before and af- ter their feafon of fecundation, erecl: their heads perpendicular to the hori- zon, like the Meadia, which cannot be explained from mere mechanifm. The Amaryllis Formofiflima is a flower of the laft-mentioned kind, and affords an agreeable example of art in the vegetable economy. I. The pif- til is of great length compared with the ftamens; and this I fuppofe to have * CAKTO I. LOVES OF THE PLANTS. > zi Seeks with unfteady ftep the fhelter'd vale, And turns her blufhing beauties from the gale. Six rival youths, with foft concern imprefs'd, 155 Calm all her fears, and charm her cares to reft. So fliines at eve the fun-illumin'd fane, Lifts its bright crofs, and waves its golden vane; From every breeze the polifh'd axle turns, And high in air the dancing meteor burns. 160 Four of the giant brood with ILEX ftand, Each grafps a thoufand arrows in his hand ; been the moft unchangeable part of the flower, as in Meadia, -which fee. a. To counteract this circumftance, the piftil and ftameris are made to de- cline downwards, that the prolific duft might fall from the anthers on the fHgma 3. To produce this effect, and to fecure it when produced, the corol is lacerated, contrary to what occurs in other flowers of this genus, and the loweft divifion,with the two next lowcft ones, are wrapped clofely over the ftyle and filaments, binding them forcibly down lower towards the ho- rizon, than the ufual inclination of the bell in this genus, and thus conftii- tutes a moft elegant flower. There is another contrivance for this purpofe ;n the Hemerocalhs Flava: the long piftil often is bent fcmewhat like the capital letter JV, with defign to fhorten it, and thus to bring the ftigma amongft the anthers. Ilex. 1. 161. Holly. Four males, four females. Many plants, like many animals, are furnifhed with arms for their protection ; thefe are either aculei, prickles, as in rofe and barberry, which are formed from the outer bark of the plant; or fpinse, thorns, as in hawthorn, which are an elonga- tion of the wood, and hence more difficult to be torn off than the former; or ftimuli, flings, as in the nettles, which are armed with a venomous fluid for the annoyance of naked animals. The fhrubs and trees which have prickles or thorns, are grateful food to many animals, as goofeberry and gorfe; and would be quickly devoured if not thus armed; the ftings feem a protection againft fome kinds of infects, as well as the naked mouths of quadrupeds. Many plants lofe their thorns by cultivation, as wild animals lofe their ferocity, and fome of them their^ horns. A curious circumftancc attends the large hollies in Needwood foreft ; they are armed with thorny leaves about eight feet high, and have fmcoth leaves above, as if they were confcious that horfes and cattle could not reach their upper branches. See note on Meadia, and on Mancinella. The numerous clumps of hollies in Needwood foreft ferve as land-marks to direct the travellers acrofs it in va- rious directions; and as a fhelter to the deer and cattle in winter; and, in fcarce feafons, fupply them with much food. For when the upper branches, which are without prickles, arc cut down, the deer crop the leaves and peel off the bark. The bird-lime made from the bark of hollies feems ta be a very fimilar material to the elaftic gum, or Indian rubber, as it is called. There is a foflile elaftic bitumen found at Matlock, in Derbyfhire, which much refembles thefe fubftances in its elafticity and inflammability. The thorns of the Mimofa Cornigera refemble cows' horns in appearance as well as in ufe. Syftem of Vegetables, p. 782. 2* BOTANIC GARDEN. PART II. A thoufand (leely points on every fcale Form the bright terrors of his briftly mail. So arm'd, immortal Moore uncharm'd the fpell, 165 And flew the wily dragon of the well Sudden with rage their injured bofoms burn, Retort the infult, or the wound return ; Unwrongd, as gentle as the breeze that fweeps The unbending harvefts or undimpled deeps, 170 They guard, the Kings of Needwood's wide domains, Their fitter- wives and fair infantine trains ; Lead the lone pilgrim through the tracklefs glade, Or guide in leafy wilds the wand'ring maid. So WRIGHT'S bold pencil from Vefuvio's height 175 Hurls his red lavas to the troubled night ; From Calpe darts the intolerable flaih, Skies burft in flames, and blazing oceans dafli ; Or bids in fweet repofe his (hades recede, Winds the ftill vale, and flopes the velvet mead; 180 On the pale flream expiring Zephyrs link, And Moonlight fleeps upon its hoary brink. Gigantic Nymph! the fair KLEINHO VIA reigns, The grace and terror of Orixa's plains ; O'er her warm cheek the bluili of beauty fwims, 185 And nerves Herculean bend her fmewy limbs; Hurls his red lavas. 1. 176. Alluding to the grand paintings of the erup- tions of Vefuvius, and of the deftruclion of the Spanilh veflels before Gib- raltar; and to the beautiful lan,dfcapes, and moonlight fcenes, by Mr. Wright, of Derby. Kleinbo-uia. 1. 183. In this clafs the males in each flower are fupported by the female. The name of the clafs may be tranflated " Viragoes," or " Feminine Males." The largeft tree perhaps in the world, is of the fame natural order as Kleinhovia; it is the Adanfonia, or Ethiopian Sour-gourd, or African Cala- bafh-tree. Mr. Adanfon fays the diameter of the trunk frequently exceeds 25 feet, and the horizontal branches are from ^ to 55 feet long, and fo large that each branch is equal to the largeft tree's of Europe. The breadth of the top is from 120 to 150 feet ; and one of the roots bared only in part, by the wafliing away of the earth from the river, near which it grew, meafured no feet long; and yet thefe ilupendous trees never exceed 70 feet in height. Voyage to Senegal. CANTO I. LOVES OF THE PLANTS. 23 With frolic eye fhe views the affrighted throng, And makes the meadows as me towers along; With playful violence difplays her charms, And bears her trembling lovers in her arms. 190 So fair THALESTRIS fhook her plumy creft, And bound in rigid mail her jutting breaft ; Poifed 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 195 The chains of conqueft with the wreaths of love. When o'er the cultivated lawns and dreary waftes Retiring Autumn flings her howling blafts, Bends in tumultuous waves the ftruggling woods, And mowers their leafy honours on the floods, 20O In withering heaps colle&s the flowery fpoil, And each chill infecT: fmks beneath the foil ; Quick flies fair TULIP A the loud alarms, And folds her infant clofer in her arms ; In fome lone cave, fecure pavilion, lies, 205 And waits the courtfhip of ferener fkies. So, fix cold moons, the Dormoufe charm'd to reft, Indulgent Sleep ! beneath thy eider breaft, Tullpa. 1. 203. Tulip. What is, in common language, called a bulb* ous-root, is, by Linnaeus, termed the Hybernacle, or Winter-lodge of the young plant. As thefe bulbs, in every refpect, refemble buds, except in their being produced under ground, and include the leaves and flower iu miniature, which are to be expanded in the enfuing fpring. By cautioufly cutting, in winter, through the concentric coats of a tulip-root, longitudi- nally from the top to the bafe, and taking them off fucceffively, the whole flower of the next fummer's tulip is beautifully feen by the naked eye, with its petals, piftil, and ftamens; the flowers exift in other bulbs in the fame manner as in Hyacinths ; but the individual flowers of thefe being lefs, they are not fo eafily differed, or fo confpicuous to the naked eye. In the feeds of the Nymphsea Nelumbo, the leaves of the plant are feen fo diftin&ly, that Mr. Ferber found out by them to what plant the feeds be- longed. Amoen. Acad. V. vi. No. lao. He fays, that Mariotte firft ob- ferved the future flower and foliage in the bulb of a tulip; and adds, that it is pleafant to fee in the buds of the Hepatica and Pedicularis hirfuta, yet lying in the earth ; and in the gems of Daphne Mezereon ; and at the bafe of Ofmunda Lunaria, a perfed plant of the future year, complete in all its pans. Ibid. 24 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART IL In fields of Fancy climbs the kernel'd groves, Or fhares the golden harveft with his loves.: 2io Then bright from earth, amid the troubled fky, ATcendsfair COLCHICA with radiant eye, Warms the cold bofom of the hoary year, And lights with Beauty's blaze the dufky fphere. Three blufhing Maids the intrepid Nymph attend, 215 Andjix gay Youths, enamour'd train ! defend. So {nines with iilver guards the Georgian ftar, And drives on Night's blue arch his glittering car ; Hangs o'er the billowy clouds his lucid form, Wades thro' the mill:, and dances in the florm. 220 GREAT HELIANTHUS guides o'er twilight plains Jn gay folemnity his Dervife-trains ; Marfhall'd in fives each gaudy band proceeds, Each gaudy band a plumed Lady leads ; Colclicum autumnale. 1. 212. Autumnal Meadow-fafFro'n. Six male?;, three females. The germ is buried within the root, which thus feems to conftitute a part of the flower. Families of Plants, p. 242. Thefe fin- gular flowers appear in the autumn without any leaves, whence, in fome countries, they are called Naked Ladies: in the March following the green leaves fpring up, and in April the feed-veffel rifes from the ground ; the feeds ripen in May, contrary to the ufual habits of vegetables, which flower in the fpring, and ripen their feeds in the autumn. Miller's Diet. The juice of the root of this plant is fo acrid as to produce violent ef- fects on the human conftitution, which alfo prevents it from being eaten by fubterranean infects, and thus guards the feed-veffel during the winter. The defoliation of deciduous trees is announced by the flowering of the Colchicum; of thefe the afh is the laft that puts forth its leaves, and the firft that lofes them. Phil. Bot. p. 275. The Hamamelis, Witch Hazel, is another plant which flowers in autumn ; when the leaves fall off, the flowers come out in clufters from the joints of the branches, and in Virginia ripen their feed in the enfuing fpring, but in this country their feeds feldom ripen. Lin. Spec. Plant. Miller's Diet. Hcliantbus. 1. 221. Sun-flower. The numerous florets, which confti- tute the diflc of this flower, contain in each five males iurrounding one fe- male, the five ftamens have their anthers connected at top, whence the name of the clafs " confederate males;" fee note on Chondrilla. The fun- flower follows the courfe of the fun by nutation, not by twilling its ftem. (Hale's Vcg. Stat.) Other plants, when they are confined in a room, turn the fnining furface of their leaves, and bend their whole branches to the, light. See Mimofa. A plumed Lady leads. 1. 224. The feeds of many plants of this clafs are furniihed with a plume, by which admirable mcchiuiilk), they are CANTO I, LOVES OF THE PLANTS. 25 With zealous flep he climbs the upland lawn, 225 And bows in homage to the rifing dawn ; Imbibes with eagle eye the golden ray, And watches, as it moves, the orb of day. QUEEN of the marfli, imperial DROSERA treads Ruth-fringed banks, and mofs-embroider'd beds ; 230 Redundant folds of glofly filk furround Her {lender waift, and trail upon the ground; Five fifter- nymphs collect with graceful eafe, Or fpread the floating purple to the breeze ; And five fair youths with duteous love comply 235 With each foft mandate of her moving eye. As with fweet grace her fnowy neck ihe bows, A zone of diamonds trembles round her brows; Bright fhines the filver halo, as (he turns ; And, as {he fteps, the living luftre burns, 240 nated by the winds far from their parent ftem, and look like a fhuttlecock, as they fly. Other feeds are diffeminated by animals ; of thefe fome attach themfelves to their hair or feathers by a gluten, asmifleto; others by hooks, as cleavers, burdock, hounds-tongue; and others are fwallowed whole for the fake of the fruit, and voided uninjured, as the hawthorn, juniper, and fome graffes. Other feeds again difperfe themfelves by means of an elaftic feed-veffel, as oats, geranium, and impaciens; and the feeds of aquatic plants, and of thofe which grow on the banks of rivers, are carried many- miles by the currents, into which they fall. See Impatiens, oftera, Caf- fia, Carlina. Drofcra. 1. ^^<). Sun-dew. Five males, five females. The leaves of this marfh-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 (lands a pellucid drop of mucilage, refembling a ducal coro- net. This mucus is a fecretion from certain glands, and, like the vifcous material round the flower-flalks of Silene (catchfly) prevents fmall infects from infefting the leaves. As the ear-wax, in animals, feems to be in part defigned to prevent fleas and other infects from getting into their ears. Sec Silene. Mr. Wheatley, an eminent furgeon in Cateaton-ftreet, London, obferved thefe leaves to bend upwards, when an infect fettled on them, like the leaves of the Mufcipula Veneris, and, pointing all their globules of mucus to the centre, that they completely intangled and deftroyed it. M. Brouflbnet, in the Mem. de 1'Acad. des Sciences, for the year 1784, p. 615, after having defcribed the motion of the Dionaea, adds, that a fimilar ap- pearance has been obferved in the leaves of two fpecies of Drofera. ., ,,..^ PART II. D 26 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART IL Fair LONICERA prints the dewy lawn, And decks with brighter blufh the vermil dawn ; Winds round the fhidowy rocks, and panfied vales, And fcents with fweeter breath the fummer-gales ; With artlefs grace and native eafe fhe charms, 245 And bears the horn of plenty in her arms. Five rival Swains their tender cares unfold, And watch with eye afkince the treafured gold. Where rears huge Tenerif his azure creft, Afpiring DRAB A builds her eagle neft ; 250 Loniccra. 1. 241. Caprifolium, Honeyfuckle. Five males, one female. Nature has, in many flowers, ufed a wonderful apparatus to guard the nectary, or honey-gland, from infects, In the honeyfuckle the petal ter- minates in a long tube, like a cornucopia, or horn of plenty ; and the ho- ney is produced at the hottom of it. In Aconitum, monks-hood, the nee* taries ftand upright, like two horns covered with a hood, which abounds With fuch acrid matter that no infects penetrate it. In Helleborus, hele- bore, 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 nec- tary is imagined to be like the neck and body of a bird, and the two pe- tals flanding upon each fide co reprefent wings ; whence its name of co- lumbine, as if refemblrng a neft of young pigeons fluttering whilft their parent feeds them. The importance of the nectary in the economy of ve- getation, is explained at large in the notes on part the firft. Many infects are provided with a long and pliant probofcis, for the pur- pofe of acquiring this grateful food, as a variety of bees, moths, and but- terflies ; but the Sphinx Convolvuli, or unicorn moth, is filrnilhed with the moft remarkable probofcis in this climate. It carries it rolled up in con- centric circles under its chin, and occafionally extends it to above three inches in length. This trunk confifts of joints and mufcles, and feems to have more verfatile movements than the trunk of the elephant ; and near its termination is fplit into two capillary tubes. The excellence of this con- trivance for robbing the flowers of their honey, keeps this beautiful infect i'at and bulky, though it flies only in the evening, when the flowers have clofed their petals, and are thence more difficult of accefs; and, at the fame time, the brilliant colours of the moth contribute to its fafcty, by making it miftaken by the late fleeping birds for the flower it refts on. Befides thefe, there is a curious contrivance attending the Ophrys, com- monly called the Bee-orchis, and the Fly-orchis, with fome kinds of the Delphinium, called Bee-larkfpurs, to preferve their honey; in thefe the nectary and petals referable, in form and colour, the infects which plunder them; and thus it may be fuppofed, they often efcape thefe hourly robbers, by having the appearance of being pre-occupied. See note on Rubia, and Conferva Polymorpha. Draba. \. 250. Alpina. Alpine Whitlow-gtafs. One female and fix males. Four of thefe males ftand above the other two; whence the name of the clafs " four powers." I have obfcrved in fever al plants of this clafs, CANTO I. LOVES OF THE PLANTS. 27 Her pendant eyry icy cav^s furround, Where erft Volcanos mined the rocky ground. Pleafed round the Fair four rival Lords afcend The fhaggy fteeps, two menial youths attend. High in the fetting ray the beauty ftands, 255 And her tall fhadow waves on diftant lands, Oh ! ftay, bright habitant of air, alight, Ambitious VISCA, from thy angel-flight! * Scorning the fordid foil, aloft (he fprings, Shakes her white plume, and claps her golden wings; 260 High o'er the fields of boundlefs ether roves, And feeks amid the clouds her foaring loves ! StretchM on her mofly couch, in tracklefs deeps, Queen of the coral groves, ZOSTER A ileeps; that the two lower males arife, in a few days after the opening of the flower, to the fame height as the other four, not being mature as foon as the higher ones. See note on Gloriofa. All the plants of this clafs pof- fefs fimilar virtues; they are termed acrid and antifcorbutic in their taw ftate, as muftard, watercrefs; Avhtn cultivated and boiled, they become a mild wholefome food, as cabbage, turnip. There was fromerly a volcano x>n the Peake of Tenerif, which hecame extinct about the year 1684. Phil. Tranf. In many excavations of the mountain, much below the fummit, there is now found abundance of ice at all feafons. Tench's Expedition to Botany-Bay, p. 12. Are thefe con- gelations in confequence of the daily folution of the hoar-froft, which is produced on the fummit during the night ?- Vlfcum. \. 258. Mifletoe. Two houfes. This plant never grows upon the ground; the foliage is yellow, and the berries milk-white: the berries are fo vifcous as to ferve for bird-lime ; and when they fall, adhere to the branches of the tree on which the plant grows, and ftrikc root into its bark, or are carried to diftant trees by birds. The Tillandfia, or wild pine, grows on other trees, like the Mifletoe, but takes little or no nourifliment from them, having large buckets in its leaves to colled: and retain the rain- water. See note on Dypfacus. The mofles, which grow on the bark of trees, take much nourifliment from them; hence it is obferved, that trees which are annually cleared from mofs by a bruih, grow nearly twice as faft. (Phil. Tianf.) In the cyder countries the peafants brulh their apple-trees annually. Zofera. 1. 264. Grafs-wrack. Clafs, Feminine Males. Order, many Males. It grows at the bottom of the fea, and, rifing to the furface when in flower, covers many leagues; and is driven, at length, to the (hore. During its time of floating on the fea, numberlefs animals live on the under 1 furface of it ; and, being fpecifically lighter than the fea-water, or being re- pelled by it, have legs placed, as it were, on their backs, for the purpofe fiS BOTANIC GARDEN. PART II. The filvery fea-weed matted round her bed, 265 And diftant furges murmuring o'er her head. High in the flood her azure dome afcends, The cryftal arch on cryftal columns bends; Roof'd with tranflucent fhell the turrets blaze, And far in ocean dart their colour'd rays; 270 O'er the white floor fucceflive Shadows move, As rife and break the ruffled waves above. Around the nymph her mermaid-trains repair, And wave with orient pearl her radiant hair; With rapid fins (he cleaves the watery way, 275 Shoots like a iilver meteor up to day ; Sounds a loud conch, convokes a fcaly band, Her fea-born lovers, and afcends the ftrand. E'en round the pole the flames of Love afpire, And icy bofoms feel the fecret fire ! 280 Cradled in fnow, and fann'd by ar6lic air, Shines, gentle BAROMETZ ! thy golden hair; of walking under it, as the Scyllcea. See Barbut's Genera Vermium. It i'eems neceffary that the marriages of plants fliould be celebrated in the open air, either becaufe the powder of the anther, or the mucilage on the ftigma, or the refervoir of honey, might receive injury from the water. Air. Needham obferved, that in the ripe duft of every flower, examined by the microfcope., fome veficles are perceived, from which a fluid had efcaped; ;ind that thole which ftill retain it, explode if they be wetted, like an eolo- pile fuddenly expofed to a ftrong heat. Thefe observations have been ve- rified by Spalhnzani and others. Hence rainy feafons make a fcarcity of grain, or hinder its fecundity, by burfting the pollen before it arrives at the inoifl ftigma of the flower. Spallanzani's Differtations, v. xi. p. 321. Thus the flowers of the male Vallifneria are produced under water, and, when ripe, detach themfelvcs from the plant, and, rifirsg to the furface, are v.'afted by the air to the female flowers. See Vallifneria. Baromdz. 1. 282. Polypodium Barometz. Tartarian Lamb. Clandef- tine Marriage. This fpccies of Fern is a native of China, with a decumbent root, thick, and every where covered with the mod loft and denle wool, jntenfely yellow. Liu. Spec. Plant. This curious ftem is fometimes pufhed out of the ground in its horizontal iituation, by fomc of the inferior branches of the root, fo as to give it fome refeinblanee to a Lamb {landing on four legs; and has been faid to deftroy all other plants in its vicinity. Sir Hans Sloane defcribes it under the name of Tartarian Lamb, and has given a print of it. Phiiof. Tranf. abridged, v. xi. p. 646. but thinks fome art had been ufcd to give it an animal appear- ance. Dr. Hunter, in his edition of the Terra of Evelyn, has given a more curious print of it;, much refembling a fheep. The down isufed in India ex- ttrually for Hopping haemorrhages, and is culled golden mofs. CANTO I. LOVES OF THE PLANTS. 29 Rooted in earth each cloven hoof defcends, And round and round her flexile neck (he bends ; Crops the grey coral mofs, and hoary thyme, 285 Or laps with rofy tongue the melting rime ; Eyes with mute tendernefs her diftant dam, Or feems to bleat, a Vegetable Lamb. So, warm and buoyant in his oily mail, Gambols on feas of ice the unwieldy Whale ; 290 Wide-waving fins round floating iflands urge His bulk gigantic through the troubled furge ; With hideous yawn the flying fhoals he feeks, Or clafps with fringe of horn his mafly cheeks ; Lifts o'er the tolling wave his noftrils bare, 295 And fpouts pellucid columns into air; The filvery arches catch the fetting beams, And tranfient rainbows tremble o'er the ftreams. Weak with nice fenfe, the chafte MIMOSA (lands, From each rude touch withdraws her timid hands; 300 The thick downy clothing of fome vegetables feems defigned to protect them from the injuries of cold, like the wool of animals. Thofe bodies, which are bad conductors of electricity, are alfo bad conductors of heat, as glafs, wax, air. Hence, either of the two former of thefe may be melted by the flame of a blow-pipe very near the fingers which hold it, without burn- ing them ; and the laft, by being confined on the furface of animal bodies, in the interftices of their fur or wool, prevents the efcape of their natural warmth; to which fhould be added, that the hairs themfeives are imperfeCt conductors. The fat or oil of whales, and other northern animals, feems de- figned for the fame purpofe of preventing the too fudden efcape of the heat of the body in cold climates. Snow proteCts vegetables which are covered by it from cold, both becaufe it is a bad conductor of heat itfelf, and con- tains much air in its pores. If a piece of camphor be immerfed in a fnow* ball, except one extremity of it, on fetting fire to this, as the fnow melts, the water becomes abforbed into the furrounding fnow by capillary attraction ; on thb account, when living animals are buried in fnow, they are not moif- tened by it ; but the cavity enlarges as the fnow diffolves, affording them both a dry and warm habitation. Mimofa. 1. 399. The fenfitive plant. Of the clafs Polygamy, one houfe. Naturalifts have not explained the immediate caufe of the collapfing of the ienfitive plant; the leaves meet and clofe in the night during the fleep of the plant, or when expofed to much cold in the day-time, in the fame manner as when they are affected by external violence, folding their upper furfaces to- gether, and in part over each other, like fcales or tiles, fo as to expofe as lit- tle of the upper furface as may be to the air ; but do not, indeed, collapfe quite fo far, fince I have found, when touched in the night during their fleep, jo BOTANIC GARDEN. PART IL Oft as light clouds o'er-pafs the Summer-glade, Alarm'd (he trembles at the moving (hade; And feels, alive through all her tender form, The whifper'd murmurs of the gathering ftorm; Shuts her fweet eye-lids to approaching night, 305. And hails with frefhen'd charms the rifmg light. Veil'd, with gay decency and modeft pride, Slow to the mofque (lie moves an eaftern bride ;. There her foft vows unceafmg love record, Queen of the bright feraglio of her Lord. 310 So finks or rifes with the changeful hour The liquid filver in its glafiy tower. So turns the needle to the pole it loves, With fine librations quivering as it moves. Ail wan and fhivering in the leaflefs glade 315 The fad ANEMONE reclined her head; Grief on her cheeks had paled the rofeate hue, And her fweet eye-lids dropp'd with pearly dew. " See from bright regions, borne on odorous gales, " The Swallow, herald of the fummer, fails; 320 they fall ftill further; efpecially when touched on the foot-ftalks between the ftems and the leaflets, which ieems to be their moft fenfitive or irritable part. Now, as their fituation after being expofed to external violence re- fembles their fleep, but with a greater degree of collapfe, may it not be ow- ing to a numbnefs or paralyfis confequent to too violent irritation, like the faintings of animals from pain or fatigue? I kept a fenfitive plant in a dark room till fome hours after day-break: its leaves and leaf-ftalks were collapfed as in its moft profound fleep, and on expofing it to the light, above twenty minutes paffed before the plant was thoroughly awake and had quite expand- ed itfelf. During the night the upper or fmoother furfaces of the leaves arc appreffed together ; this would feem to fhew that the office of this furface of the leaf was to expofe the fluids of the plant to the light as well as to the air. See note on Helianthus. Many flowers clofe up their petals during the night. See note on vegetable refpiration in Part I. Anemone. 1. 316. Many males, many females. Pliny fays this flower never opens its petals but when the wind blows; whence its name; it has properly no calix, but two or three fets of petals, three in each fet, which are folded over the ftamens and piflil in a fmgular and beautiful manner, and differs alfo from ranunculus in not having a melliferous pore on the claw of each petal. The Sivalloiv. \. 320. There is a wonderful conformity between the ve- getation of fome plants, and the arrival of certain birds of paflage. Linnzeus eblerves, that the wood anemone blows in Sweden on the arrival of the CANTO 1. LOVES OF THE PLANTS. 31 " Breathe, gentle AIR ! from cherub-lips impart *' Thy balmy influence to my anguifh'd heart ; " Thou, whofe foft voice calls forth the tender blooms, " Whofe pencil paints them, and whofe breath perfumes; ' O chafe the Fiend of Froft, with leaden mace, 325 " Who feals in death-like fleep my haplefs race ; " Melt his hard heart, releafe his iron hand, w And give my ivory petals to expand. " So may each bud, that decks the brow of fpring, " Shed all its incenfe on thy wafting wing!" 330 To her fond prayer propitious Zephyr yields, Sweeps on his fliding fhell through azure fields, fwallow ; and the marfli mary-gold, Caltha, when the cuckoo fmgs. Near the fame coincidence was obferved in England by Stillingfleet. The word Coccux in Greek fignifies both a young fig and a cuckoo, which is fuppofed to have arifen from the coincidence of their appearance in Greece. Perhaps a fimilar coincidence of appearance in fome part of Alia gave occafion to the ftory of the love of the rofe and nightingale, fo much celebrated by the eaftern poets. See Dianthus. The times, however, of the appearance of vegetables in the fpring feem occafionally to be influenced by their ac- quired habits, as well as by their fenfibility to heat; for the roots of pota- toes, onions, &c. will germinate with much lefs heat in the fpring than in the autumn; as is eafily obfervable where thefe roots are ftored for ufe; and hence malt is beft made in the fpring. ad. The grains and roots brought from more fouthern latitudes germinate here fooner than thofe which arc brought from more northern ones, owing to their acquired habits. Fordycc on Agriculture. 3d. It was obferved by one of the fcholars of Linnxus, that the apple-trees fent from hence to New-England bloffomed for a few years too early for that climate, and bore no fruit; but afterwards learnt to accommodate themfelves to their new fituation. (Kalm's Travels.) 4th. The parts of animals become more fenfible to heat after having been previoufly expofed to cold, as our hands glow on coming into the houfe after having held fnow in them: this feems to happen to vegetables; for vines in grape- houfes, which have been expofed to the winter's cold, will become forwarder and more vigorous than thofe which have been kept during the winter in the houfe. (Kennedy on Gardening.) This accounts for the very rapid ve- getation in the northern latitudes after the folution of the fnows. The increafe of the irritability of plants in refped; to heat, after having been previoufly expofed to cold, is further illuftrated by an experiment of Dr. Walker's. He cut apertures into a birch-tree at different heights ; and on the a6th of March fome of thefe apertures bled, or oozed with the fap- juice, when the thermometer was at 39 ; which fume apertures did not bleed on the 1 3th of March, when the thermometer was at 44. The reafon of this, I apprehend, was, becaufe, on the night of the ajth the thermometer was as low as 34; whereas, on the night of the 1 2th it was at 41; though the ingenious author afcribes it to another caufe. Tranf. of the Royal Soc. of Edinburgh, vol. i. p. 19. 3 a BOTANIC GARDEN. PART II. O'er her fair manfion waves his whifpering Wand, And gives her ivory petals to expand ; Gives with new life her filial train to rife, 335 And hail with kindling fmiles the genial fkies. So {nines the Nymph in beauty's bluiliing pride, When Zephyr wafts her deep calaili afide: Tears with rude kifs her bofom's gauzy veil, And flings the fluttering kerchief to the gale. 340 So bright, the folding canopy undrawn, Glides the gilt Landau o'er the velvet lawn, Of beaux and belies difplays the glittering throng, And foft airs fan them, as they roll along. Where frowning Snowden bends his dizzy brow 345 O'er Conway, liftening to the furge below ; Retiring LICHEN climbs the topmoft (lone, And drinks the aerial folitude alone. Bright (hine the ftars, unnumber'd, o'er her head, And the cold moon-beam gilds her flinty bed ; 350 While round the rifted rocks hoarfe whirlwinds breathe, And dark with thunder fail the clouds beneath. The fteepy path her plighted fwain purfues, And tracks her light fteps o'er the imprinted dews; Delighted Hymen gives his torch to blaze, 355 Winds round the craggs, and lights the mazy ways; Sheds o'er their fecret vows his influence chafte, And decks with rofes the admiring wafte. High in the front of heaven wtien Sirius glares, And o'er Britannia fhakes his fiery hairs : 360 When no foft fhower defcends, no dew diftills, Her wave- worn channels dry, and mute her rills ; Lichen. 1. 347. Calcareum. Liver-wort. Clandeftine Marriage. This plant is the firft that vegetates on naked rocks, covering them with a kind of tnpeftry, and draws its nourifhment, perhaps, chiefly from the air; after it perifh.es, earth enough is left for other moffes to root themlelves; and after fbmeages, a foil is produced fufficient for the growth of more fucculent and large vegetables. In this manner, perhaps, the whole earth has been gra- dually covered with vegetation, after it was raifed out of the primeval ocean by fubterraneous fires. ANTO I. LOVES OF THE PLANTS. 33 When droops the fickening herb, the bloflbm fades, And parch'd eartli gapes beneath the withering glades ; With languid ftep fair DYPSACA retreats, 365 " Fall, gentle dews!" the fainting nymph repeats, Seeks the low dell, and in the fultry fliade Invokes, in vain, the Naiads to her aid. s Four fylvan youths in cryftal goblets bear The untafted treafure to the grateful fair; 37 Pleafed, from their hands with modeft grace fhe fips* And the cool wave reflects her coral lips. With nice feleclion modeft RUBIA blends Her vermil dyes, and o'er the cauldron bends; Dypfacus. 1. 365. Teafel. One female and four males. There is a cup around every joint of the item of this plant, which contains from a fpoonfui tolialf a pint of wa^er; and ferves both for the nutriment of the plant in dry feafons, and to^revent infects from creeping up to devour its feed. Sec Silene. The Tiflandfia, or wild pine of the Weft-Indies, has every leaf terminated near the ftalk 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 furnifhed with leaves, which, like the wild pine and Banana, hold water; and thence afford necefiary refrelhment to travel- lers in hot countries. Nepenthes has. a bucket, for the fame purpofe, at the end of every leaf. Burm. Zeyl. 42. 17. Rubla. 1. 373. 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 ufual food alone, their bones will confift of concentric circles of white and red. Belchier. Phil. Tranf.'i736. Animals fed with madder, for the purpofe of thefe experi- ments, were found, upon difleclion, to have thinner gall. Comment, de rebus. Lipfiae. This circumflance is worth farther attention. The colour- ing materials of vegetables, like thofe which ferve the purpofe of tanning, varnifhing, and the various medicinal purpofes, do not feem eflential to the life of the plant ; but feem given it as a defence againft the depredations of infeds, or other animals, to whom thefe materials are naufeous or deleteri- ous. The colours of infects, and many fmaller animals, contribute to con- ceal 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, arc coloured like them; fmall birds, which frequent hedges, have greenifli backs like the leaves, and light coloured bellies like the Iky, and are hence lefs vifible to the hawk, who paffes under them or over them. Thofe birds which are much amongft flowers, as the goldfinch (Fringjlla Cr.rduelis), are furnilhed with vivid colours. The lark, partridge, hare, are the colour of dry vegetables, or earth on which they reft. And frogs vary their colour with the mud of the ftreams which they frequent; and thofe which live on trees are green. Filh, which are generally fufpended in water, and fwallows, PART II. E 34 BOTANIC GARDEN, PART IL Warm, mid the rifing fteam, the Beauty glows, 375 As blumes in a mift the dewy rofe. With chemic art four favour'd youths aloof Stain the white fleece, or ftretch the tinted woof; O'er Age's cheek the warmth of youth diffufe, Or deck the pale-eyed nymph in rofeate hues. 380 So when MEDEA to exulting Greece From plunder**) COLCHIS bore the golden fleece; On the loud fhore a magic pile fhe rais'd, The cauldron bubbled, and the faggots blaz'd $ Pleafed, on the boiling wave old .^SON fwims, 385 And feels new vigour flretch his fwelling limbs ; Through his thrill'd nerves forgotten ardors dart, And warmer eddies circle round his heart; With fofter fires his kindling eye-balls glow, And darker trefles wanton round his brow. 390 As dafh the waves on India's breezy flrand, Her rlufh'd cheek prefs'd upon her lily hand, VALLISNER fits, up-turns her tearful eyes, Calls her loft lover, and upbraids the fkies ; which are generally fufpended in zir, have their tucks the colour of the dif- tant ground, and their hellies of the fky. In the colder climates many of thefe become white during the exiftence of the fnows. Hence there is ap- parent defign in the colours of animals, whilft thofe of vegetables feem con- iequent to the other properties of the materials which poffefs them. Pleafed, on the boiling ivave. 1. 385. The ftory of JEfon becoming young, from the medicated bath of Medea, feems to have been intended to teach the efficacy of warm bathing in retarding the progrefs of old age. The words relaxation and bracing, which are generally thought expreffive of the effects of warm and cold bathing, are mechanical terms, properly applied to drums or firings; but are only metaphors when applied to the effects of cold or warm bathing on animal bodies. The immediate caufe of old age feems to refide in the inirritability of the finer veffels, or parts of our fyf- tem; hence thefe ceafe to act, andcollapfe, or become horny or bony. The warm bath is peculiarly adapted to prevent thefe circumftances by its in- creafing our irritability, and by moiftening and foftening the fkin, and the extremities of the finer veffels, which terminate in it. To thofe who arc paft the meridian of life, and have dry (kins, and begin to be emaciated, the warm bath, for half an hour twice a week, I believe to be eminently lerviceable in retarding the advances of age. Valllfnerla. \. 393. This extraordinary plant is of the clafs Two Houfes. It is found in the Eait-Tndies, in Norway, and various parts of Italy. Lin, Spec. Plant. They have their roots at the bottom of the Rhone; the flower.'* CANTO I. LOVES OF THE PLANTS. 35 For him me breathes the filent figh, forlorn, 395 Each fetting day ; for him each rifing morn. " Bright orbs, that light yon high etherial plain, " Or bathe your radiant trefles in the main ; " Pale moon, that filver'ft o'er night's fable brow; " For ye were witnefs to his parting vow ! 400 " Ye (helving rocks, dark waves, and founding (here, " Ye echoed fweet the tender words he fwore ! "' Can ftars or feas the fails of love retain ? " O guide my wanderer to my arms again !" Her buoyant fkiff intrepid ULVA guides, 405 And feeks her Lord amid the tracklefs tides ; of the female plant float on the furface of the water, and are furnifhed with an elaftic fpiral {talk, which extends, or contracts, as the water rifes and .falls. This rife or fall, from the rapid defcent of the river, and the moun- tain 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 foon as their farina, or duft, is mature, they detach themfelves from the plant, and rife to the furface, continue to flourish, and are wafted by the air, or borne by the currents to the female flowers. In thfis refembling thofe tribes of in- fects, where the "males at certain feafons acquire wings, but net the females, as ants, Coccus, Lampyris, Phalaena, Brumata, Lichanella. Thefe male flowers are in fuch numbers, though very minute, as frequently to cover the furface of the river to confiderable extent. See Families of Plants, tranflated from Linnaeus, p. 677. Ulva. 1. 405. Clandeftine Marriage. This kind of fea-weed is buoyed up by bladders of air, which are formed in t>he duplicatures of its leaves, and forms immenfe floating fields of vegetation ; the young ones, branching out from the larger ones, and borne on fimilar little air-veffels. It is alfo found in the warm baths of Patavia; where the leaves are formed into curi- ous cells or labyrinths, for the purpofe of floating on the water. See ulva labyrinthi-formis Lin. Spec. Plant. The air contained in thefe cells was found by Dr. Prieftley to be fometimes purer than common air, and fome- times lefs pure ; the air-bladders of fifli feem to be fimilar organs, and ferve to render them buoyant in the water. In fome of thefe, as in the Cod and Haddock, a red membrane, confifting of a great number of leaves or dupli- catures, is found within the air-bag, which probably fecretes this air from the blood c^the animal. (Monro. Phyfiol. of Fifh, p. 28.) To determine whether this air, when firfl feparated from the blood of the animal or plant, be dephlogifticated air, is worthy inquiry. The bladder-fena (Colutea), and bladder-nut (Staphylsea), have their feed-vcffels diftended with air; the Ketmia has the upper joint of the ftem immediately under the receptacle of the flower, much diftended with air : thefe feem to be analogous to the air- veflel at the broad end of the egg, and may, probably, become lefs pure as the feed ripens: fome, which I tried, had the purity of the furrounding at- mofphere. The air at the broad end of the egg is probably an organ ferv- ing the purpofe of refpiration to the young chick ; fome of whofe veffels arc 3 6 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART II. Her fee-ret vows the Cyprian Queen approves, And hovering Halcyons guard her infant-loves ; Each in his floating cradle, round they throng, And dimpling Ocean bears the fleet along. 4 IG Thus o'er the waves, which gently bend and fwell, Fair GALATEA fteers her filver fliell ; Her playful Dolphins ftretch the filken rein, Hear her fweet voice, and glide along the main. As round the wild meandering coaft flie moves 415 By gufhing rills, rude cliffs, and nodding groves; Each by her pine, the Wood-nymphs wave their locks, &nd wondering Naiads peep amid the rocks ; Pleafed trains of Mermaids rife from coral cells ; Admiring Tritons found their twifted {hells ; 420 CharnVd o'er the car purfuing Cupids fweep, Their fnow- white pinions twinkling in the deep; And, as the luftre of her eye fhe turns, Soft fighs the Gale, and amorous Ocean burns. On DOVE'S green brink the fair TREMELLA flood, 425 And view'd her playful image in the flood ; fpread upon it like a placenta, or permeate it. Many are of opinion that even the placenta of the human foetus, and cotyledons of quadrupeds, arc refpiratory organs rather than nutritious ones. The air in the hollow ftems of grafles, and of fome umbelliferous plants, bears analogy to the air in the quills, and in fome of the bones of birds ; fup- plying the place of the pith, which flirivels up after it has performed its ofiice of protruding the young ftem or feather. Some of thefe cavities of the bones are faid to communicate with the lungs in birds. Phil. Tranf. The air-bladders of fiih are nicely adapted to their intended purpofe; for though they render them buoyant near the furface, without the labour of ufmg their fins,- yet, when they reft at greater depths, they are no incon- venience, as the increafed preffure of the water condenies the air which they contain, into lefs fpace. Thus, if a cork or bladder of air was immerfed a very great depth in the ocean, it Mfould be fo much compreffed, as to become fpecifically as heavy as the water, and would remain there. It is probable the unfortunate Mr. Day, who was drowned in a diving-fhip of his own conftru&ion, mifcarried from not attending to this circumftance: it is pro- bable the quantity of air he took down with him, if he defcended much lower than he expected, was condenfed into fo fmall a fpace as not to render the fliip buoyant when he endeavoured to afcend. Tremella. 1. 435. Clandefline marriage. I have frequently obferved fun- guffes of this Genus on old rails, and on the ground, to become a tranfpa- rent jelly, after they had been frozen in autumnal mornings; which is a cu- rious property,' and difllnguifhes them from fome other vegetable mucilage* CANTO I. LOVES OF THE PLANTS. 37 To each rude rock, lone dell, and echoing grove, Sung the fweet forrows of her fecret love. " Oh, ftay ! return!" along the founding fhore Cry'd the fad Naiads, llie return'd no more ! 43$ Now girt with clouds the fullen Evening frown'd, And withering Eurus fwept along the ground ; The mifty moon withdrew her horned light, And funk with Hefper in the Ikirt of night ; No dim electric flreams, (the northern dawn) 435 With meek effulgence quiver'd o'er the lawn; No ftar benignant {hot one tranfient ray To guide or light the wanderer on her way. Round the dark craggs the murmuring whirlwinds blow, Woods groan above, and waters roar below ; 440 As o'er the fteeps with paufmg foot fhe moves, The pitying Dryads ihriek amid their groves. She flies fhe flops fhe pants (he looks behind, And hears a demon howl in every wind, As the bleak blaft unfurls her fluttering veft, 445 Cold beats the fnow upon her fhuddering breaft \ for I have obferved that the pafle made by boiling wheat-flour in water, ceafes to be adhefive after having been frozen. I fufpeded that the Tremella Noftoc, or ftar-jelly, alfo had been thus produced; but have fmce been well informed, that the Tremella Noftoc is a mucilage voided by Herons after they have eaten frogs; hence it has the appearance of having been prefled through a hole ; and limbs of frogs are faid fometimes to be found amongft it : it is always feen upon plains, or by the fides of water, places which Herons generally frequent. Some of the funguffes are fo acrid, that a drop of their juice blifters the tongue; others intoxicate thofe who eat them. The Oftiacks, in Siberia, ufe them for the latter purpofe ; one fungus of the fpecies Agaricus Mufca- rum, eaten raw, or the decoction of three of them, produces intoxication for 12 or 1 6 hours. Hiftoryof Ruffia, vol. i. Nichols. 1780. As all acrid plants become lefs fo, if expofed to a boiling heat, it is probable the com- mon muihroom may fometimes difagree from being not fufficiently ftewed. The OiHacks blifler their {kin by a fungus found on Birch-trees; and ufe the Agaricus officin. for Soap. Ib. There was a difpute whether the fungufles fhould be claffed in the animal or vegetable department. Their animal tafte in cookery, and their animal fmell when burnt, together with their tendency to putrefadion, infomuch that the Phallus impudicus has gained the name of ftink-horn ; and, laftly, their growing and continuing healthy without light, as the Licoperdon tu- ber or truffle, and the fungus vinofus or mucor in dark cellars, and the ci- culent mufhrobms on beds covered thick with ftraw, would feem to fliew that they approach towards the animals, or make a kind of ifthmus, con- ceding the two m'ghty kingdoms of animal and of vegetable nature. | BOTANIC GARDEN, PART II Through her numb'd limbs the chill fenfations dart, And the keen ice-bolt trembles at her heart. " I fink, I fall ! oh, help me, help !" me cries, Her ftiflrening tongue the unfinifhed found denies ; 450 Tear after tear adown her cheek fucceeds, And pearls of ice beftrew the glittering meads; Congealing mows her lingering feet lurround, Arreft her flight, and root her to the ground ; With fuppliant arms me pours the filent prayer ; 455 Her fuppliant arms hang cfyftal in the air ; Pellucid films her fhivering neck o'erfpread, Seal her mute lips, and filver o'er her head ; Veil her pale bofom, glaze her lifted hands, And, mrined in ice, the beauteous ftatue ftands. 460 DOVE'S azure nymphs, on each revolving year, For fair TREMELLA med the tender tear ; With rum-wove crowns in fad proceflion move, And found the forrowing fhell to haplefs love." Here paufed the Musi:, acrofs the darken'd pole 465 Sail the dim clouds, the echoing thunders roll ; The trembling Wood-nymphs, as the tempefl lowers, Lead the gay Goddefs to their inmoft bowers ; Hang the mute lyre, the laurel made beneath, And round her temples bind the myrtle wreath. 470 Now the light fwallow, with her airy brood, Skims the green meadow, and the dimpled flood ; Loud fhrieks the lone thrum, from his leaflefs thorn, Th' alarmed beetle founds his bugle horn ; Each pendant fpider winds with ringers fine 475 His ravel'd clue, and climbs along the line ; Gay Gnomes in glittering circles ftand aloof, Beneath a fpreading mumroom's fretted roof; Swift bees, returning, feek their waxen cells, And Sylphs cling, quivering, in the lily's bells. 480 Through the ftill air defcend the genial mowers, And pearly rain-drops deck the laughing flowers. INTERLUDE I. Bookseller. I OUR verses, Mr. Botanist, consist of jiurc descriji~ tion; 1 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 rne, what is the essential difference be- tween Poetry and Prose? is it solely the melody or measure of the Janguage ? 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 Shake- speare, is left wounded on the field, after the loss of the battle, and his friend says to him, " Q, could you but fly!" what can be more sublime than this 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 beau- tiful 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 dis^ tinction 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 ob- jects are more distinct than those derived from the objects of our other senses, the words expressive of these ideas belonging to vi- sion, make up the principal part of poetic language. That is, 40 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART II. the Poet writes principally to the eye, the Prose writer uses more abstracted terms. Mr. Pope has written a bad verse in the Wind- sor 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 thnece prosaic. But change this line thus: " And Kennet swift, where silver Graylings filay," 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, " Ger- many 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 ener- vated by superfluity of poetic ornament; which quantity of orna- ment would have been agreeable in a poem, where much orna- ment is expected. B. Is, then, the office of Poetry only to amuse? P. The Muses are young Ladies; we expect to see them dres- sed ; 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, Haley'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, in- deed, 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 INTERLUDE I. 41 mdistinct, and therefore does not strike us so 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 Shakespeare: " She never told her love; But let Concealment, like a worm i* th' bud, Feed on her damask cheek." Bat" 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 manage- able 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 Wade, 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 thence view them without astonishment; as the figures of the heathen mythology, PART II. F 4 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART it 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 dis- taste from unnatural images, unless we are otherwise so much in- terested in the contemplation of them as not to perceive their im- probability. 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 1 i, 1786, that " the higher styles of paint- ing, 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 as really passing before them." And he then accuses Mr. Fielding of bad judgment, when he at- tempts to compliment Mr. Garrick in one of his novels, by in- troducing 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 wak- ing 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 suf- fer 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 complete 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 irrita- tions of external objects, and cannot, therefore, be contrasted with our sensations. On this account, though we are affected with a va- riety of passions in our dreams, as anger, love, joy, yet we never experience surprize. For surprize is only produced when any ex- ternal 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 com- INTERLUDE I. 43 plete sleep. Hence, as the trains of our ideas are passing in our imaginations in dreams, we cannot compare them with our pre- vious knowledge of things, as we do in our waking hours; for this is a voluntary exertion, and thus we cannot perceive their in- congruity. Thus we are deprived, in sleep, of the only two means by which we can distinguish the trains of ideas passing in our ima- ginations, from those excited by our sensations; and are led by their vivacity to believe them to belong to the latter. For the vi- vacity 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 compar- ing them with our previous knowledge of things, as in reasoning upon them. - t 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 complete 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 re- spect 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 a reverie, and continue in it longer, than one who possessed more knowledge of the real nature ot 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 bring- ing these distinctly before the eye, so as to produce (as above- mentioned) the ideal presence of the object, in which the great Shakespeare particularly excells. B. Then it is not of any consequence whether the representa* tions correspond with nature? 44 BOTANIC GARMN. PART II. P. Not if they so much interest the reader or spectator as to induce the reverie above described. Nature may be setn in the market-place, or at the card-table; but we expect something more than this in the play-house or picture-room. The farther the artist recedes from nature, the greater novelty he is likely to pro- duce; 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 doc- trine, by recollecting over in your mind the works of three of our celebrated artists. Sir Joshua Reynolds has introduced sub- limity 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 coun- try. 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 Shakespeare, who excells in all these together, so far captivates the spectator, as to make him unmind- ful of every kind of violation of time, place, or existence. As, at the first appearance of the Gnost of Hamlet, " his ear must be dull as the fat weed which roots itself on Lethe's brink," who can attend to the improbability 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 ma- chinery difficult and cumbersome to manage ? P. Just so, we should be shocked at the apparent improbabili- ties. As in the gardens of a Sicilian nobleman, described in Mr. Brydone's and in Mr. Swinburne's travels, there are said to be six hundred statues of imaginary monsters, which so disgust the spec- tators, 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 '_ ' BOTANIC GARDEN, LOVES OF THE PLANTS, CANTO II. the Goddefs ftrikes the golden lyre, And tunes to wilder notes the warbling wire ; With foft fufpended ftep Attention moves, And Silence hovers o'er the liftening groves ; Orb within orb the charmed audience throng, And me green vault reverberates the fong. " Breathe foft, ye Gales !" the fair CARL IN A cries, *' Bear on broad wings your Votrefs to the fkies. Carllna. 1. 7. Carline Thiftle. Of the clafs Confederate Males. The feeds of this and of many other plants of the fame clafs are furnifhed with a plume, by which admirable mechanifm they perform long aerial journeys, icroffing lakes and deferts, and are thus diffeminated far from the original plant, and have much the appearance of a Shuttlecock as they fly. The wings are of different conftruclion, fome being like a divergent tuft of hairs, others are branched like feathers, fome are elevated from the crown of the feed by a flender foot-ftalk, which gives them a very elegant appearance, others fit immediately on the crown of the feed. Nature has many other curious vegetable contrivances for the difperfion of feeds: fee note on Helianthus, But perhaps none of them has more the appearance of defign than the admirable apparatus of Tillandfia for thispur- pofe. This plant grows on the branches of trees, like the mifktoe, and never on the ground; the feeds are furnifhed with many long threads on their crowns; which, as they are driven forwards by the winds, wrap round the arms of the trees, and thus hold them faft till they vegetate. This is very analogous to the migration of Spiders on the goffamer, who are faid to attach themfelves to the end of a long thread, and rife thus to the tops of trees or buildings, as the accide-ntal breezes carry them. 46 BOTANIC GARDEN, PART II. " How fweetly mutable yon orient hues, " As Morn's fair hand her opening rofes ftrews; 10 " How bright, when Iris, blending many a ray, " Binds in embroider'd wreath the brow of Day ; " Soft, when the pendant Moon with luflres pale " O'er heaven's blue arch unfurls her milky veil ; " While from the north long threads of filver light 15 " Dart on fwift {buttles o'er the tiflued night ! " Breathe foft, ye Zephyrs ! hear my fervent fighs, " Bear on broad wings your Votrefs to the fkies !" Plume over plume in long divergent lines On whale-bone ribs the fair Mechanic joins ; 20 Inlays with eider down the lilken firings, And weaves in wide expanfe Dasdaliail wings ; Round her bold fons the waving pennons binds, And walks with angel-flep upon the winds. So on the fhorelefs air the intrepid Gaul 25 Launch'd the vail concave of his buoyant ball.- Journeying on high, the filken caftle glides Bright as a meteor through the azure tides ; O'er towns, and towers, and temples, wins its way,. Or mounts fublime, and gilds the vault of day. 30 Silent with upturn'd eyes unbreathing crowds Purfue the floating wonder to the clouds ; And, flufh'd with tranfport or benumb'd with fear, Watch, as it rifes, the diminiih'd fphere. Now lefs and lefs ! and now a fpeck is feen ! 35 And now the fleeting rack obtrudes between ! With bended knees, railed arms, and fuppliant brow, To every fhrine with mingled cries they vow. " Save Him, ye Saints! who o'er the good prefide; " Bear Him, ye Winds ! ye Stars benignant ! guide." 40 - The calm Philofopher in ether fails, Views broader ftars, and breathes in purer gales ; Sees, like a map, in many a waving line, Round Earth's blue plains her lucid waters (nine; Sees at his feet the forky lightnings glow, 45 And hears innocuous thunders roar below CANTO II. LOVES OF THE PLANTS, 47 Rife, great MONGOLFIER ! urge thy venturous flight High o'er,the Moon's pale ice-refle&ed light; High o'er the pearly Star, whofe beamy horn Hangs in the eaft, gay harbinger of morn ; 50 Leave the red eye of Mars on rapid wing, Jove's filver guards, and Saturn's cryftal ring; Leave the fair beams, which, iffuing from afar, Play with new luftres round the Georgian ftar ; Shun with ftrong oars the Sun's attra&ive throne, 55 The fparkling zodiac, and the milky zone ; Where headlong Comets, with increafmg force, Through other fyflems bend their blazing courfe. For thee Caffiope her chair withdraws, For thee the Bear retracts his fhaggy paws ; 60 High o'er the North thy golden orb (hall roll, And blaze eternal round the wondering pole. So Argo, rifing from the fouthern main, Lights with new ftars the blue etherial plain ; With favouring beams the mariner protects, 65 And the bold courfe, which firft it fteer'd, directs. Inventrefs of the Woof, fair LIN A flings The flying fhtittle through the dancing firings; Inlays the broider'd weft with flowery dyes, Quick beat the reeds, the pedals fall and rife; 70 Slow from the beam the lengths of warp unwind, And dance and nod the mafly weights behind. Taught by her labours, from the fertile foil Immortal Is is clothed the banks of Nile; For thee the Bear. I. 60. Tibi jam brachia contrahit ardens Scorpius. Virg. Georg. 1. r 34. A new ftar appeared in Caffiope's chair in 1572. Herfchel's Conftru&ion of the Heavens. Phil. Tranf. vol. Ixxv. p. 266. Linum. 1. 67. Flax. Five males and five females. It was fir ft found on the banks of the Nile. The Linum Lufitanicum, or Portugal flax, has ten males : fee the note on Curcuma. Ifis was faid to invent fpinning and weav- ing: mankind before that time were clothed with the Ikios of animals. The fable of Arachne was to compliment this new art of fpinning and wear- ing, fuppofed to iurpafs in finenefs the web of the Spider. 48 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART II. And fair ARACHNE with her rival loom 75 Found undeferved a melancholy doom. Five Sifter-nymphs with dewy fingers twine The beamy flax, and ftretch the fibre-line ; Quick eddying threads from rapid fpindles reel, Or whirl with beaten foot the dizzy wheel. 80 Charm'cl round the bufy Fair^zW fhepherds prefs, Praife the nice texture of their fnowy drefs, Admire the Artifts, and the art approve, And tell with honey'd words the tale of love. So now, where Derwent rolls his dufky floods 8$ Through vaulted mountains, and a night of woods, The Nymph, GOSSYPIA, treads the velvet fod, And warms with rofy fmiles the watery God j His ponderous oars to flender fpindles turns, And pours o'er mafly wheels his foamy urns; 90 With playful charms her hoary lover wins, And wields his trident, while the Monarch fpins. GoJJypia. 1. 87. Goffypium. The cotton plant. On the river Derwent, near Matlock, in Derbyfhire, Sir RICHARD AH.IC.WRIGHT has erected his 1 cu- rious and magnificent machinery for fpinning cotton, which had been in vain attempted by many ingenious artifts before him. The cotton-wool is firft picked from the pods and feeds by women. It is then carded by cylin- drical cards, which move againft each other, with different velocities. It is taken from thefe by an iron-band or comb, which has a motion fimilar to that of fcratching, and takes the wool off the cards longitudinally in refpecfc to the fibres or ilaple, producing a continued line loofely cohering, called the Rove or Roving. This Rove, yet very loofely twifted, is then received or drawn into a ivhirling canrjier, and is rolled by the centrifugal force in fpiral lines within it ; being yet too tender for the fpindle. It is then palled between two pairs of rollers ; the fecond pair moving fafter than the firft elongate the thread with greater equality than can be done by the hand; and is then twifted on fpoles or bobbinr,. The great fertility of the Cotton-plant in thefe fine flexile threads, while thofe from Flax, Hemp, and Nettles, or from the bark of the Mulberry- tree, require a previous putrefaction of the parenchymatous fubftance, and much mechanical labour, and afterwards bleaching, renders this plant of great importance to the world. And fince Sir Richard Arkwright's inge- nious machine has not only greatly abbreviated and fimplified the labour and art of carding and fpinning the Cotton-wool, but performs both thefe cir- cumftances better than can be done by hand, it is probable, that the clothing of this fmall feed will become the principal clothing of mankind ; though animal wool and filk may be preferable in colder climates, as they are more imperfect conductors of heat, and are thence a warmer clothing. CANTO II. LOVES OF THE PLANTS. 49 Firft with nice eye emerging Naiads cull From leathery pods the vegetable wool ; With wiry teeth revolving cards releafe 9$ The tangled knots, and fmooih the ravell'd fleece; Next moves the iron-hand with fingers fine, Combs the wide card, and forms the eternal line ; Slow, with foft lips, the whirling Can acquires The tender fkeins, and wraps in rifing fpires; 100 With quicken'd pace fuccejjive rollers move, And thefe retain, and thofe extend the rove ; Then fly the fpoles, the rapid axles glow, And flowly circumvolves the labouring wheel below. PAPYRA, throned upon the banks of Nile, 105 Spread her fmooth leaf, and waved her iilver ftyle. The ftoried pyramid, the laurel'd buft, The trophy'd arch had crumbled into duft ; Emerging Naiads. 1. 93. " " earn circum Mileila vellera Nymph* Carpebant, hyali faturo fucata colore. Virg. Georg: IV. 334. Cyperus. Papyrus. 1. 105. Three males, one female. The leaf of this .lant was firft uied for paper, whence the word paper ; and leaf, or folium, lor a fold of a book. Afterwards the bark of a fpecies of mulberry was ufed; whence liber fignifies a book, and the bark of a tree. Before the in- vention of letters mankind may be faid to have been perpetually in their in- fancy, as the arts of one age or country generally died with their inventors. Whence arofe the policy, which ftill continues in Indoftan, of obliging the fon to praclife the profeflion of his father. After the difcovery of letters, the fa&$ of Aftronomy and Chemiftry became recorded in written language, though the ancient hieroglyphic characters for the planets and metals conti- nue in ufe at this day. The antiquity of the invention of mufic, of aftrono- mical obfervations, and the manufacture of Gold and Iron, are recorded in Scripture. About twenty letters, ten cyphers, and feven crotchets, reprefent by their numerous combinations all our ideas and fenfations! the mufical characters are probably arrived at their perfection, unlefs emphafis, and tone, and fwell could be exprefled, as well as note and time. Charles the Twelfth of Sweden had a defign to have introduced a numeration by fquares, inftead of by decimation, which might have ferved the purpofes of philofophy better than the prefent mode, which is faid to be of Arabic invention. The Al- phabet is yet in a very imperfect ftate; perhaps feventeen letters could ex- prefs all the iimple founds in the European languages. In China they have not yet learned to divide their words into fyllables, and are thence neceflitat- cd to employ many thouiand characters; it is faid above eighty thoufand. It is to be wifhed, in this ingenious age, that the European nations would accord to reform our alphabet. PART II. G 5 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART IL V The facred fymbol, and the epic fong, (Unknown the character, forgot the tongue,) 1 10 With each unconquer'd chief, or fainted maid, Sunk undiftinguifh'd in Oblivion's fhade. Sad o'er the fcatter'd ruins Genius figh'd, And infant Arts but learn'd to lifp, and died. Till to aftonifli'd realms PAPYRA taught 115 To paint in myftic colours Sound and Thought* With Wifdom's voice to print the page fublime, And mark in adamant the fteps of Time. Three favour'd youths her foft attention fhare, The fond difciples of the fludious Fair, 120 Hear her fweet voice, the golden procefs prove ; Gaze, as they learn; and, as they liflen, love* 'The firft from Alpha to Omega joins The lettered tribes along the level lines ; Weighs with nice ear the vowel, liquid, furd, 125 And breaks in fyllables the volant word. Then forms the next upon the marfhall'd plain, In deepening ranks, his dexterous cypher-train ; And counts, as wheel the decimating bands, The dews of Egypt, or Arabia's fands. 130 And then the third, on four concordant lines, Prints the lone crotchet, and the quaver joins ; Marks the gay trill, the folemn paufe infcribes, And parts with bars the undulating tribes. 134 Pleafed, round her cane- wove throne, the applauding crowd Clapp'd their rude hands, their fwarthy foreheads bow'd; With loud acclaim, " a prefent God!" theycry'd, " A prefent God!" rebellowing fhores reply'd. Then peal'd at intervals, with mingled fwell, The echoing harp, fhrill clarion, horn, and fliell; 140 While Bards ecftatic, bending o'er the lyre, Struck deeper chords, and wing'd the fong with fire. Then mark'd Aftronomers, with keener eyes, The Moon's refulgent journey through the fkies ; Watch'd the fwift Comets urge their blazing cars, 145 And weigh'd the Sun with his revolving Stars. CANTO II. LOVES OF THE PLANTS. $'i High raifed the Chemifts their Hermetic wands, (And changing forms obey'd their waving hands,) Her treafured Gold from Earth's deep chambers tore, Or fufed and harden'd her chalybeate ore. 150 All with bent knee from fair PAPYRA claim, Wove by her hands, the wreath of deathlefs fame. Exulting Genius crown'd his darling child, The young Arts clafp'd her knees, and Virtue fmil'd. So now DELANY forms her mimic bowers, 155 Her paper foliage, and her filken flowers ; Her virgin train the tender fciflfars ply, Vein the green leaf, the purple petal dye: Round wiry ftems the flaxen tendril bends, Mofs creeps below, and waxen fruit impends. 160 Cold Winter views, amid his realms of fnow, DELANY'S vegetable ftatues blow; Smooths his ftern brow, delays his hoary wing, And eyes with wonder all the blooms of fpring. The gentle LAPSANA, NYMPH^A fan> 165 And bright CALENDULA with golden hair, So noiv Delany. 1. 155. Mrs. Delany has finifhed nine hundred and fe- venty accurate and elegant reprefentations of different vegetables, with the parts of their flowers, fructification, &c. according with the claflification of Linnseus, in what fhe terms paper-mofaic. She began this work at the age of 74, when her fight would no longer ferve her to paint, in which fhe much excelled; between her age of 74 and 82, at which time her eyes quite failed her, fhe executed the curious Hortus ficcus above-mentioned, which* I fuppofe contains a greater number of plants than were ever before drawn from the life by any one perfon. Her method confifted 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 fciflars accurately to the natural fize and form, and then pafling them on a dark ground; the effecfl of which is wonderful, and their accuracy lefs liable to fallacy than drawings. She is at this time (1788) in her #9th year, with all the powers of a fine underitanding flill un- impaired. I am informed another very ingenious lady, Mrs. North, is con- ftrudling a fimilar Hortus ficcus, or Paper-garden; which fhe executes on a ground of vellum with fuch elegant tafte and fcientific accuracy, that it can- not fail to become a work of ineftimable value. Lapfana, Nymphtea alba, Calendula. 1. 165. And many other flowers clofe and open their petals at certain hours of the day; and thus constitute what Linna;us calls the Horologe, or Watch of Flora. He enumerates 46 flowers, & BOTANIC GARDEN. PART II. Watch with nice eye the Earth's diurnal way, Marking her folar and fidereal day, Her flow nutation, and her varying clime, And trace with mimic art the march of Time; 170 Round his light foot a magic chain they fling, And count the quick vibrations of his wing. Firft in its brazen cell reluctant rolPd, Bends the dark fpring in many a fteely fold. On fpiral brafs is ftretch'd the wiry thong, 175 Tooth urges tooth, and wheel drives wheel along ; In diamond-eyes the polifh'd axles flow, Smooth flides the hand, the balance pants below. Round the white circlet, in relievo bold, A Serpent twines his fcaly length in gold; 180 And brightly pencil'd on the enamel'd fphere, Live the fair trophies of the patting year. Here Time's huge fingers grafp his giant mace, And dafli proud Superftition from her bafe ; which poffefs this kind of fenfibility. I fhall mention a few of them, With their refpedtive hours of rifing and fetting, as JLinnseus terms them. He divides them firft into meteoric flowers, which lefs accurately obferve the hour of unfolding, but are expanded fooner or later, according to the cloudi- nefs, moifture, or preflure of the atmofphere. ad. Tropical flowers open in the morning and cloie before evening every day ; but the hour of the ex- panding becomes earlier or later, as the length of the day increafes or de- creafes. 3dly. JEquinoflial flowers, which open at a certain and exadt hour of the day, and for the moft part clofe at another determinate hour. Hence the Horologe or Watch of Flora, is formed from numerous plants, of which the following are thofe moft common in this country. Leontodon taraxacum, Dandelion, opens at 5 6, clofes at 8 9. Hieracium pilofella, moufe-ear hawkweed, opens at 8, doles at 2. Sonchus laevis, fmooth Sow- thiftle, at 5 and at 11-7-12. Ladtuca fativa, cultivated Lettice, at 7 and at 10. Tragopogon lutcum- yellow Goats-beard, at 3 5 and at 9 10. Lap- fana, nipplewort, at 5 -6 end at 10 i. Nymphcea alba, white water lily, at 7 and 5. Papaver nudicaule, naked poppy, at 5 and at 7. Hemerocallis fulva, tawny Day-lily, at 5 and at 7 8. Convulvulus, at 5 6. Malva, Mallow, at 9 10, and at I. Arenarea purpurea, purple Sandwort, at 9 10, and ,at,2 3. Anagallis, pimpernel, at 7 8. Portulaca hortenfis, garden Purflain, at 9 10, and at 1 1 12. Dianthus prolifer, proliferous Pink, at 8 and aW. Cichoreum, Succory, at 4 5. Hypochxris, at 6 7, and at 4 5- Crepis, at 4 5, and at 10-. u. Picris, at 4 5, and at 12. Ca- lendula field, at-,9,.and at 3. Calendula African, at 7, and at 3 4. As thefe obfervations were probably made in the botanic gardens at Up- fal, they muft require farther attention to fuit them to our climate. See Stillingfleet's Calendar of Flora. CANTO II. LOVES OF THE PLANTS, 53 Rend her flrong towers and gorgeous fanes, and {"bed 185 The crumbling fragments round her guilty head. There the gay Hours, whom wreaths of rofes deck, Lead their young trains amid the cumberous wreck, And, {lowly purpling o'er the mighty wafte, Plant the fair growths of Science and of Tafte. 190 While each light Moment, as it dances by With feathery foot and pleafure-twinkling eye, Feeds from its baby-hand, with many a kifs, Trie callow neftlings of domeftic Blifs. As yon gay clouds, which canopy the fkies, 195 Change their thin forms, and lofe their lucid dyes ; So the foft bloom of Beauty's vernal charms Fades in our eyes, and withers in our arms. Bright as the filvery plume, or pearly fhell, The fnow-white rofe, or lily's virgin bell, 200 The fair HELLEBORUS attractive {hone, Warm'd every Sage, and every Shepherd won. Round the gay filters prefs the enamour' } d bands, And feek with foft folicitude their hands. Erewhile how chang'd ! in dim fuffufion lies 205 The glance divine, that lighten'd in their eyes ; Cold are thofe lips, where fmiles feductive^Jiung, And the weak accents linger on their tongue ; Each rofeate feature fades to livid green Difguft, with face averted, {huts the fcene. 210 So from his gorgeous throne, which awed the world, The mighty Monarch of Aflyria hurl'd, Hellelarus, 1. 2OI. Many males, many females. The Helleborus niger, or Chriftmas rofe, has a large beautiful white flower,, adorned with a circle of tubular two-lip'd nectaries. After impregnation the flower undergoes a remarkable change, the nectaries drop off, but the white corol remains, and gradually becomes quite green. This curious metamorphofe of the corol, when the nectaries fall off, feems to fhew that the white juices of the corol were before carried to the nectaries, for the purpofe of producing honey: becaufe when thefe ne6taries fall off, no more of the white juice is fecreted in the corol, but it becomes green, and degenerates into a calyx. See note on Lonicera. The nectary of the Tropseolum, garden nafturtium, is a coloured horn growing from the calyx. 54 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART II. SojournM with brutes beneath the midnight ftorra, Changed by avenging Heaven in mind and form. Prone to the earth he bends his brow fuperb, 215 Crops the young floret and the bladed herb ; Lolls his red tongue, and from the reedy fide Of flow Euphrates laps the muddy tide. Long eagle plumes his arching neck invenv Steal round his arms, and clafp his (harpen'd breaft; 220 Dark brinded hairs, in bridling ranks, behind, Rife o'er his back, and ruftle in the wind ; Clothe his lank iides, his (hrivePcl limbs furround, And human hands with talons print the ground. Silent, in fhining troops, the Courtier-throng 225 Purfue their monarch as he crawls along ; E'en Beauty pleads in vain with fmiles and tears, Nor Flattery's felf can pierce his pendant ears. Two Sifter-Nymphs to Ganges' flowery brink Bend their light fteps, the lucid water drink, 230 Wind through the dewy rice, and nodding canes, (As eight black Eunuchs guard the facred plains,) With playful malice watch the fcaly brood, And fhower the inebriate berries on the flood. Stay in your cryftal chambers, filver tribes ! 235 Turn your bright eyes, and fhun the dangerous bribes'; The tramel'd net with lefs deftru&ion fweeps Your curling {hallows, and your azure deeps ; With lefs deceit, the gilded fly beneath, Lurks the fell hook unfeen, to tafte is death ! 240 Dim your flow eyes, and dull your pearly coat, Drunk on the waves your languid forms fhall float, On ufelefs fins in giddy circles play, And Herons and Otters feize you for their prey. Tivo SiJter-Nympljs, 1. 229. Menifpermum. Cocculus. Indian berry. Two houfes, twelve males. In the female flower there are two ftyles and eight filaments without anthers on their fummits; which arc called by Linnasus eunuchs. See the note on Curcuma. The berry intoxicates fifh. Saint An- thony of Padua, when the people refufed to hear him, preached to the fiih, and converted them. Addifon's travels in Italy. . CANTO II. LOVES OF THE PLANTS. $$ So, when the Saint from Padua's gracelefs land 245 In Client anguiih fought the barren ftrand, High on the fhatter'd beech fublime he flood, Still'd with his waving arm the babbling flood; " To Man's dull ear," he cry'd, " I call in vain, " Hear me, ye fcaly tenants of the main! " 250 Misfhapen Seals approach in circling flocks, In dufky mail the Tortoife climbs the rocks, Torpedoes, Sharks, Rays, Porpus, Dolphins, pour Their twinkling fquadrons round the glittering (here; With tangled fins, behind, huge Phocae glide, '255 And Whales and Grampi fwell the diftant tide. Then kneel'd the hoary Seer, to Heav'n addrefs'd His fiery eyes, and fmote his founding bread ; " Blefs ye the Lord," with thundering voice he cry'd, " Blefs ye the Lord!" the bending (hores reply'd; 260 The winds and waters caught the facred word, And mingling echoes fhouted " Blefs the Lord !" The liftening flioals the quick contagion feel, Pant on the floods, inebriate with their zeal, Ope their wide jaws, and bow their (limy heads, 265 And dafh with frantic fins their foamy beds. SophaM on filk, amid her charm-built towers, Her meads of afphodel, and amaranth bowers, Where Sleep and Silence guard the foft abodes, In fullen apathy PAPAVER nods. 270 Papaver. 1. 270. Poppy. Many males, many females. The plants of this clafs are almofl all of them poifonous; the fineft opium is procured by wounding the heads of large poppies with a three-edged knife, and tying mufcle-ftiells to them to catch the drops. In fmall quantities it exhilarates the mind, raifes the paflions, and invigorates the body: in large ones it is fuc- ceeded by intoxication, languor, ftupor and death. It is cuftomary in India for a meffenger to travel above a hundred miles without reft or food, except an appropriated bit of opium for himfelf, and a larger one for his horfe at cer- tain ftages. The emaciated and decrepid appearance, with the ridiculous and idiotic geftures, of the opium-eaters in Conflantinople, is well defcribed in the Memoirs of Baron de Tott. $6 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART IL Faint o'er her couch in fcintillating ftreams Pafs the thin forms of Fancy and of Dreams; Froze hy inchantment on the velvet ground, Fair youths and beauteous ladies glitter round ; On cryftal pedeftals they feem to figh, 275 Bend the meek knee, and lift the imploring eye. And now the Sorcerefs bares her fhrivePd hand, And circles thrice in air her ebon wand ; Flufh'd with new life defcending flatues talk, The pliant marble foftening as they walk; 280 With deeper fobs reviving lovers breathe, Fair bofoms rife and foft hearts pant beneath ; With warmer lips relenting damfels fpeak, And kindling blufhes tinge the Parian cheek ; To viewlefs lutes aerial voices fing, 285 And hovering loves are heard on ruftling wing. She waves her wand again ! frefh horrors feize Their ftirTening limbs, their vital currents freeze; By each cold nymph her marble lover lies, And iron {lumbers feal her glafly eyes. 290 So with his dread Caduceus HERMES led From the dark regions of the imprifon'd dead, Or drove in filent (hoals the lingering train To Night's dull fliore, and PLUTO'S dreary reign. So with her waving pencil CREWE commands 2-95 The realms of Tafte, and Fancy's fairy lands; Calls up with magic voice the fhapes, that fleep In Earth's dark bofom, or unfathom'd deep ; That, flirined in air, on viewlefs wings afpire, Or, blazing, bathe in elemental fire. 300 As with nice touch her plaftic hand (he moves, Rife the fine forms of Beauties, Graces, Loves; Kneel to the fair Inchantrefs, fmile or figh, And fade or flourilh, as (he turns her eye. So iviih her waving pencil. 1. 295. Alluding to the many beautiful painf^ ings by Mifs EMMA CREWZ. II. LOVES OF THE PLANTS, $7 Fair CISTA, rival of the rofy dawn, 305 Call'd her light choir, and trod the dewy lawn :; Haii'd with rude melody the new-born May, As cradled vet in April's lap (he lay. I. " Born in yon blaze of orient iky, " Sweet MAY ! thy radiant form unfold; " Unclofe thy blue voiuptuous eye, " And wave thy ihadowy locks of gold. II. " For thee the fragrant zephyrs blow, " For thee defcends the funny fhower ; " The rills in fofter murmurs flow, " And brighter bloflbms gem the bower. III. " Light Graces drefs*d in flowery wreaths, " And tiptoe Joys their hands combine; " And Love his fweet contagion breathes, " And laughing dances round thy fhrine. 320 IV. " Warm with new life the glittering throngs, " On quivering fin and ruftling wing, " Delighted join their votive fongs, " And hail thee, GODDESS O-F THE SPRING.'* Cljlus labdamferus. 1. 305. Many males, one female. The petals of this beautiful and fragrant flirub, as well as of the CEnothera, tree primrofe, and others, continue expanded but a few hours, falling off about noon, or foon after, in hot weather. The mpft beautiful flowers of the Ca6tus grandiflo- rus (fee Cerea) are of equally Ihort duration, but have their exiftence in the night. And the flowers of the Hibifcus trionum are faid to continue but a fingle hour. The courtfhip between the males and females in thefe flowers might be eafily watched; the males are faid to approach and recede from the females alternately. The flowers of the Hibifcus finenfis, mutable rofe, live in the Weft-Indies, their native climate, but one day; but have this re- markable property, they are white at their firft expanfion, then change to deep red, and become purple as they decay. The gum or refin of rhis fragrant vegetable is collected from extenfive underwoods of it in the Eaft by a fingular contrivance. Long leathern thongs are tied to poles and cords, and drawn over the tops of thefe fhrubs about noon; which thus colledl the duft of the anthers, which adheres to the leather, and is occafionally icraped off. Thus, in fome degree, is the manner imitated, in which the bee collects on his thighs and legs the fame mate- rial for the conftrudlion of his combs. PART II. H 58 BOTANIC GARDEN. PA*T II* O'er the green brinks of Severn's oozy bed, 325 In changeful rings, her fprightly troops {he led ; PAN tripp'd before, where Eudnefs (hades the mead, And blew with glowing lip his fevenfold reed ; Emerging Naiads fwell'd the jocund ftrain, And aped with mimic ftep the dancing train. 330 " I faint, I fall!'* at noon the Beauty cried, *' Weep o'er my tomb, ye Nymphs !" and funk, and died. Thus, when white Winter o'er the mivering clime Drives the ftill mow, or mowers the filver rime; As the lone mepherd o'er the dazzling rocks "335 Prints his fteep ftep, and guides his vagrant flocks; Views the green holly veil'd in net-work nice, Her vermil clutters twinkling in the ice; Admires the lucid vales, and (lumbering floods, Sufpended cataracts, and cryftal woods, 340 Tranfparent towns,, with feas of milk between^ And eyes with tranfport the refulgent fcene : If breaks the funmine o'er the fpangled trees, Or flits on tepid wing the weftern breeze, In liquid dews defcends the tranfient glare 345 And all the glittering pageant melts in air. Where Andes hides his- cloud- wreath'd creft in (now, And roots his bafe on burning fands below ; CINCHONA, faireft of Peruvian maids, To Health's bright Goddefs in the breezy glades, 350 On Quito's temperate plain an altar rear'd, Trill'd the loud hymn, the folemn prayer preferr'd : Each balmy bud me culPd, and honey'd flower, And hung with fragrant wreaths the facred bower; Sevenfold reed. ]. 328. The fevenfold reed, with which Pan is frequently defcribed, feems to indicate, that he was the inventor of the mufical gamut. Cinchona. 1. 349. Peruvian bark-tree. Five males and one female. Se- veral of thefe trees were felled for other purpofes into a lake, when an epi- % demic fever of a very mortal kind prevailed at Loxa, in Peru, and the wood* men accidentally drinking the water, were cured; and thus were discovered the virtues of this famous drug. CANTO II. LOVES OF THE PLANTS. 59 Each pearly fea fhe fearch'd, and fparkling mine, 355 Arid piled their treafures on the gorgeous fhrine ; Her fuppliant voice for fickning Loxa raifed, Sweet breath'd the gale, and bright the cenfor blazed. " Divine HYGEIA ! on thy votaries bend " Thy angel-looks, oh, hear us, and defend ! 360 " While ftreaming o'er the night with baleful glare " The ftar of Autumn rays his mifty hair; " Fierce from his fens the giant AGUE fprings, " And wrapp'd in fogs defcends on vampire wings; " Before, with fliudclering limbs cold Tremor reels, 365 " And Fever's burning noftril dogs his heels ; " Loud claps the grinning Fiend his iron hands, " Stamps with black hoof, and fhouts along the lands; " Withers the damafk cheek, unnerves the ilrong, . ; " And drives with fcorpion-lafh the fhrieking throng. 370 " Oh, Goddefs ! on thy kneeling votaries bend " Thy angel-looks, oh, hear us, and defend!" HYGEIA, leaning from the bleft abodes, The cryftal manfions of the immortal gods, Saw the fad Nymph uplift her dewy eyes, 375 Spread her white arms, and breathe her fervid fighs ; Call'd to her fair aflbciates, Youth and Joy, And fhot all radiant through the glittering fky ; Loofe waved behind her golden train of hair, Her fapphire mantle fwam diffufed in air. 380 O'er the grey matted mofs, and panfied fod, With ftep fublime the glowing Goddefs trodj Gilt with her beamy eye theconfcious fhade, And with her fmile celeftial blefs'd the maid. " Come to my arms," with feraph voice fhe cries, 385 " Thy vows are heard, benignant Nymph! arife; " Where yon afpiring trunks fantaflic wreath " Their mingled roots, and drink the rill beneath, " Yield to the biting axe thy facred wood, 11 And drew the bitter foliage on the flood." 390 In filent homage bow'd the blufliing maid, Five youths athletic haften to her aid, 66 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART IL O'er the fcar'd hills re-echoing ftrokes refound, And headlong forefts thunder on the ground. Round the dark roots, rent bark, and fhatter'd boughs, 39$ From ocherous beds the fwelling fountain flows ; With dreams auftere its widening margin laves, And pours from vale to vale its dufky waves. As the pale fquadrons, bending o'er the brink, View with a figh their alter'd forms, and drink : 406 Slow-ebbin^ life with refluent crimfon breaks o O'er their wan lips, and paints their haggard cheeks ; Through each fine nerve rekindling tranfports dart, Light the quick eye, and fwell the exulting heart. Thus ISRAEL'S heaven-taught chief o'er tracklefs fands 405 Led to the fultry rock his murmuring bands. Bright o'er his brows the forky radiance blazed, And high in air the rod divine He raifed. O Wide yawns the cliff! amid the thirffcy throng Rum the redundant waves, and fhine along; 410 With gourds, and fhellsj and helmets, prefs the bands, Ope their parch'd lips, and fpread their eager hands, Snatch their pale infants to the exuberant {hower, Kneel on the ihatter'd rock, and blefs the Almighty Power. Bolfter'd with down, amid a thoufand wants, 415 rale Dropfy 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, While from his lips the refluent waters ihrink; 420 Again the rifing ilream his bofom laves, And third: confumes him 'mid circumfluent waves. Divine HYGEIA, from the bending iky Defcending, liftens to his piercing cry ; Aflumes bright DIGITALIS' drefs and air, 425 Her ruby cheek, white neck, and raven hair ; Digitalis. 1. 425. Of the clafs Two Powers. Four males, one female. Foxglove. The efFe.fl of this plant in that kind of Dropfy, which is termed anafarca, where the legs and thighs are much fvvelled, attended \\ith great CANTO II. LOVES OF THE PLANTS. 61 Four youths protedl her from the circling throng, And like the Nymph the Goddefs fteps along. O'er Him She waves her fei pent-wreathed wand, Cheers with her voice, and raiies with her hand, 430 Warms with rekindling bloom his vifage wan, And charms the fhapelefs monfter into man. So when Contagion^ with mephitic breath, And wither'd Famine, urged the work of death \ Marfeilles' good Bifhop, London's generous Mayor, 43$ With food and faith, with medicine and with prayer, Raifed the weak head, and ftayed the parting figii, Or with new life relumed the fwimming eye. difficulty of breathing, is truly aftonifhing. in the afcites, accompanied with anafarca, of people paft the meridian of life, it will alfo fometimes fuc- ceed. The method of adminiflering it requires fome caution, as it is liable, in greater dofes, to induce very violent and debiliating ficknefs, which con- tinues one or two days, during which time the dropfical colle&ion, however, difappears. One large fpoonful, or half an ounce, of the following decoc- tion, given twice a day, will generally fucceed in a few days. But in more robuft people, one large fpocnful every two hours, till four fpoonfuls arc taken, or till ficknefs occurs, will evacuate the dropfical fwellings with greater certainty, but is liable to operate more violently. Boil four ounces of the frefh leaves of purple Foxglove (which leaves may be had at all feafons of the year) from two pints of water to twelve ounces; add to the {trained li- quor, while yet warm, three ounces of rectified fpirit of wine. A theory of the effects of this medicine, with many fuccefsful cafes, may be feen in a pamphlet, called, " Experiments on Mucilaginous and Purulent Matter," publifhed by Dr. Darwin in 1780. Sold by Cadell, London. Marfeilles'' good Bijbop. 1. 435. In the year 1 720 and 1722, the Plague made dreadful havock at Marfeilles; at which time the Bifhop was indefa- tigable in the execution of his paftoral office, vifiting, relieving, encourag- ing, and abfolving the fick with extreme tendernefs; and though perpetually cxpofed to the infedtion, like Sir John Lawrence, mentioned below, they both are faid to have eicaped the difeafe. London's generous Mayor. 1. 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 redrefied them; enforced the wifeft regulations then known, and faw them executed. The day after the difeafe was known with certainty to be the Plague, above 40,000 fervants were difmifled, and turned into the ftreets to perifh, for tto one wduld receive them into their houfes; and the villages near Londdn drove them away with pitch-forks and fire-arms. Sir John Lawrence fupported them all, as well as the needy who were fick, at firft by expending his own fortune, till fubfcriptions could be folicited and received from all parts of the nation. Journal of tie Plague-year. Printed for E. Nuttj &c. at the Royal Ex- change, 1722. 6t BOTANIC GARDEN. PART II. And now, PHILANTHROPY ! thy rays divine Dart round the globe from Zembla to the Line; 440 O'er each dark prifon plays the cheering light, Like northern luftres o'er the vault of night. From realm to realm, with crofs or crefcent crown ? d, Where'er Mankind and Mifery are found, O'er burning fands, deep waves, or wilds of fnow, 445 Thy HOWARD, journeying, feeks the houfe of woe. Down many a winding ftep to dungeons dank, Where anguifh wails aloud, and fetters clank ; To caves beftrew'd with many a mouldering bone, , And cells, whofe echoes only learn to groan; 450 Where no kind bars a whifpering friend difclofe, No funbeam enters, and no zephyr blows, HE treads, inemulous of fame or wealth, Profufe of toil and prodigal of health ; With foft afluafive eloquence expands 455 Power's rigid heart, and opes his clenching hands ,- Leads ftern-ey'd Juftice to the dark domains, If not to fever, to relax the chains ; Or guides awaken'd Mercy through the gloom, And {hews the prifon, fifter to the tomb ! 460 Gives to her babes the felf-devoted wife, To her fond hufband liberty and life ! The Spirits of the Good, who bend from high Wide o'er thefe earthly fcenes their partial eye, When firft, array'd in VIRTUE'S pureft robe, 465 They faw her HOWARD traveriing the globe; Saw round his brows her fun-like Glory blaze In arrowy circles of unwearied rays ; Miftook a Mortal for an Angel-Gueft, And afk'd what Seraph-foot the earth impreft. 470 Onward he moves! Difeafe and Death retire, And murmuring Demons hate him, and admire." Here paufed the Goddefs, on HYGEIA'S fhrine Obfequious Gnomes repofe the lyre divine ; CANTO II. LOVES OF THE PLANTS. 63 Defcending Sylphs relax the trembling firings, 475 And catch the rain-drops on their fhadowy wings. And now her vafe a modeft Naiad fills With liquid cryftal from her pebbly rills ; Piles the dry cedar round her filver urn, (Bright climbs the blaze, the crackling faggots burn), 480 Culls the green herb of China's envy'd bowers, In gaudy cups the fteamy treafure pours ; And, fweetly fmiling, on her bended knee Prefents the fragrant quinteflence of Tea. INTERLUDE II. Bookseller. JL HE monsters of your Botanic Garden are as sur- prising as the bulls with brazen feet, and the fire-breathing dra- gons, which guarded the Hesperian fruit ; yet are they not dis- gusting, nor mischievous: and in the manner you have chained them together in your exhibition, they succeed each other amus- ingly 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 sup- pose, 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 parrie, he intro- duces a long string of similies. During this the battle is supposed to continue; and thus the time necessary for the action ^ gained in our imaginations, and a degree of probability produced, w4rich 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 re- sembling feature seems to be, with him, a sufficient excuse for the introduction of this kind of digression. He then proceeds to de- liver some agreeable poetry on this new subject, and thus converts every simiiie into a kind of short episode. B. Then a simiiie 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 PART II, I 66 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART IL veri-similitude as not to awaken him by the violence of improba- bility 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 disa- greeable reverie, as from the nightmare. And from this may be dis- covered the line of boundary between the Tragic and the Horrid ; which line, however, will veer a little this way or thatj according to the prevailing manners of the sge or country, and the pecu- liar association 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 witli disgust. So if characters were brought upon the stage with their limbs disjointed by tor- turing 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 Maying Marsyas alive is a fa- vourite subject with the ancient artists : and the tortures of ex- piring 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 dis- cernment 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 sensa- INTERLUDE II. .. 67 dons. 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 in- teresting delusion with a delight which is not easy to explain. B. Has not this been explained by Lucretius, where he de- scribes a shipwreck, and says, the spectators receive pleasure from feeling themselves safe on land ? and by Akenside, in his beauti- ful 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 re- presentations 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, 1 789, 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 forcibly 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 circum- stances of the drama; and, on that account, quickly permit our- selves to relapse into the delusion ; and thus alternately believe and disbelieve, almost every moment, the existence of the ob- jects represented before us. B. Have those two sovereigns of poetic land, HOMER and SHAKESPEARE, kept their works entirely free from the Horrid? or even yourself, in your third Canto? 68 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART JI. P. The descriptions of the mangled carcases 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 Shakespeare (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 opi- nion I shall submit in silence. THE BOTANIC GARDEN LOVES OF THE PLANTS. CANTO III. _/\.ND now the Goddefs founds her filver fhell, And fhakes with deeper tones the inchanted dell ; Pale, round her graiTy throne, bedew'd with tears, Flit the thin forms of Sorrows, and of Fears ; Soft Sighs, refponiive, whifper to the chords, And Indignations half-unfheath their f words. " Thrice round the grave CIRCLE A prints her tread, And chaunts the numbers which difturb the dead; Circ<ea. 1. 7. Enchanter's Nightfhade. Two males, one female. It was much celebrated in the myfteries of witchcraft, and for the purpofe of railing the devil, as its name imports. It grows amid the mouldering bones and decayed coffins in the ruinous vaults of Sleaford-church, in Lincolnlhire. The fuperftitious ceremonies or hiftories belonging to fomc vegetables have been truly ridiculous: Thus the Druids are faid to have cropped the Aiif- letoe with a golden axe or fickle ; and the Bryony, or Mandrake, was faid to utter a fcream when its root was drawn from the ground; and that the animal which drew it up became difeafed, and foon died : on which ac- count, when it was wanted for the purpofe of medicine, it was ufual to loofen 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 fuppofed to fuffer for the impiety of the action. And even at this day bits of dried toot of Peony are rubbed fmooth, and ftrung, and fold under the name of Anodyne necklaces, and tied round the necks of children, to faciliate the growth of their teeth: add to this, that in Price's Hiftory of Cornwall, a book publifhed 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 laid to bow towards the ore whenever the Conjuror walks over a mine. A very few years ago, in France, and even in England, another kind of divining rod has been ufed to difcover fprings of water in a fimilar manner, and gained fome credit. And in this very year, there were many in France, and fome in England, 70 . BOTANIC GARDEN. PART IL Shakes o'er the holy earth her fable plume, Waves her dread wand, and ftrikes the echoing tomb ! 10 Pale fhoot the ftars acrofs the troubled night, The timorous moon withholds her confcious light ; Shrill fcream the famiuYd bats, and (hivering owls, And loud and long the dog of midnight howls ! Then yawns the burfting ground! two imps obfcene 15 Rife on broad wings, and hail the baleful queen ; Each with dire grin falutes the potent wand, And leads the Sorcerefs with his footy hand ; . ' Onward they glide, where fheds the fickly yew, O'er many a mouldering bone, its nightly dew ; ?Q The ponderous portals of the church unbar, Hoarfe on their hinge the ponderous portals jar ; As through the coloured glafs the moon-beam falls, Huge ihapelefs fpedtres quiver on the walls ; Low murmurs creep along the hollow ground, 25 And to each ftep the pealing ailes refound ; By glimmering lamps, protecting faints among, The fhrines all trembling as they pafs along, O'er the ftill choir with hideous laugh they move, (Fiends yell below, and angels weep above!) 30 Their impious march to God's high altar bend, With feet impure the facred fteps afcend; With wine unblefs'd the holy chalice ftain, Affume the mitre, and the cope profane ; To heaven their eyes in mock devotion throw, 35 And to the crofs with horrid mummery bow; Adjure by mimic rites the powers above, And plight alternate their Satanic love. Avaunt, ye Vulgar ! from her facred groves, With maniac ftep the Pythian LAURA moves ; -40 who underwent an enchantment without any divining rod at all, and believ- ed themfelves to he affeded by an invifible agent, which the Enchanter called Animal Magnetifm ! Laura. I. 40. Prunus. Lauro-cerafus. Twenty males, one female. The Pythian prieftefs is fuppofed to have been made drunk with infufion of lau- rel-leaves when flie delivered her oracles. The intoxication or infpiration CAN-TO III. LOVES OF THE PLANTS. 7* Full of the God her labouring bofom fighs, Foam on her lips, and fury in her eyes, Strong writhe her limbs, her wild diflievelPd hair Starts from her laurel-wreath, and fwims in air. While twenty Priefts the gorgeous (hrine furround, 45 Ciri6lur'd with ephods, and with garlands crown'd, Contending hods and trembling nations wait The firm immutable behefts of Fate; She fpeaks in thunder from her golden throne, With words unwiWd, and wifdom not her own. 50 So on his NIGHTMARE, through the evening fog, Flits the fquab Fiend o'er fen, and lake, and bog ; Seeks fome love-wiider'd Maid with fleep opprefs'd, Alights, and, grinning, fits upon her breaft. Such as of late, amid the murky fky, 55 Was mark'd by FUSE LI'S poetic eye ; Whofe daring tints, with SHAKESPEARE'S happieft grace, Gave to the airy phantom form and place. Back o'er her pillow finks her blufhing head, Her fnow-white limbs hang helplefs from the bed ; 60 While with quick fighs, and fuffocative breath, Her interrupted heart-pulfe fwims in death. Then (hrieks of captur'd towns, and widows' tears, Pale lovers ftretch'd upon their blood-ftain'd biers, The headlong precipice that thwarts her flight, 65 The tracklefs defert, the cold ftarlefs night, And ftern-ey'd Murderer, with his knife behind, In dread fucceflion agonize her mind. , is finely defcribed by Virgil. JEa. lib. vi. The diftilkd water from laurel- leaves is, perhaps, the moft fudden poifon we are acquianted with in this country. 1 have feen about two fpoonfuls of it deftroy a large pointer dog in lefs than ten minutes. In a fmaller dofe it is faid to produce intoxication: on this account there is reafon to believe it ads in the fame manner as opium and vinous fpirit; but that the dofe is not fo well afcertained. Sec note on Tremella. It is ufed in the Ratafie of the diftillers, by which fome dram-drinkers have been fuddenly killed. One pint of water, dHliiled from fourteen pounds of black cherry ftones bruifed, has the fame deleterious effed, deftroying as fuddenly as laurel-water. It is probable Apricot-kernels, Peach-leaves, Walnut-leaves, and whatever pofleffes the kernel-flavour, may kave fimilar qualities. t ^ ?s BOTANIC GARDEN. PART II. O'er her fair limbs convulfive tremors fleet, Start in her hands, and ftruggle in her feet ; 70 In vain to fcream with quivering lips ihe tries, And {trains in palfy'd lids her tremulous eyes ; In vain fhe wills to run, fly, fwim, walk, creep ; The WILL preiides not in the bower of SLEEP. On her fair bofom fits the Demon- Ape 75 Ereft, and balances his bloated ihape ; 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, Defcending FICA dives into the fands; 80 Chamber'd in earth, with cold oblivion lies ; Nor heeds, ye Suitor-train, your amorous fighs; The V/ill prefides not. 1. 74. Sleep confiftsin the abolition of all voluntary power, both over our mufcular motions and our ideas; for we neither walk nor reaion in fleep. But, at the fame time, many of our mufcular motions, and many of our ideas, continue to be excited into adtion in confequence of internal irritations and of internal fenfations; for the heart and arteries con- tinue to beat, and we experience variety of paflions, and even hunger and thirft, in our dreams. Hence I conclude, that our nerves of fenfe are not torpid or inert during fleep; but that they are only precluded from the perception of external obje&s, by their external organs being rendered unfit to tranfmit to them the appulfes of external bodies, during the fufpenfion of the power of volition; thus the eye-lids are clofed in fleep, and, I fuppofe, the tympanum of the ear is not ftretched, becaufe they are deprived of the voluntary exertions of the mulcles appropriated to thefe purpofes; and it is probable fomething limilar happens to the external apparatus of our other organs of fenfe, which may render them unfit for their office of perception during fleep ; for milk put into the mouths of fleeping babes occasions them to fwallow and fuck ; and, if the eye-lid is a little opened in the day-light by the exertions of diflurbed fleep, the perfon dreams of being much dazzled. See firft Interlude. When there arifes in fleep a painful defire to exert the voluntary motions, it is called the Nightmare, or Incubus. When the fleep becomes fo imperfect that fome mufcular motions obey this exertion of defire, people have walked about, and even performed fome domeftic offices in fleep; one of thefe fleep- \valkers I have frequently feen ; once fhe fmelt of a tube-rofe, and fung, and drank a diih of tea in this ftate; her awaking was always attended with prodigious furprize, and even fear : this difeafe had daily periods, and ieemed to be of the epileptic kind. Ficus indica. 1. 80. Indian Fig-tree. Of the clafs Polygamy. This large tree rifes with oppofite branches on all fides, with long egged leaves; each branch emits a flender flexile depending appendage from its fummit, like a cord, which roots into the earth, and rifes again. Sloan. Hill, of Jamaica. Lin. Spec. Plant. See Capri-fkus. CANTO III. LOVES OF THE PLANTS. ^3 Erewhile with renovated beauty blooms, Mounts into air, and moves her leafy plumes. Where HAMPS and MANIFOLD, their cliffs among, 85 Each in his flinty channel winds along ; With lucid lines the dufky moor divides, Hurrying to intermix their fitter tides: Where ftili their filver-bofom'd Nymphs abhor The blood-fmear'd manfion of gigantic THOR, 90 Erft, fares volcanic in the marble womb Of cloud-wrapp'd WETTON raifed the mafly dome; Rocks rear'd on rocks in huge disjointed piles Form the tall turrets, and the lengthen'd ailes ; Broad ponderous piers fuftain the roof, and wide 9$ Branch the vaft rainbow ribs from fide to fide. While from above defcends, in milky ftreams, One fcanty pencil of illuiive beams, Sufpended crags and gaping gulphs illumes, And gilds the horrors of the deepened glooms. IOO Gigantic Thor. 1. 90. Near the village of Wetton, a mile or two above Dove-Dale, near Afhburn, in Derbyfliire, there is a fpacious cavern about the middle of the afcent of the mountain, which ftill retains the name of Thor's houfe; below it is an extenfive and romantic common, where the rivers Hamps and Manifold fink into the earth, and rife again in Ham gardens, the feat of John Port, Efq. about three miles below. Where thefe rivers rife again, there are impreflions refemblimg Filh, which appear to be of Jafper bedded in Lime-ftone. Calcareous Spars, Shells converted into a kind of Agate, corallines in Marble, ores of Lead, Copper, and Zinc, and many ftrata of Flint, or Chert, and of Toadftone, or Lava, abound in this part of the country. The Druids are faid to have offered human facrifices inclofed in wicker idols to Thor. Thurfday had its name from this Deity. The broken appearance of the furface of many parts of this country; with the Swallows, as they are called, or bafons on fome of the mountains, like vol- canic. Craters, where the rain-water finks into the earth; and the numerous large Hones, which feem to have been thrown over the land by volcanic ex- plofions; as well as the great mafles of Toadftone or Lava ; evince the exift- ence of violent earthquakes at fome early period of the world. At this time the channels of thefe fubterraneous rivers feem to have been formed when a long tract of rocks were raifed by the fea flowing in upon the central fires, and thus producing an irrefiftible explofion of fleam; and when thefe rocks again fubfided, their parts did not exaclly corrcfpond, but left a long cavity arched over in this operation of nature. The cavities at CalTleton and Bux- ton, in Derbyfliire, feem to have had a fimilar origin, as well as this cavern termed Thor's houfe. See Mr. Wliitehurft's and Dr. Hutton's Theories of the Earth. PART II. K 74 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART IL Here oft the Naiads, as they chanced to play Near the dread Fane on THOR'S returning day, Saw from red altars dreams of guiltlefs blood Stain their green reed-beds, and pollute their flood ; Heard dying babes in wicker prifons wail> 165 And fhrieks of matrons thrill the affrighted Gale ; While from dark eaves infernal Echoes mock, And Fiends triumphant fliout from every rock ! So ftill the Nymphs emerging lift in air Their fnow- white fhoulders and their azure hair; no Sail with fweet grace the dimpling ftreams along, Liftening the Shepherd's or the Miner's fong ; But, when afar they view the giant-cave, On timorous fins they circle on the wave,' With ftreaming eyes and throbbing hearts recoil, 115 Plunge their fair forms, and dive beneath the foil. Clofed round their heads relu&ant eddies fink, And wider rings fucceflive dafli the brink. Three thoufand fleps in fparry clefts they ftray, Or feek through fullen mines their gloomy way; 120 On beds of Lava fleep in coral cells, Or ligh o'er jafper rifh, and agate (hells. Till, where famed ILAM leads his boiling floods Through flowery meadows and impending woods, Pleafed with light fpring they leave the dreary night> 125 And 'mid circumfluent furges rife to light ; Shake their bright locks, the widening vale purfue, Their fea-green mantles fringed with pearly dew; In playful groups by towering THORP they move, Bound o'er the foaming wears, and rufh into the Dove* 130 With fierce diftracled eye TMPATIENS ftands, Swells her pale cheeks, and brandifhes her hands, Impatient. \. 131. Touch me not. The feed-veflel confifts of one cell with five divifions; each of thefe, when the feed is ripe, on being touched fuddenly folds itfelf into a fpiral form, leaps from the ftalk, and difperfes the feeds to a great diftance by its elafticity. The capfule of the geranium and the beard of wild oats are tvvifted for a fimilar purpofe, and diflodge their feeds on wet days, when the ground is beft fitted to receive them. Hence one of thefe, with its adhering capfule or beard fixed on a {land, ferves the CANTO III. LOVES OF THE PLANTS. 7$ With rage and hate the aftonifh'd groves alarms, And hurls her infants from her frantic arms. So when MED^A left her native foil 135 Unaw'd by danger, unfuhdued by toil ; Her weeping lire and beckoning friends withftood, And launched enamour'd on the boiling flood; One ruddy boy her gentle lips carefs'd, And one fair girl was pillow'd on her breaft; 140 While high in air the golden treafure burns, And Love and Glory guide the prow by turns. But, when Theflalia's inaufpicious plain Received the matron-heroine from the main ; While horns of triumph found, and altars burn, 145 And (homing nations hail their Chief's return; Aghaft, She faw new-deck'd the nuptial bed, And proud CREUSA to the temple led; Saw her in JASON'S mercenary arms Deride her virtues, and infult her charms ;. *5 Saw her dear babes from fame and empire torn, In foreign realms deferted and forlorn ; Her love rejected, and her vengeance braved, By Him her beauties won, her virtues faved. With ftern regard fhe eyed the traitor-king, 155 And felt, Ingratitude ! thy keeneft fting ; purpofe of an hygrometer, twifting itfelf more or lefs according to the moifture of the air. The awn of barley is furnifhed with ftiff points, which, like the teeth of a faw, are all turned towards the point of it; as this long awn lies upon the ground, it extends itfelf in the moift air of night, and pufhes forwards the barley corn, which it adheres to; in the day it fhortens as it dries; and as thefe points prevent it from receding, it draws up its pointed end; and thus, creeping like a worm, will travel many feet from the parent ftem. That very ingenious Mechanic Philofopher, Mr. Edgworth, once made on this principle a wooden automaton ; its back confifted of foft Fir-wood, about an inch fquare and four feet long, made of pieces cut the crofs way in re- fpe6t to the fibres of the wood, and glued together: it had two feet before, and two behind, which fupported the back horizontally ; but were placed with their extremities, which were armed with iharp points of iron, bend- ing backwards. Hence, in moift weather, the back lengthened, and the two foremoft feet were pufhed 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 acrofs the room which it inhabited. . Might not this machine be applied as an Hygrometer to fome meteorological purpofe ? ?6 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART II, * 4 Nor Heaven," fhe cried, " nor Earth, nor Hell can hold " A Heart abandon'd to the thirft of Gold !" Stamp'd with wild foot, and fhook her horrent brow, And call'd the furies from their dens below. 1 60 Slow out of earth, before the feftive crowds, On wheels of fire, amid a night of clouds, Drawn by fierce fiends, arofe a magic car, Received the Queen, and hovering flamed in air. As with raifed hands the fuppliant traitors kneel 165 And fear the vengeance they defer ve to feel, Thrice with parch'd lips her guiltlefs babes (he prefs'd, And thrice fhe clafp'd them to her tortur'd breaft; Awhile with white uplifted eyes flie flood, Then plung'd her trembling poniards in their blood. 170 " Go, kifs your fire! go, {hare the bridal mirth!"' She cry'd, and hurl'd their quivering limbs on earth. Rebellowing thunders rock the marble towers, And red-tongued lightnings flioot their arrowy fliowers ; Earth yawns ! the crashing ruin finks ! o'er all 175 Death with black hands extends his mighty Pall; Their mingling gore the Fiends of Vengeance quaff, And Hell receives them with convulfive laugh. Round the vex'd ifles where fierce tornadoes roar, Or tropic breezes footh the fultry fliore; 180 What time the eve her gauze pellucid fpreads O'er the dim flowers, and veils the mifty meads ; Slow o'er the twilight fands or leafy walks, With gloomy dignity DICTAMNA ftalks; DiSlamnus. 1. 184. Fraxinella. In the ftill evenings of dry feafons this plant emits an inflammable air or gas, and fiaihes on the approach of a can- dle. There are inftances of human creatures who have taken fire fpontane- oufly, and been totally confumed. Phil. Tranf. The odours of many flowers, fo delightful to our fenfe of fmell, as well as the difagreeable fcents of others, are owing to the exhalation of their efiential oils. Thefe effential oils have greater or lefs volatility, and are all inflam- mable; many of them are poifons to us, as thofe of Laurel and Tobacco; others poffefs a narcotic quality, as is evinced by the oil of cloves inftantly relieving flight tooth-achs; from oil of cinnamon relieving the hiccup; and balfam of peru relieving the pain of fome ulcers. They are all deleterious to certain infe&s, and hence their ufe in the vegetable economy being produced CANTO III. LOVES OF THE PLANTS. 77 In fulphurous eddies round the weird dame 185 Plays the light gas, or kindles into flame. If refts the traveller his weary head, Grim MANCINELLA haunts the mofly bed, Brews her black hebenon, and, dealing near, Pours the curft venom in his tortured ear. 190 Wide o'er the mad'ning throng URTICA flings Her barbed {hafts, and darts her poifon'd (lings. in flowers or leaves to protect them from the depredations of their voraci- ous enemies. One of the eflential oils, that of turpentine, is recommended by M. de Thoffe, for the purpofe of deftroying infects which infed both vegetables and animals. Having obferved that the trees were attacked by mul- titudes of fmall infects of different colours (pucins on pucerons), which injur* ed their young branches, he deftroyed them all entirely in the following manner: he put into a bowl a few handfuls of earth, on which he poured a fmall quantity of oil of turpentine ; he then beat the whole together with a fpatula, pouring on it water till it became of the confidence of foup : with this mixture he moiftened the ends of the branches, and both the infedts and their eggs were deftroyed, and other infects kept aloof by the feent of the turpentine. He adds, that he deftroyed the fleas of his puppies by once bathing them in warm water, impregnated with oil of turpentine. Mem; d'Agriculture, An. 1787. Tremeft. Printemp. p. 109. I fprinkled fomc oil of turpentine, by means of a brufti, on fome branches of a nectarine tree, which was covered with the aphis, but it killed both the infect and the branches: a folution of arfenic much diluted did the fame. The fhops of medicine are fupph'ed with refins, balfams, and eflential oils; and the tar and pitch, for mechanical purpofes, are produced from thefe vegetable fe- cretions. Manclnella. \. 1 88. Hyppomane. With the milky juice of this tree the Indians poifon their arrows; the dew-drops, which fall from it, are fo cauf- tic as to blifter the flcin, and produce dangerous ulcers; whence many have found their death by fleeping under its fhade. Variety of noxious plants abound in all countries ; in our own, the deadly nightfhade, henbane, hounds- tongue, and many others, are feen in almoft every high road, untouched by animals. Some have alked, what is the ufe of fuch abundance of poifons? The naufeous or pungent juices of fome vegetables, like the thorns of others, are given them for their defence from the depredations of animals ; hence the thorny plants are, in general, wholefome and agreeable food to grani- vorous animals. See note on Ilex. The flowers or petals of plants are, perhaps, in general, more acrid than their leaves; hence they are much fel- domer eaten by infedts. This feems to have been the ufe of the efiential oil in the vegetable economy, as obferved above, in the notes on Didtamnus and Ilex. The fragrance of plants is thus a part of their defence. Thefe pungent or naufeous juices of vegetables have fupplied the fcience of medi- cine with its principal materials, fuch as purge, vomit, intoxicate, &c. Urtica. 1. 191. Nettle. The fting has a bag at its bafe, and a perfora- tion near its point, exactly like the flings of wafps and the teeth of adders. Hook, Microgr. p. 143. Is the fluid contained in this bag, and prefled through the perforation into the wound made by the point, a cauftic eflen- ;8 BOTANIC GARDEN, PAUT IL And fell LOBELIA'S fuffocating breath Loads the dank pinion of the gale with death. With fear and hate they blafl the affrighted groves, 195 Yet own with tender care their kindred Loves ! So, where PALMIRA 'mid her wafted plains, Her (hatter'd aquedudls, and proftrate fanes, (As the bright orb of breezy midnight pours Long threads of filver through her gaping towers, 200 O'er mouldering tombs, and tottering columns gleams,. And frofts her deferts with difFufive beams), Sad o'er the mighty wreck in filence bends, Lifts her wet eyes, her tremulous hands extends. If from lone cliffs a burfting rill expands 205 Its tranfient courfe, and finks into the fands ; tial oil, or a concentrated vegetable acid ? The vegetable poifons, like the animal ones, produce more fudden and dangerous effects, when inftilled into a wound, than when taken into the ftomach; whence the families of Marfi and Pfilli, in ancient Rome, fucked the poifon, without injury, out of wounds made by vipers, and were fuppofed to be indued with fuperna- tural powers for this purpofe. 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 infufed into a wound. The male flowers of the nettle are feparare from the female, and the anthers are feen, in fair weather, to burft with force, and to difcharge a duft, which hovers about the plant like a cloud. Lobelia. 1. 193. Longiflora. Grows in the Weft-Indies, and fpreads fuch deleterious exhalations around it, that an oppreffion of the breaft is felt on approaching it at many feet diftance, when placed in the corner of a room or hot-houfe. Ingenhouz, Exper. on Air, p. 146. Jacquini hort. bo- tanic. Vindeb. The exhalations from ripe fruit, or withering leaves, are proved much to injure the air in which they are confined; and, it is proba- ble, all thofe vegetables which emit a ftrong fcent may do this in a greater or lefs degree, from the Role to the Lobelia ; whence the unwholefomenefs in living perpetually in fuch an atmolphere of perfume as fome people wear about their hair, or carry in theii handkerchiefs. Either Boerhaave or Dr. Mead have affirmed, they were acquainted with a poifonous fluid whofe vapour would prefently deflroy the perfon who fat near it. And it is well known, that the gas from fermenting liquors, or obtained from lime-ftone, will deftroy animals immerfed in it, as well as the vapour of the Grotto del Cani, near Naples. So, 'where Palmira, 1. 197. Among the ruins of Palmira, which are dif- perfed not only over the plains, but even in the deferts, there is one fingle colonade above 2600 yards long, the bafes of the Corinthian columns of which exceed the height of a man : and yet this row is only a fmall part of the remains of that one edifice. Volney's Travels. CA*TO III. LOVES OF THE PLANTS. 79 O'er the mM rock the fell Hyaena prowls, The Leopard hifles, and the Panther growls ; On quivering wing the famifli'd Vulture fcreams, Dips his dry beak, and fweeps the guihing ftreams; aio With foaming jaws, beneath, and fanguine tongue, Laps the lean Wolf, and pants, and runs along ; Stern (lalks the Lion, on the ruftling brinks Hears the dread Snake, and trembles as he drinks ; Quick darts the fcaly Monfter o'er the plain, 215 Fold, after fold, his undulating train; And bending o'er the lake his crefted brow, Starts at the Crocodile that gapes below. Where feas of glafs with gay reflection fmile Round the green coaft of Java's palmy ifle; 22O A fpacious plain extends its upland fcene, Rocks rife on rocks, and fountains gufli between; Soft zephyrs blow, eternal fummers reign, And fhowers prolific blefs the foil, in vain ! No fpicy nutmeg fcents the vernal gales, 225 Nor towering plantain (hades the mid-day vales; No grafly mantle hides the fable hills, No flowery chaplet crowns the trickling rills ; Nor tufted mofs, nor leathery lichen creeps In ruflet tapeftry o'er the crumbling fteeps. 230 No ftep retreating, on the fand imprefs'd, Invites the vifit of a fecond gueft ; No refluent fin the unpeopled flream divides, No revolant pinion cleaves the airy tides ; Nor handed moles, nor beaked worms return, 235 That mining pafs the irremeable bourn. Fierce in dread filence on the blafted heath Fell UPAS fits, the HYDRA-TREE of death. Upas. 1. 238. There is a poifon-tree in the ifland of Java, which is faid, by its effluvia, to have depopulated the country for iz or 14 miles round the place of its growth. It is called, in the Malayan language, Bohon-Upas; with the juice of it the mod poifonous arrows are prepared; and, to gain this, the condemned criminals are fent to the tree, with proper direction both to get the juice, and to fecure themfelves from the malignant exhala- tions of the tree; and are pardoned if they bring back a certain quantity of 8o BOTANIC GARDEN. PART II. Lo ! from one root, the envenom'd foil below, A thoufand vegetative ferpents grow ; 240 In fhining rays the fcaly monfter fpreads O'er ten fquare leagues his far-diverging heads ; Or in one trunk entwifts his tangled form, Looks o'er the clouds, and hifTes in the ftorm. Steep'd in fell poifon, as his {liarp teeth part, 245 A thoufand tongues in quick vibration dart; Snatch the proud Eagle towering o'er the heath, Or pounce the Lion, as he (talks beneath ; Or drew, as marfhall'd hofts contend in vain, With human fkeletons the whiten'd plain. 250 Chain'd at his root two fcion -demons dwell, Breathe the faint hifs, or try the (hriller yell ; Rife, fluttering in the air on callow wings, And aim at infect-prey their little flings. So Time's ftrong arms with fweeping fcythe erafe 255 Art's cumberous works, and empires, from their bafe: While each young Hour its fickle fine employs, And crops the fweet buds of domeftic joys ! With blufhes bright as morn fair ORCHIS charms, And lulls her infant in her fondling arms ; 260 the poifon. But, by the rcglfters there kept, not one in four are faid to re- turn. Not only animals of all kinds, both quadrupeds, fifli, and birds, but all kinds of vegetables alfo, are deftroyed by the effluvia of the noxions tree; fo that, in a diflricl of 12 or 14 miles round it, the face of the earth is quite barren and rocky, intermixed only with the flceletons of men and animals, affording a fcene of melancholy beyond what poets have defcribed or painters delineated. Two younger trees of its own ipecies are faid to grow near it. See London Magazine for 1784 or 1783. Tranilated from a defcription of the poifon-tree of the ifland of Java, written in Dutch, by N. P. Foerfch. For a further account of it, fee a note at the end of the work. Orcbh. 1. 259. The Orchis morio in the circumftance of the parent-root fhrivelling up and dying, as the young one increafes, is not only analogous to other tuberous or knobby roots, but alfo to fome bulbous roots, as the tulip. The manner of the produ&ion of herbaceous plants from their various pe- rennial roots, feems to want further inveftigation, as their analogy is not yet clearly eftablifhed. 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: the loot, after it has flowered, dies like the orchis-root; for the item of the lafl year's tulip lies on the outfide. CANTO III. LOVES OF THE PLANTS. 8r Soft plays Affeftion round her bofom's throne, And guards his life, forgetful of her own. So wings the wounded deer her headlong flight, Pierced by fome ambuuYd archer of the night, Shoots to the woodlands with her bounding tawn, 265 And drops of blood bedew the confcious lawn ; There, hid in (hades, fhe (huns the cheerful day, Hangs o'er her young, and weeps her life away* So flood Eliza on the wood-crown'd height, O'er Minden's plain, fpe6tatrefs of the fight; 270 Sought with bold eye amid the bloody ftrife Her dearer felf, the partner of her life ; From hill to hill the rufhing h.oft purfued, And view'd his banner, or believed {he view'd. and not in the centre of the bulb ; which, I am informed, does not hap pen in the three or four firft years when .raifed from feed, when it only produces a ftem, and flender leaves without flowering. In the tulip-root diffeded in the early fpring, juft before it begins to ihoot, a perfect flower is feen in its centre ; and between the firft and fecond coat the large next year's bulb is, I believe, produced ; between the fecond and third coat, and between this and the fourth coat, and perhaps further, other lefs and lefs bulbs are vifible, all adjoining to the caudex at the bottom of the mother bulb ; and which, I am told, require as many years before they will flower as the number of the coats with which they are covered. This annual re-produclion of the tulip-root induces fome florifts to believe that tulip- roots never die naturally, as they lofe fo few of them; whereas the hya- cinth-roots, I am informed, will not laft above five or feven years after they have flowered. The hyacinth-root differs from the tulip-root, as the ftem of the laft year's flower is always found in the centre of the root, and the new offsets arife from the caudex below the bulb, but not beneath any of the concen- tric coats of the root, except the external one; hence Mr. Eaton, an inge- nious florift of Derby, to whom I am indebted for moft of the obfervations in this note, concludes, that the hyacinth-root does not perifli annually after it has flowered, like the tulip. Mr. Eaton gave me a tulip-root which had been fet too deep in the earth, and the caudex had elongated itfelf near aa inch, and the new bulb was formed above the old one, and detached from it, inftead of adhering to its fide. See addit. notes to Part I. No. XIV. The caudex of the ranunculus, cultivated by the florifts, lies above the claw-like root; in this the old root or claws die annually, like the tulip and jorchis, and the new claws, which are feen above the old ones, draw down the caudex lower into the earth. The fame is faid to happen to Scabiofa, or Devil's bit, and fome other plants, as valerian and greater plantain; the new fibrous roots rifing round the caudex above the old ones, the inferior end of the root becomes (lumped, as if cut off, after the old fibres are decayed, and the caudex is drawn down into the earth by thefe new roots. See Arum andTulipa. PART II. L Ss BOTANIC GARDEN. PART II> Pleafed with the diftant roar, with quicker tread 275 Faft by his hand one lifping boy flie 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, And Love's warm eddies circle round her heart. 280 Near and more near the intrepid Beauty prefs'd, Saw through the driving finoke his dancing creft ; Saw on his helm, her virgin-hands inwove, Bright ftars of gold, arid myftic knots of love ; Heard the exulting fliout, " they run ! they run !" 285 " Great God !" flie cried, " He's fafe ! the battle's won !" A ball now hiffes through the airy tides, (Some Fury wing'd it, and fome Demon guides !) Parts the fine locks her graceful head that deck, Wounds her fair ear, and finks into her neck ; 290 The red ftream, iffuing from her azure veins, Dyes her white veil, her ivory bofom ftains. "Ah me!'* (lie cried, and, finking on the ground, Kifs'd her dear babes, regardlefs of the wound ; " Oh, ceafe not yet to beat, thou Vital Urn ! 295 " Wait, gufliing Life, oh, wait my Love's return ! " Hoarfe barks the wolf, the vulture fcreams from far ! " The angel, Pity, fhuns the walks of war! " Oh, fpare, ye War-hounds, fpare their tender age ! " On nie, on me," (he cried, " exhauft your rage!" 300 Then with weak arms her weeping babes carefs'd, And, fighing, hid them in her blood-ftain'd veft. 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, 305 Eliza echoes through the canvas walls ; Quick through the murmuring gloom his footfteps tread O'er groaning heaps, the dying and the dead, Vault o'er the plain, and in the tangled woud, I/o ! dead Eliza weltering iii her blood ! 310 CANTO III. LOVES OF THE PLANTS. $3. Soon hears his liftening fon the welcome founds, With open arms and fparkling eyes he bounds :- " Speak low," he cries, and gives his little hand, " Eliza fleeps upon the dew-cold fand; ** Poor weeping babe with bloody ringers prefs'd, 315 " And tried with pouting lips her milklefs bread ; " Alas ! we both with cold and hunger quake " Why do you weep? Mamma will foon awake." u She'll wake no more !" the hopelefs mourner cried, Upturn'd his eyes, and clafp'cl his hands, and figh'd; 320 Stretch'd on the ground awhile entranced he lay, And prefs'd warm kifTes on the lifelefs clay ; And then upfprung with wild convulfive ftart, And all the Father kindled in his heart ; - 324 ** Oh, Heavens," he cried, " my firft rafh vow forgive ! " Thefe bind to earth, for thefe I pray to live!" Round his chill babes he wrapp'd his crimfon veft, And clafp'cl them fobbing to his aching bread. Two Harlot-Nymphs, the fair CUSCUTAS, pleafe With laboyr'd negligence, and ftudied eafe ; 335 Cufcuta. 1. 329. Dodder. Four males, two females. This parafite plant (the feed fp lilting without cotyledons) protrudes a fpiral body, and not endeavouring to root itfelf in the earth, afcends the vegetables in its vicinity, fpirally W. S. E. or contrary to the movement of the fun; and abforbs its nourifhment by veflels apparently inferted into its fupporters. It bears no leaves, except here and there a fcale, very fmall, membranous, and clofe under the branch. Lin. Spec. Plant, edit, a Reichard, vol. i. p. 353. The Rev. T. Martyn, in his elegant letters on botany, adds, that, not content with fupport, where it lays hold, there it draws its nourifhment; and at length, in gratitude for all this, flrangles its entertainer. Let. xv. A con- teft for air and light obtains throughout the whole vegetable world ; fhrubs rife above herbs; and, by precluding the air and light from them, injure or deflroy them; trees fuffocate or incommode fhrubs; the parafite climb- ing plants, as Ivy, Clematis, incommode the taller trees; and other parafites, which exift without having roots on the ground, as Mifletoe, Tillandfia, Epidendrum, and the moffes and fungufes, incommode them all. Some of the plants with voluble ftems afcend other plants fpirally eaft- fouth-weft, as Humulus, Hop, Lonicera, Honey-fuckle, Tamus, black Bry- ony, Helxine. Others turn their fpiral ftems weft-fouth-eaft, as Convolvu- lus, Corn-bind, Phafeolus, Kidney-bean, Bafella, Cynanche, Euphorbia, Eu- patorium. The proximate or final caufes of this difference have not been iijveftigafeed. Other plants are furniftied with tendrils for the purpofc of 84. fcOTANIC GARDEN". PART U, In the meek garb of modeft worth difguifed, The eye averted, and the fmile chaftil'ed, With fly approach they fpread their dangerous charms, And round their victim wind their wiry arms. So by Scamander -when LAOCOON ftood, 335 Where Troy's proud turrets glitter'd in the flood Raifed high his arm, and with prophetic call, To fhrinking realms announced her fated fall; Whirl'd his fierce fpear with more than mortal force, And pierced the thick ribs of the echoing horfe ; 340 Two Serpent-forms incumbent on the main, Lafhing the white waves with redundant train, Arch'd their blue necks, and fliook their towering crefls, And ploughed their foamy way with fpeckled breafts ; Then > darting fierce amid the affrighted throngs, 345 Roird their red eyes, and (hot their forked tongues. Two daring youths to guard the hoary fire, Thwart their dread progrefs, and provoke their ire. Round fire and fons the fcaly monfters roll'd, Ring above ring, in many a tangled fold, 350 Clofe and more clofe their writhing limbs furround, And fix with foamy teeth the envenom'd wound. With brow upturn'd to heaven, the holy Sage In filent agony fuftains their rage ; While each fond youth, in vain, with piercing cries, 355 Bends on the tortured Sire his dying eyes. tlimbing; if the tendril meets with nothing to lay hold of in its firft revolu- tion, it makes another revolution; and fo on till it wraps itfelf quite up like a cork-fcrew ; hence, to a carelefs obferver, it appears to move gradually backwards and forwards, being feen fometimes pointing caftward and feme- times weflward. One of the Indian graffes, Panicum arborefcens, whofc item is no thicker than a goofe-quill rifes as high as the talleft trees in this conteft 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 ufe. I have eaten the tops of white Bryony, Bryonia alba, and found them nearly as grateful as Alparagus, and think this plant might be profitably cultivated as an early garden-vegetable. The Tamus (called black Bryony) was lefs agreeable to the tafte when boiled". See Galanthus. CANTO III. LOVES OF THE PLANTS, 8$ " Drink deep, fweet youths," fedu&ive VrTis cries, The maudlin tear-drop glittering in her eyes ; Green leaves and purple clufters crown her head, And the tall Thyrfus flays her tottering tread. 360 Five haplefs fwains, with foft afTuaiive finiles, The harlot mem.es in her deathful toils ; *' Drink deep," me carols, as me waves in air The mantling goblet, " and forget your care." O'er the dread feaft malignant Chemia fcowls, 365 And mingles poifon in the ne6tar'd howls ; Fell Gout peeps, grinning, through the flimfy fcene, And bloated Dropfy pants behind unfeen ; Wrapp'd in his robe white Lepra hides his {tains, And filerit Frenzy, writhing, bites his chains, So when PROMETHEUS brav'd the Thunderer's ire, Stole from his blazing throne ethereal fire, And, lantern'd in his bread, from realms of day Bore the bright treafure to his Man of clay ; Vit'is. 1. 357. Vine. Five males, one female. The juice of the ripe grape is a nutritive and agreeable food, confifling chiefly of fugar and mu- cilage. The chemical procefs of fermentation converts this fugar into fpi- rit ; converts food into poifon ! And it has thus become the curfe of the Chriftian world, producing more than half of our chronical difeafes; which Mahomet obferved, and forbade the ufe of it to his difciples. The Ara- bians invented diftillation ; and thus, by obtaining the fpirit of fermented liquors in a lefs diluted ftate, added to its deftrucT:ive quality. A theory of the Diabetes and Dropfy, produced by drinking fermented or fpirituous liquors, is explained in a Treatife on the inverted Motions of the Lympha- tic Syftcm, publifhed by Dr. Darwin. Cadel. Prometheus. 1. 371. The ancient ftory of Prometheus, who concealed in his bofom the fire he had ftclen, and afterwards had a vulture perpetually gnawing his liver, affords fo apt an allegory for the effects of drinking fpi rituous liquors, that one Ihould be induced to think the art of diftillation, as well as fome other chemical procefles (fuch as calcining gold), had been known in times of great antiquity, and loft again. The (wallowing drama cannot be better reprefented in hieroglyphic language than by taking fire into one's bofom ; and certain it is, that the general effect: of drinking fer- mented or fpirituous liquors, is an inflamed fchirrous, or paralytic liver, with its various critical or confequential difeafes, as leprous eruptions on the face, gout, dropfy, epilepfy, infanity. It is remarkable, that all the difeafes from drinking fpirituous or fermented liquors are liable to become hereditary, even to the third generation, gradually increafing, jf the caufe be continued, till the family becomes extinct. $6 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART IE High on cold Caucafus by VULCAN bound, 375 The lean impatient Vulture fluttering round, His writhing limbs in vain he twifrs and ftrains TO break or loofe the adamantine chains. The gluttonous bird, exulting in his pangs, Tears his fwoln liver with remorfelefs fangs. 380 The gentle CYCLAMEN, with dewy eye, Breathes o'er her lifelefs babe the parting ligh ; And, bending low to earth, with pious hands Inhumes her dear departed in the fands. " Sweet Nui fling ! withering in thy tender hour, 385 "Oh, fleep," {he cries., " and rife a fairer flower!" So when the Plague o'er London's gafping crowds Shook her dank wing, and fteer'd her murky clouds; When o'er the friendlefs bier no rites were read, No dirge flow-chaunted, and no pall out-fpread; 390 While Death and Night piled up the naked throng, And Silence drove their ebon cars along ; Six lovely daughters, and their father, fwept To the throng'd grave CLEONE faw, and wept; Her tender mind, with meek Religion fraught, 395 Drank, all-refigned, Affliction's bitter draught ; Alive, and liftening to the whiiper'd groan Of others' woes, unconfcious of her own ! One fmiling boy, her laft fweet hope, fhe warms, Hufh'd on her bofom, circled in her arms. 400 Cyclamen. \. 381. Shew-bread, or Show-bread. "When the feeds are ripe, the flalk of the flower gradually twifls itfelf fpirally downwards, till it touches the ground, and, forcibly penetrating the earth, lodges its feeds, xvhich are thought to receive nourifhment from the parent root, as they are faid not to be made to grow in any other fituation. The Trifolium fubterraneum, fubterraneous trefoil, is another plant which buries its feeds, the globular head of the feed penetrating the earth; which, however, in this plant, may be only an attempt to conceal its feeds from the ravages of birds; for there is another trefoil, the Trifolium Globofum, or globular wooly-headed trefoil, which has a curious manner of conceal- ing its feeds ; the lower florets only have corols, and are fertile ; the upper ones wither into a kind of wool, and, forming a head, completely conceal the fertile calyxes. Lin. Spec. Plant, a Reichard. CANTO III. LOVES OF THE PLANTS. fc? Daughter of woe ! ere morn, in vain carefs'd, Clung the <iold babe upon thy milklefs breaft, With feeble cries thy laft fad aid required, StretchM its ftiff limbs, and on thy lap expired ! Long, with wide eye-lids, on her child fhe gazed, 40$ And long to Heaven their tearlefs orbs fhe raifed ; Then with quick foot and throbbing heart fhe found Where Chartreufe open'd deep his holy ground ; Bore her laft treafure through the midnight gloom, And, kneeling, dropp'd it in the mighty tomb; 410 " I follow next !" the frantic mourner faid, And, living, plunged amid the fettering dead. Where vaft Ontario rolls his brinelefs tides, And feeds the tracklefs forefts on his fides, Fair CASSIA, trembling, hears the howling woods, 415 And trufts her tawny children to the floods. Where Chartreufe. 1. 408. During the plague in London, 1665, one pit to receive the dead was dug in the Charter-houfe, 40 feet long, 1 6 feet wide, and about zo feet deep; and in two weeks received 1114 bodies. During this dreadful calamity there were inftances of mothers carrying their own children to thofe public graves, and of people delirious, or in defpair from the lofs of their friends, who threw themfelvcs alive into thefe pits. Jour- nal of the Plague-year in 1665, printed for E. Nutt, Royal Exchange. Roils his brinelefs tides. \. 413. Some philofophers have believed that the continent of America was not raifed out of the great ocean at fo early a .period of time as the other continents. One reafon for this opinion was, becaufe the great lakes, perhaps nearly as large as the Mediterranean Sea, confift of frefh water. And, as the fea-falt feems to have its origin from the deftruclion of vegetable 'and animal bodies, waflied down by rains, and carried by rivers into lakes or feas, it would feem that this fource of fea- falt had not fo long exifted in that country. There is, however, a more fa- tisfadlory way of explaining this circumftance ; which is, that the Ameri- can lakes lie above the level of the ocean, and are hence perpetually defalited by the rivers which run through them; which is not the cafe with the Me- diterranean, into which a current from the main ocean perpetually paffes. CaJ/ia. 1. 415. Ten males, one female. The feeds are black, the ftamens gold-colour. This is one of the American fruits which are annually thrown on the coafts of Norway ; and are frequently in fo recent a ftate as to ve- getate, when properly taken care of. The fruit of the anacardium, cafhew* nut; of cucurbita lagenaria, bottle-gourd; of the mimofa fcandens, co- coons; of the pifcidia crythrina, logwood-tree; and cocoa-nuts, are enu- merated by Dr. Tonning (Amcen. Acad. 149), amongft thefe emigrant feeds. The fad is truly wonderful, and cannot be accounted for but by the exift- ence of under currents in the depths of the ocean ; or from vortexes of wa- ter pafling from one country to another through caverns of the earth, 88 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART II. Cinctured with gold, while ten fond brothers ftand, And guard the beauty on her native land ; Soft breathes the gale, the current gently moves, And bears to Norway's coafts her infanuloves. 420 Sir Hans Sloane has given an account of four Icinds of feeds, which are frequently thrown by the fea upon the coafts of the iflands of the northern parts of Scotland. Phil. Tr'anf. abridged, vol. iii. p. 540. Which feeds are natives of the Weft-Indies, and feem to be brought thither by the Gulph-ftream defcribed below. One of thefe is called, by Sir H. Sloane, Phafeolus maximus perennis, which is often thrown alfo on the coaft of Kerry, in Ireland; another is called, in Jamaica, Horfe-eye-bean ; and a third is called Niker, in Jamaica. He adds, that the Lenticula marina, or Sargoffo, grows on the rocks about Jamaica, is carried by the winds and current towards the coafts of Florida, and thence into the North-American ocean, where it lies very thick on the furface of the fea. Thus a rapid current paffes from the Gulph of Florida to the N. E. along the coaft of North- America, known to feamen by the name of the GUJ.PH- STREAM. A chart of this was publifhed by Dr. Franklin in 1768, from the information principally of Capt. Folger. This was confirmed by the ingenious experiments of Dr. Blagden, publifhed in 1781; who found that the Water of the Gulph-ftream was from fix to eleven degrees warmer than the water of the fea through which it ran; which muft have been occafioned by its being brought from a hotter climate. He afcribes the origin of this current to the power of the trade-winds, which, blowing always in the fame direction, carry the waters of the Atlantic ocean to the weftward, till they are flopped by the oppoiing continent on the weft of the Gulph of Mexico, and are thus accumulated there, and run down the Gulph of Florida. Phil. Tranf. vol. Ixxi. p. 335. Governor Pownal has given an elegant map of this Gulph-ftream, tracing it from, the Gulph of Florida, northward, as far as Cape-Sable, in Nova-Scotia, and then acrofs the Atlantic ocean to the coaft of Africa, between the Ca- nary lilands and Senegal, increafing in breadth, as it runs, till it occupies five or fix degrees of latitude. The Governor likewife afcribes this cur- rent to the force of the trade-winds protruding the waters weftward, till they areoppofed by the continent, and accumulated in the Gulph of Mexico. He very ingenioufly obferves, that a great eddy muft be produced in the Atlantic ocean, between this Gulph-ftream and the wefterly current pro- truded by the tropical winds; and in this eddy are found the immenfe fields of floating vegetables, called Saragofa weeds, and Gulph weeds, and fome light woods, which circulate in thefe vaft eddies, or are occalionally driven out of them by the winds. Hydraulic and Nautical Obfervations, by Go- vernor Pownal, 1787. Other currents are mentioned by the Governor in this ingenious work, as thofe in the Indian Sea, northward of the line, which are afcribed to the influence of the Monfoons. It i$ probable that, in procefs of time, the narrow tracT: of land on the weft of the Gulph of Mexico, may be worn away by this elevation of water dafhing againft it, by which this immenfe current would ceafe toexift, and a wonderful change take place in the Gulph of Mexico and Weft-Indian iflands, by the fubiiding of the fea, which might probably lay all thofe ifland? into one, or join them to the continent. CANTO III. LOVES OF THE PLANTS, 89 So the fad mother, at the moon of night, From bloody Memphis flole her filent flight ; Wrapp'd her dear babe beneath her folded veft, And clafp'd the treafure to her throbbing breaft, With foothing whifpers hufh'd its feeble cry, 42$ Prefs'd the foft kifs, and breath'd the fecret figh. With dauntlefs flep {he feeks the winding fhore, Hears unappall'd the glimmering torrents roar ; With Paper-flags a floating cradle weaves, And hides the fmiling boy in Lotus-leaves; 430 Gives her white bofom to his eager lips, The falt-tears mingling with the milk he dps 5 Waits on the reed-crown'd brink with pious guile, And trulls the fcaly monfters of the Nile. n Erewhile majeftic from his lone abode, 435 Embaflfador of Heaven, the Prophet trod > Wrench'd the red fcourge from proud Oppreflion's hands, And broke, curft Slavery ! thy iron bands. Hark ! heard ye not that piercing cry, Which fhook the waves and rent the fky ? 440 E'en now, e'en now, on yonder Weftern fhores Weeps pale Defpair, and writhing Anguifh roars: E'en now in Afric's groves with hideous yell Fierce SLAVERY ftalks, and flips the dogs of hell; From vale to vale the gathering cries rebound, 445 And fable nations tremble at the found ! YE BANDS OF SENATORS! whofe fuffrage fways Britannia's realms, whom either Ind obeys; Who right the injured, and reward the brave, Stretcii your ftrong arm, for ye have power to fave! 450 Throned in the vaulted heart, his dread refort, Inexorable CONSCIENCE holds his court; With ftill fmall voice the plots of Guilt alarms, Bares his mafk'd brpw, his lifted hand difarms ; But, wrapp'd in night with terrors all his own, 455 He fpeaks in thunder, when the deed is done. PART II. M 90 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART II. Hear him, yc Senates ! hear this truth fublime, *' He, who allows Oppreffion, JJiares the crime" No radiant pearl, which crefted Fortune wears, No gem, that twinkling hangs from Beauty's ears, 460 Not the bright ftars, which Night's blue arch adorn, Nor riling funs that gild the vernal morn, Shine with fuch luftre as the tear that flows Down Virtue's manly cheek for others' woes." Here ceafed the MUSE, and dropp'd her tuneful fhell, 465 Tumultuous woes her panting bofom fwell ; O'er her flufti'd cheek her gauzy veil (he throws, Folds her white arms, and bends her laurel'd brows ; For human guilt awhile the Goddefs fighs, And human forrows dim celeftial eyes. 470 INTERLUDE III. Bookseller. 1 OETRY has been called a sister-art both to Paint- ing and to Music : I wish to know what are the particulars of their relationship? Poet. It has been already observed, that the principal part of the language of poetry consists of those words, which are expres- sive of the ideas, which we originally receive by the organ of sight; and, in this, it nearly, indeed, resembles painting; which can express itself in no other way, but by exciting the ideas or sensa- tions belonging to the sense of vision. But besides this essential similitude in the language of the poetic pen and pencil, these two sisters resemble each other, if I may so say, in many of their habits and manners. The painter, to produce a strong ef- fect, makes a few parts of his picture large, distinct, and luminous, and keeps the remainder in shadow, or even beneath its natural size and colour, to give eminence to the principal figure. This is similar to the common manner of poetic composition, where the subordinate characters are kept down, to elevate and give con- sequence to the hero or heroine of the piece. In the south aile of the cathedral church at Lichfield, there is an ancient monument of a recumbent figure; the head and neck of which lie on a roll of matting, in a kind of niche or cavern in the wall ; and about five feet distant hprizontally, in another opening or cavern in the wall, are seen the feet and ankles, with some folds of garment, lying also on a matt; aad though the in- termediate space is a solid stone-wall, yet the imagination supplies the deficiency, and the whole figure seems to exist before our eyes. Does not this resemble one of the arts both of the painter and the poet? The former often shews a muscular arm amidst a group of figures, or an impassioned face; and, hiding the re- mainder of the body behind other objects, leaves the imagination to complete it. The latter, describing a single feature or attitude in picturesque words, produces before the mind an image of the whole. * BOTANIC GARDEtf. PART II. I remember seeing a print, in which was represented a shrivel- led hand, stretched through an iron grate, in the stone floor of a prison-yard, to reach at a mess of porrage, which affected me with more horrid ideas of the distress of the prisoner in the dun- geon below, than could have been, perhaps, produced by an ex- hibition of the whole person. And, in the following beautiful scenery from the Midsummer-night's Dream, (in which I have taken the liberty to alter the place of a comma,) the description of the swimming step and prominent belly bring the whole figure before our eyes with the distinctness of reality. When we have laugh'd to see the sails conceive^ And grow big-bellied with the wanton wind ; Which she with pretty and with swimming gate, Following her womb, (then rich with my young squire,) Would imitate, and sail upon the land. There is a third sister-feature, which belongs both to the picto- Hal and poetic art ; and that is, the making sentiments and pas- sions visible, as it were, to the spectator : this is done in both arts by describing or pourtraying the effects or changes which those sentiments or passions produce upon the body. At the end of the unaltered play of Lear, there is a beautiful example of poetic painting: the old King is introduced as dying from grief for the loss of Cordelia.: at this crisis, Shakespeare, conceiving the robe of the King to be held together by a clasp, represents him as only saying to an attendant courtier, in a faint voice, * Pray, Sir, undo this button, thank you, Sir," and dies. Thus, by the art of the poet, the oppression at the bosom of the dying King is made visible, not described in words. B. What are the features in which these sister-arts do not re- semble each other ? P. The ingenious Bishop Berkeley, in his Treatise on Vision, a work of great ability, has evinced, that the colours which we see, are only a language suggesting to our minds the ideas of so- lidity and extension, which we had before received by the sense of touch. Thus, when we view the trunk of a tree, our eye can only acquaint us with the colours or shades; and from the previous experience of the sense of touch, these suggest to us the cylindrical form, with the prominent or depressed wrinkles on it. From hence it appears, that there is the strictest analogy between INTERLUDE III. 93 colours and sounds; as they are both but languages, which do not represent their correspondent ideas, but only suggest them to the mind, from the habits or associations of previous experience. It is, therefore, reasonable to conclude, that the more artificial ar- rangements of these two languages, by the poet and the painter, bear a similar analogy. But, in one circumstance, the pen and the pencil differ widely from each other; and that is, the quantity of time which they can include in their respective representations. The former can un- ravel a long series of events, which may constitute the history of days or years ; while the latter can exhibit only the actions of a moment. The poet is happier in describing successive scenes ; the painter in representing stationary ones: both have their ad- vantages. Where the passions are introduced, as the poet, on one hand, has the. power gradually to prepare the mind of his reader by pre- vious climacteric circumstances, the painter, on the other hand, can throw stronger illumination and distinctness on the principal moment or catastrophe of the action $ besides the advantage he has in using an universal language, which can be read in an in- stant of time. Thus, where a great number of figures are all seen together, supporting or contrasting each other, and contribut- ing to explain or aggrandize the principal effect, we view a pic- ture with agreeable surprize, and contemplate it with unceasing admiration. In the representation of the sacrifice of Jephtha's daughter, a print done from a painting of Ant. Coypel, at one glance of the eye we read all the interesting passages of the last act of a well- written tragedy; so much poetry is there condensed into a moment of time. B. Will you now oblige me with an account of the relation- ship between Poetry, and her other sister, Music? P. In the poetry of our language I don't think we are to look ,for any thing analogous to the notes of the gamut: for, except, perhaps, in a few exclamations or interrogations, we are at liberty to raise or sink our voice an octave or two at pleasure, without altering the sense of the words. Hence, if either poetry or prose be read in melodious tones of voice, as is done in recitativo, or in chaunting, it must depend on the speaker, not on the writer: for though words may be selected which are less harsh than others, that is, which have fewer sudden stops, or abrupt consonants amongst the vowels, or with fewer sibilant letters, yet this does 94 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART II. not constitute melody, which consists of agreeable successions of notes referable to the gamut; or harmony, which consists of agreeable combinations of them. If the Chinese language has many words of similar articulation, which yet signify different ideas, when spoken in a higher or lower musical note, as some travellers affirm, it must be capable of much finer effect, in re- spect to the audible part of poetry, than any language we are ac- quainted with. There is, however, another affinity in which poetry and music more nearly resemble each other than has generally been under- stood, and that is in their measure or time. There are but two kinds of time acknowledged in modern music, which are called triple time and common time. The former of these is divided by bars, each bar containing three crotchets, or a proportional num- ber of their subdivisions into quavers and semiquavers. This kind of time is analogous to the measure of our heroic or iambic verse. Thus the two following couplets 'are each of them divided into five bars of triple time, each bar consisting of two crotchets and two quavers; nor can they be divided into bars analogous to common time, without the bars interfering with some of the crotchets, so as to divide them. 3 Soft warbling beaks |. in each bright bios | som move, 4 And vo | cal rosebuds thrill | the inchanted grove. | In these lines there is a quaver and a crotchet alternately in every bar, except in the last, in which the in make two semiqua- vers; the e is supposed, by Grammarians, to be cut off, which any one's ear will readily determine not to be true. 3 Life buds or breathes | from Indus to | the poles, 4 And the | vast surface kind | les, as it rolls. | In these lines there is a quaver and a crotchet alternately in the first bar; a quaver, two crotchets, and a quaver, make the second bar. In the third bar there is a quaver, a crotchet, and a rest after the crotchet, that is, after the word poles, and two quavers begin the next line. The fourth bar consists of quavers and crotchets alternately. In the last bar there is a quaver, and a rest after it, viz. after the word kindles ; and then two quavers and a crotchet. You will clearly perceive the truth of this, if you prick the musical characters above-mentioned under the verses. INTERLUDE III. 95 The common time of musicians is divided into bars, each of which contains four crotchets, or a proportional number of their subdivision into quavers and semiquavers. This kind of musi- cal time is analogous to the daclyle verses of our language, the most popular instances of which are in Mr. Anstie's Bath-Guide. In this kind of verse the bar does not begin till after the first or second syllable; and where the verse is quite complete, and writ- ten by a good ear, these first syllables, added to the last, complete the bar, exactly, in this also, corresponding with many pieces of music : 2 Yet | if one may guess by the | size of his calf, Sir, 4 He | weighs above twenty-three | stone and a half, Sir. 2. Master | Mamozet's head was not | finished so soon, 4 For it | took up the barber a | whole afternoon. In these lines each bar consists of a crotchet, .two quavers, an- other crotchet, and two more quavers; which are equal to four crotchets, and, like many bars of common time in music, may be subdivided into two, in beating time without disturbing the mea- sure. The following verses from Shenstone belong likewise to com- mon time : 2 A | river or a sea | 4 Was to him a dish | of tea, And a king | dom bread and butter. The first and second bars consist each of a crotchet, a quaver, a crotchet, a quaver, a crotchet. The third bar consists of a qua- ver, two crotchets, a quaver, a crotchet. The last bar is not complete without adding the letter A, which begins the first line, and then it consists of a quaver, a crotchet, a quaver, a crotchet, two quavers. It must be observed, that the crotchets in triple time are, in ge- neral, played by musicians slower than those of common time, and hence minuets are generally pricked in triple time, and coun- try dances generally in common time. So the verses above related, which are analogous to triple time, are generally read slower than those analogous to common time; and are thence generally used for 96 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART IL graver compositions. I suppose all the different kinds of verses to be found in our odes, which have any measure at all, might be arranged under one or other of these two musical times ; allowing a note or two sometimes to precede the commencement of the bar, and occasional rests, as in musical compositions: if this was at- tended to by those who set poetry to music, it is probable the sound and sense would oftener coincide. Whether these musical times can be applied to the lyric and heroic verses of the Greek and Latin poets, I do not pretend to determine; certain it is, that the daclyle verse of our language, when it is ended with a double rhime, much resembles the measure of Homer and Vir- gil, except in the length of the lines. B. Then there is no relationship between the other two of these sister-ladies, Painting and Music? P. There is at least a mathematical relationship, or, perhaps, I ought rather to have said, a metaphysical relationship, between them. Sir Isaac Newton has observed, that the breadths of the seven primary colours in the Sun's image, refracted by a prism, are proportional to the seven musical notes of the gamut, or to the intervals of the eight sounds contained in an octave, that is ? proportional to the following numbers : Sol. La. Fa. Sol. La. Mi. Fa. Sol. Red. Orange. Yellow. Green. Blue. Indigo. Violet. ii i i i i i 9 16 10 9 16 16 9 Newton's Optics, Book I. part 2. prop. 3 and 6. Dr. Smith, in his Harmonics, has an explanatory note upon this happy disco- very, as he terms it, of Newton. Sect. 4. Art. 7. From this curious coincidence, it has been proposed to produce a luminous music, consisting of successions or combinations of co- lours, analogous to a tune in respect to the proportions above-men- tioned. This might be performed by a strong light, made by means of Mr. Argand's lamps, passing through coloured glasses, an<d falling on a defined part of a wall, with moveable blinds before them, which might communicate with the keys of a harpsichord, and thus produce, at the same time, visible and audible music in uni- son with each other. The execution of this idea is said, by Mr. Guyot, to have been attempted by Father Caffel, without much success. INTERLUDE III. ty If this should b again attempted, there is another curious co- incidence between sounds and colours, discovered by Dr. Darwin, of Shrewsbury, and explained in a paper on what he calls Ocular Sfieftra, in the Philosophical Transactions, vol. Ixxvi. which might much facilitate the execution of it. In this treatise the Doctor has demonstrated, that we see certain colours, not only with greater ease and distinctness, but with relief and pleasure, after having for some time contemplated other certain colours; as green after red, or red after green; orange after blue, or blue after orange; yellow after violet, or violet after yellow. This, he shews, arises from the ocular speftrum of the colour last viewed coinciding with the irritation of the colour now under contemplation. Now, as the pleasure we receive from the sensation of melodious notes, independent of the previous associations of agreeable ideas with, them, must arise from our hearing some proportions of sounds after others more easily, distinctly, or agreeably ; and as there is a coincidence between the proportions of the primary colours, and the primary sounds, if they may be so called ; he argues, that the same laws must govern the sensations of both. In this circum- stance, therefore, consists the sisterhood of Music and Painting; and hence they claim a right to borrow metaphors from each other; musicians to speak of the brilliancy of sounds, and the light and shade of a concerto ; and painters of the harmony of colours, and the tone of a picture. Thus it is not quite so absurd as was ima- gined, when the blind man asked if the colour scarlet was like the sound of a trumpet. As the coincidence or opposition of these ocular speftra (or colours which remain in the eye after we have, for some time, contemplated a luminous object), are more easily and more accurately ascertained, now their laws have been investigated by Dr. Darwin, than the relitts of evanescent sounds upon the ear, it is to be wished that some ingenious musi- cian would further cultivate this curious field of science: for if visible music can be agreeably produced, it would be more easy to add sentiment to it, by representations of groves and Cupids, and sleeping Nymphs amid the changing colours, than is com- monly done by the words of audible music. B. You mentioned the greater length of the verses of Homer and Virgil. Had not these poets great advantage in the superi- ority of their languages compared to our own ? P. It is probable, that the introduction of philosophy into a country must gradually affect the language of it; as philosophy PART II. N 5 8 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART II. converses in more appropriated and abstracted terms; arid thus, by degrees, eradicates the abundance of metaphor, which is used hi the more early ages of society. Otherwise, though the Greek compound words have more vowels, in proportion to their con- sonants, than the English ones, yet the modes of compounding them are less general, as may be seen by variety of instances given in the preface of the translators, prefixed to the SYSTEM OF VE- GETABLES by the Lichfield Society; which happy property of our own language rendered that translation of Linnaeus as expres- sive and as concise, perhaps more so than the original. And, in one respect, I believe the English language serves the purpose of poetry better than the ancient ones ; I mean in the greater ease of producing personifications; for as our nouns have, in general, no genders affixed to them in prose-compositions, and in the habits of conversation, they become easily personified only by the addition of a masculine or feminine pronoun, as, Pale Melancholy sits, and round her throws A death-like silence, and a dread repose. Pope's Abelard, And, secondly, as most of our nouns have the article a or the prefixed to them in prose-writing and in conversation, they, in ge- neral, become personified even by the omission of these articles; as in the bold figure of Shipwreck in Miss Seward's Elegy on Capt. Cook : But round the steepy rocks and dangerous strand Rolls the white surf, and SHIPWRECK guards the land. Add to this, that if the verses in our heroic poetry be shorter than those of the ancients, our words likewise are shorter; and, in respect to their measure or time, which has erroneously been called melody and harmony, I doubt, from what has been said above, whether we are so much inferior as is generally believed ; since many passages, which have been stolen from ancient poets^ have been translated into our language without losing any thing of the beauty of the versification. The following line, translated from Juvenal by Dr. Johnson, is much superior to the original : Slow rises Worth by Poverty depress'd. INTERLUDE III. 99 The original is as follows : Difficile emergunt, quorum virtutibus obstat Res angusta domi. B. I am glad to hear you acknowledge the thefts of the modern poets from the ancient ones, whose works, I suppose, have been, reckoned lawful plunder in all ages. But have not you borrowed epithets, phrases, and even half a line occasionally, from modern poets ? jP. It may be difficult to mark the exact boundary of what should be termed plagiarism ; where the sentiment and expression are both borrowed without due acknowledgment, there can be no doubt; single words, on the contrary, taken from other au- thors, cannot convict a writer of plagiarism : they are lawful game, wild by nature, the property of all who can capture them; and, perhaps, a few common flowers of speech may be gathered, as we pass over our neighbour's inclosure, without stigmatising us with the title of thieves ; but we. must not, therefore, plunder his culti- vated fruit. The four lines at the end of the plant Upas are imitated from Dr. Young's Night Thoughts. The line in the episode adjoined to Cassia, " The salt tear mingling with the milk he sips," is from an interesting and humane passage in Langhorne's Justice of Peace. There are probably many others, which, if I could re- collect them, should here be acknowledged. As it is, like exo- tic plants, their mixture with the native ones, I hope, adds beauty to my Botanic Garden : and such as it is, Mr. Bookseller, I now leave it to you to desire the Ladies and Gentlemen to walk in ; but, please to apprize them, that, like the spectators at an un- skilful exhibition in some village-barn, I hope they will make Good-humour one of their party; and thus theirselves supply the defects of the representation. THE / BOTANIC GARDEN. > LOVES OF THE PLANTS, CANTO IV, IN OW the broad Sun his golden orb unflirouds, Flames in the weft, and paints the parted clouds; O'er Heaven's wide arch refracted luftres flow, And bend in air the many-colour'd bow. The tuneful Goddefs on the glowing fky j Fix'd in mute ecftafy her gliftening eye ; And then her lute to fweeter tones fhe ftrung, And fwell'd with fofter chords the Paphian fong. Long ailes of Oaks return'd the filver found, And amorous Echoes talk'd along the ground; 10 Pleafed Lichfield liffcen'd from her facred bowers, Bow'd her tall groves, and fhook her (lately towers. " Nymph ! not for thee^the radiant day returns, Nymph ! not for thee the golden folftice burns, Refulgent CERE A ! at the dufky hour 15 She feeks with penfive ftep the mountain-bower, P leafed Lichfield. 1. II. The fcenery defcribed at the beginning of the firft part, or Economy of Vegetation, is taken from a botanic garden about a mile from Lichfield. Ccrea. 1. ij. Ca&us grandiflorus, or Cereus. Twenty males, one female. This flower is a native of Jamaica and Veracrux. It expands a moft ex- quifitely beautiful corol, and emits a moft fragrant odour for a few hours in the night, and then doles to open no more, The flower is nearly a foot in diameter; the infide of the calyx of a fplendid yellow, and the numerous petals of a pure white : it begins to open about feven or eight o'clock in the evening, and clofes before fun-rife in the morning. Martyn's Letters, p. 394. The Ciftus labdaniferus, and many other flowers, lofe their petals after having been a few hours expanded in the day-time; for in thefe plants *o BOTANIC GARDEN. PART II. Bright as the blufh of rifing morn, and warms The dull cold eye of Midnight with her charms. There to the fkies (he lifts her penciled brows, Opes her fair lips, and breathes her virgin vows; 2O Eyes the white zenyth ; counts the funs that roll Their diftant fires, and blaze around the Pole ; Or marks where Jove directs his glittering car O'er Heaven's blue vault, Herfelf a brighter {tar. There as foft Zephyrs fweep with paufing airs 25 Thy fnowy neck, and part thy fhadowy hairs, Sweet Maid of Night ! to Cynthia's fober beams Glows thy warm cheek, thy polifti'd bofom gleams, In crowds around thee gaze the admiring fwains, And guard in filence the enchanted plains ; 30 Drop the flill tear, or breathe the impaffion'd figh, And drink inebriate rapture from thine eye. Thus, when old Needwood's hoary fcenes the Night Paints with blue (hadow, and with milky light; Where MUNDY pour'd, the liftening nymphs among, 35 JLoud to the echoing vales his parting fong ; With meafured ftep the Fairy Sovereign treads, Shakes her high plume, and glitters o'er the meads; Round each green holly leads her fportive train, And little footfteps mark the circled plain; 40 the ftigma is foon impregnated by the numerous anthers : in many flowers t)f the Ciftus labdaniferus, 1 obferved two or three of the flamens were per- petually bent into contact with the piflil. The Nydtanthes, called Arabian Jafmine, is another flower ^ which ex- pands a beautiful corol, and gives out a moft delicate perfume during the night, and not in the day, in its native country, whence its name; botanical philofophers have not yet explained this wonderful property; perhaps the plant fleeps during the day as fome animals do ; and its odoriferous glands (only emit their fragrance during the expanfion of the petals; that is, during its waking hours; the Geranium trifte has the fame property of giving up its fragrance only in the night. The flowers of the Cucurbita lagdnaria are faid to clofe when the fun fhines upon them. In our climate many flowers, as tragopogon, and hibifcus, clofe their flowers before the hottell part of the day comes on; and the flowers of fome fpecies of cucubalus, and Silene, vif- cous campion, are clofed all day; but when the -fun leaves them they expand, and emit a very agreeable fcent; whence fuch plants are termed nodtiflora. Where Mundy. 1. 35. Alluding to an ynpublifhed poem by F. N. C. Mundy, F.fq. on his leaving Needwood^Foreft. See the paffage in the notes at the %nd of this volume. CANTO IV. LOVES OF THE PLANTS. i3 Each haunted rill with filver voices rings, And Night's fweet bird in livelier accents fings. Ere the bright ftar, which leads the morning fky, Hangs o'er the blufhing eaft his diamond eye, The chafte TROP^O leaves her fecret bed ; 45 A faint-like glory trembles round her head ; Eight watchful fwains, along the lawns of night, With amorous fteps purfue the virgin light; O'er her fair form the electric luftre plays, And cold (he moves amid the lambent blaze. ^Q So {nines the glow-fly, when the fun retires, And gems the night-air with phofphoric fires; Thus o'er the marfh aerial lights betray, And charm the unwary wanderer from his way, . 1. 45. Majus. Garden Nafturtion, or greater Indian crefs; Eight males, one female. Mifs E. C. Linnseus firft obferved the Tropaeo- lum Majus to emit fparks or flafhes in the mornings before fun-rife, during the months of June or July, and alfo during the twilight in the evening, but not after total darknefs came on ; thefe fingular fcintillations were fhewn to her father and other philofophers; and Mr. Wilcke, a celebrated ele&ri* cian, believed them to be electric. Lin. Spec. Plantar, p. 490. Swedim A&s for the year 1763. Pulteney's View of Linnaeus, p. 320. Nor is this more wonderful than that the ele<5trk eel and torpedo fhould give voluntary fhocks of ele Aricity ; and in this plant, perhaps, as in thofe animals, it may be a mode of defence, by which it harafles or deftroys the night-flying in- fedls which infeft it ; and probably it may emit the fame fparks during the day, which muft be then invifible. This curious fubjecT: deferves further in- veftigation. See Di&amnus. The ceafing to fhine of this plant after twi- light might induce one to conceive, that it abforbed and emitted light, like the Bolognian Phofphorus, or calcined eyfter-fhells, fo well explained by Mr. B. Wilfon, and by T. B. Beccari. Exper. on Phofphori, by B. Wilfon. Dodfley. The light of the evening, at the fame diftance from noon, is much greater, as I have repeatedly obferved, than the light of the morning: this is owing, I fuppofe, to the phofphoreicent quality of almoft all bodies, in a greater or lei's degree, which thus abforb light during the fun-.fb.ine, and con- tinue to emit it again for fome time afterwards, though not in fuch quantity as to produce apparent fcintillations. The nedtary of this plant grows from what is fuppofed to be the calyx; but this fuppofed calyx is coloured; and, perhaps, from this circumftance of its bearing the nectary, fhould rather be efteemed a part of the corol. See an additional note at the end of the poem. Sojbines the glotv-fty. 1. 51. In Jamaica, in fome feafons of the year, the fire-flies arc feen in the evenings in great abundance. When they fettle oa the ground, the bull-frog greedily devours them ; which feems to have gi- ven origin to a curious, though cruel, method of deftroying thefe animals: if red-hot pieces of charcoal be thrown towards them in the duflc of the evening, they leap at them, and, haftily fwallowing them, arc burnt to death, to4 SOTANIC GARDEN. PART II. So when thy King, AfTyria, fierce and proud^ 55 Three human vi&ims to his idol vow'd ; Rear'd a vaft pyre before the golden (hrine Of fulphurous coal, and pitch-exfudiiig pine ; - Loud roar the flames, the iron noftrils breathe, And the huge bellows pant and heave beneath ; 60 Bright and more bright the blazing deluge flows, And, white with fevenfold heat, the furnace glows. And now the Monarch fix'd with dread furprife Deep in the burning vault his dazzled eyes. *' Lo 1 three unbound amid the frightful glare, 65 " Unfcorch'd their fandals, and unfmg'd their hair ! " And now a fourth with feraph-beauty bright " Defcends, accofts them, and outfhines the light ! " Fierce flames innocuous, as they ftep, retire ! " And flow they move amid a world of fire !" 70 He fpoke, to Heaven his arms repentant fpread, And, kneeling, bow'd his gem-incircled head. Two Sifter-Nymphs, the fair AVENAS, lead Their fleecy fquadrons on the lawns of Tweed ; Pafs with light ftep his wave-worn banks along, 75 And wake his Echoes with their filver tongue ; Avcna. 1. 73. Oat. The numerous families of grafles have all three males, and two females, except Anthoxanthum, which gives the grateful fmell to hay, and has but two males. The herbs of this order of vegetables lupport the countlefs tribes of graminivorous animals. The feeds of the fmaller kinds of grafles, as of aira, poa, briza, ftipa, &c. are the fuflenancc of many forts of birds. The feeds of the large grafles, as of wheat, barley, rye, oats, fupply food to the human fpecies. It feems to have required more ingenuity to think of feeding nations of mankind with fo fmall a feed, than with the potatoe of Mexico, or the bread- fruit of the fouthern iflands; hence Ceres, in Egypt, which was the birth- place of our European arts, was defervedly celebrated amongft their divini- ties, as well as Ofyris, who invented the Plough. Mr. Wahlborn obferves, that as wheat, rye, and many of the grafles, and plantain, lift up their anthers on long filaments, and thus expofe the enclof- ed fecundating duft to be wafhed away by the rains, a fcarcity of corn is produced by wet fummers; hence the neceflity of a careful choice of feed- wheat, as that which had not received the duft of the anthers will not grow, though it may appear well to the eye. The ftraw of the oat feems to have been the firft mufical inftrument, invented during the paftoral ages of the world, before tae difcovery of metals. See note on Ciilus, CANTO IV. LOVES OF THE PLANTS. ioj Or touch the reed, as gentle Love infpires, In notes accordant to their chafte defires. I. " Sweet ECHO ! fleeps thy vocal fhell, " Where this high arch o'erhangs the dell; 80 " While Tweed with fun-refleting ftreams " Chequers thy rocks with dancing beams ? II. " Here may no clamours harfh intrude, " No brawling hound or clarion rude ; " Here no fell beaft of midnight prowl, 8.5 " And teach thy tortured cliffs to howl ! III. ' " Be thine to pour thefe vales along " Some artlefs Shepherd's evening fong ; " While Night's fweet bird, from yon high fpray " Refponfive, liftens to his lay. 90 IV. " And if, like me, fome love-lorn maid " Should fing her forrows to thy fhade, " Oh, (both her bread, ye rocks around ! " With fofteft fympathy of found." From ozier bowers the brooding Halcyons peep, 95 The Swans purfuing cleave the glaffy deep, On hovering wings the wondering Reed-larks play, And filent Biiterns liften to the lay. Three fhepherd-fwains beneath the beechen fhades Twine rival garlands for the tuneful maids ; 100 On each fmootli bark the myftic love-knot frame, Or on white fands infcribe the favour'd name. Green fwells the beech, the widening knots improve, So fpread the tender growths of living love ; Wave follows wave, the letter'd lines decay, 105 So Love's foft forms uncultured melt away. From Time's remoteft dawn where Cliina brings In proud fucceffion all her Patriot- Kings; PART II. O ro6 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART II. O'er defert-fands, deep gulphs, and hills fublime, Extends her maflfy wall from clime to clime; 1 10 With hells and dragons ere (Is her Pagod-bowers, Her filken palaces and porcelain towers ; With long canals a thoufand nations laves ; Plants all her wilds, and peoples all her waves ; Slow treads fair CANNABIS the breezy ftrand, 115 The diftaff ftreams difhevelPd in her hand ; Now to the left her ivory neck inclines, And leads in Paphian curves its azure lines; Dark waves the fringed lid, the warm cheek glows, And the fair ear the parting locks difclofe; I2O Now to the right with airy fweep ilie bends, Quick join the threads, the dancing fpole depends. Five Swains attracted guard the Nymph, by turns Her grace inchants them, and her beauty burns; To each (he bows with fweet afluafive fmile, 125 Hears his foft vows, and turns her fpole the while. So when with light and fhade, concordant ftrife ! Stern CLOTHO weaves the chequer'd thread of life; Hour after hour the growing line extends, The cradle and the coffin bound its ends ; 130 Soft cords of filk the whirling fpoles reveal, If (roiling Fortune turn the giddy wheel ; But if fweet Love with baby-fingers twines, And wets with dewy lips the lengthening lines, Cannabis. I. 115. Chinefe Hemp. Two houfes. Five males. A new fpecies of hemp, of which an account is given by K. Fitzgerald, Efq. in a letter to Sir Jofeph Banks, and which is believed to be much fuperior to the hemp of other countries. A few feeds of this plant were fown in England on the 4th of June, and grew to fourteen feet feven inches in height by the middle of October: they were nearly feven inches in circum- ference, and bore many lateral branches, and produced very white and tough fibres. At fome parts of the time thefe plants grew nearly eleven inches in a week. Phil. Tranf. vol. Ixxii. p. 46. Paphian curves. 1. 1 1 8. In his ingenious work, entitled, The Analyfis of Beauty, Mr. Hogarth believes that the triangular glafs, which was dedicated to Venus, in her temple at Paphos, contained in it a line bending fpirally round a cone, with a certain degree of curvature, and that this pyramidal outline and ferpentine curve conftitute the principles of Grace and Beauty. CANTO IV. LOVES OF THE PLANTS. 107 Skein after (kein ceieftial tints unfold, 135 And all the filken tiflue fhines with gold. Warm with fweet blufties bright GALANTHA glows, And prints with frolic ftep the melting mows : O'er filent floods, white hills, and glittering meads, Six rival fwains the playful beauty leads, 140 Chides with her dulcet voice the tardy Spring, Bids flumbering Zephyr ftretch his folded wing, Wakes the hoarfe Cuckoo in his gloomy cave, And calls the wondering Dormoufe from his grave, Bids the mute Redbreaft cheer the budding grove, 145 And plaintive Ringdove tune her notes to love. Spring ! with thy own fweet fmile and tuneful tongue, Delighted BELL is calls her infant throng. Galanthus. 1. 137. Nivalis. Snow-drop. Six males, one female. The firft flower that appears after the winter folftice. See Stillingfleet's Calen- der of Flora. Some fnow-drop-roots, taken up in winter, and hoiled, had the infipid mucilaginous tafte of the Orchis, and, if cured in the fame manner, would probably make as good falep. The roots of the Hyacinth, 1 am informed, are equally infipid, and might be ufed as an article of food. Gmelin, in his Hiftory of Siberia, fays the Martigon Lily makes a part of the food of that country, which is of the fame natural order as the fnow-drop. Some roots of Crocus, which I boiled, had a difagreeable flavour. The difficulty of raifing the Orchis from feed has, perhaps, been a prin- cipal reafon of its not being cultivated in this country as an article of food. It is affirmed, by one of the Linnasan School, in the Amoenit. Academ. that the feeds of Orchis will ripen, if you deftroy the new bulb; and that Lily of the Valley, Cpnvallaria, will produce many more feeds, and ripen them, if the roots be crowded in a garden-pot, fo as to prevent them from producing many bulbs, vol. vi. p. 120. It is probable either of thefe me- thods may fucceed with thefe and other bulbous-rooted plants, as fnow- drops, and might render their cultivation profitable in this climate. The root of the afphodelus ramofus, branchy afphodel, is ufed to feed fwine in France; the ftarch is obtained from the alftromeria H6ta. Memoires d'Agri- culture. Belli* prolifera. 1. 148. Hen and chicken Daify. In this beautiful mon- fter not only the impletion, or doubling of the petals, takes place, as defcribed in the note on Alcea, but a numerous circlet of lefs flowers on peduncles, or foot-ftalks, rife from the fides of the calyx, and furround the proliferous parent. The fame occurs in Calendula, marigold; in Herucium, hawk- weed; and in Scabiofa, fcabious. Phil. Bot. p. 82. io$ BOTANIC GARDEN. PART II, Each on his reed aflride, the Cherub-train Watch her kind looks, and circle o'er the plain; 150 Now with young wonder touch the Hiding fnail, Admire his eye-tipp'd horns, and painted mail ; Chafe with quick flep, and eager arms outfpread, The paufing Butterfly from mead to mead ; Or twine green oziers with the fragrant Gale,, 155 The azure harebel, and the primrofe pale, Join hand in hand, and in proceflion gay Adorn with votive wreaths the fhrine of May. So moves the Goddefs to the Idalian groves, And leads her gold-hair'd family of Loves. 160 Thefe, from the flaming furnace, ftrong an4 bold, Pour the red fleel in many a fandy mould; On tinkling anvils (with Vulcanian art) Turn with hot tongs, and forge the dreadful dart j The barbed head on whirling jafpers grind, l6jj And dip the point in poifon for the mind ; Each polifh'd {haft with fnow-white plumage wing, Or flrain the bow relu&ant to its firing. Thofe on light pinion twine with bufy hands, Or flretch from bough to bough the flowery bands; 170 Scare the dark beetle* as he wheels on high, Or catch in filken nets the gilded fly ; Call the young Zephyrs to their fragrant bowers, And flay with kiffes fweet the Vernal Hours. Where, as proud MafTon rifes rude and bleak, 175 And with miihapen turrets crefls the Peak,. Tie fragrant Gait. 1. 155. The buds of the Myrlca Gale poflefs an agree- able aromatic fragrance, and might be worth attending to as an article of the Materia Medica. Mr. Sparman fufpe&s, that the green wax-like Tub* ftance, with which, at certain times of the year, the berries of the Myri- ca cerifera, or candle-berry Myrtle, are covered, are depofited there by in- fevfts. It. is ufed by the inhabitants for making candles, which, he fays, burn rather better than thofe made of tallow. Voyage to the Cape, vol. i. p. 345. Du Halde gives an account of a white wax, made by fmall infe&a, round the branches of a tree in China, in great quantity, which is there coHec-ted for medical and economical purpofes. The tree is called Tong-tfin. Defcrip. of China, vol. i. p. 230. CANTO IV. LOVES OF THE PLANTS. 109 Old Matlock gapes with marble jaws, beneath, And o'er fcar'd Derwent bends his flinty teeth; Deep in wide caves below the dangerous foil Blue fulphurs flame, imprifon'd waters boil, 1 80 Impetuous fteams in fpiral columns rife Through rifted rocks, impatient for the fkies j Or o'er bright feas of bubbling lavas blow, As heave and tofs the billowy fires below ; Condenfed on high, in wandering rills they glide 185 From Maffon's dome, and burft his fparry fide ; Round his grey towers, and down his fringed walls, From clifF to cliff, the liquid treafure falls ; In beds of ftala&ite, bright ores among, O'er corals, fhells, and cryftals, winds along; 190 Crufts the green moffes, and the tangled wood, And fparkling plunges to its parent flood. O'er the warm wave a fmiling youth prefides, Attunes its murmurs, its meanders guides, Deep in wide caves. 1. 1^9. The arguments which tend to {hew that the warm fprings of this country are produced from fteam raifed by deep fub- terraneous fires, and afterwards condenfed between the ftrata of the moun-j tains, appear to me much more conclufive than the idea of their being warmed by chemical combinations near the furface of the earth ; for, firft, their heat has kept accurately the fame, perhaps, for many centuries, cer- tainly as long as we have been poflefled of good thermometer*; which can- not be well explained, without fuppofing that they are firft in a boiling ftate. For, as the heat of boiling water is 31 a, and that of the internal parts of the earth 48, it is eafy to underftand, that the fteam raifed from boiling wa- ter, after being condenfed in fome mountain, and pafllng from thence through a certain fpace of the cold earth, muft be cooled always to a given degree } and, it is probable, the diftance from the exit of the fpring to the place where the fteam is condenfed, might be guefled by the degree of its warmth. a. In the dry fummer of 1780, when all other fprings were either dry or much diminiftied, thofe of Buxton and Matlock (as I was well informed on the fpot) had fuffered no diminution; which proves that the fources of thefe warm fprings are at great depths below the furface of the earth. 3. There are numerous perpendicular fiffures in the rocks of Derbyfhire, in which the ores of lead and copper are found, and which pafs to unknown depths, and might thence afford a paflage to fteam from great fubterraneous fires. 4. If thefe waters were heated by the decompofition of pyrites, there would be fome chalybeate tafte or fulphureous fmell in them. See note in part I. on the exiftence of central fires. iifr BOTANIC GARDEN PART II. (The blooming Fucus) in her fparry coves 195 To amorous Echo fings hisfecret loves, Bathes his fair forehead in the mifty ftream, And with fweet breath perfumes the rifing fleam. So, erft, an Angel o'er Bethefda's fprings, Each morn defcending, fliook his dewy wings ; 2OO And as his bright tranflucent form He laves Salubrious powers enrich the troubled waves. Amphibious Nymph, from Nile's prolific bed Emerging TRAP A lifts her pearly head; Fueus. I. 195. Clandefline marriage. A fpecies of Fucus, or of Conferva, foon appears in all bafons which contain water. Dr. Prieftley found, that great quantities of pure dephlogi (Heated air were given up in water at the points of this vegetable, particularly in the funfhine, and that hence it con- tributed to preferve the water in refervoirs from becoming putrid. The minute divifions of the leaves of fubaquatic plants, as mentioned in the note ion Trapa, and of the gills of fifh, feem to ferve another purpole befides that of increafing their furface, which has not, I believe, been attended to, and that is, to facilitate the reparation of the air, which is mechanically mixed, or chemically diffolved in water, by their points or edges : this ap- pears on immerfing a dry hairy leaf in water frefh from a pump ; innumera- ble globules, like quick-filver, appear on almoft every point; for the extre- mities of thefe points attract the particles of water lels forcibly than thofe particles attract each other ; hence the contained air, whofe elafticity was but juft balanced by the attractive power of the furrounding particles of water to each other, finds, at the point of each fibre, a place where the refiftance to its expanfion is lefs; and, in confequence, it there expands, and becomes a bubble of air. It is eafy to forefee that the rays of the fun- fhine, by being refracted, and, in part, refle6ted by the two furfaces of thefe minute air-bubbles, mufl impart to them much more heat than to the tranf- parent water, and thus facilitate their afcent by further expanding them : that the points of vegetables attract the particles of water lefs than they attract each other, is feen by the fpherical form of dew-drops on the points of grafs. See note on Vegetable Refpiration, in part I. Trapa. 1. 204. Four males, one female. The lower leaves of this plant grow under water, and are divided into minute capillary ramifications; while the upper leaves are broad and round, and have air-bladders in their foot- ftalks to fupport them above the furface of the water. As the aerial leaves of vegetables do the office of lungs, by expofing a large furface of veffels, with their contained fluids, to the influence of the air ; fo thefe aquatic leaves anfwer a fimilar purpofe, like the gills of fifh ; and perhaps gain from water, or give to it, a fimilar material. As the material thus neceffary to life feems to abound more in air than in water, the fubaquatic leaves of this plant, and of fifymbrium, osnanthe, ranunculus aquatilis, water crowfoot, and fome others, are cut into fine divifions to increafe the furface; whilft thofe above water are undivided. So the plants on high mountains have their upper leaves more divided, as pimpinella, petrofelinum, and others, becaufe here CANTO IV. LOVES OF THE PLANTS. m Fair glows her virgin cheek and modeft breaft, 305 A panoply of fcales deforms the reft ; Her quivering fins and panting gills fhe hides, But fpreads her lilver arms upon the tides ; Slow as (he fails, her ivory neck {he laves, And {hakes her golden trefles o'er the waves. 210 Charm'd round the Nymph, in circling gambols glide Four Nereid-forms, or {hoot along the tide j Now all as one they rife with frolic fpring, And beat the wondering air on humid wing ; Now all defcending plunge beneath the main, 215 And lafti the foam with undulating train ; Above, below, they wheel, retreat, advance, In air and ocean weave the mazy dance ; Bow their quick heads, and point their diamond eyes, And twinkle to the fun with ever-changing dyes, 220 Where Andes, crefle^ with volcanic beams, Sheds a long line of light on Plata's ftreams ; Opes all his fprings, unlocks his golden caves, And feeds and freights the immeafurable waves ; the air is thinner, and thence a larger furface of contact is required. The ftream of water alfo pafles but once along the gills of fifh, as it is fooner de- prived of its virtue; whereas the air is both received and ejected by the ac- tion of the lungs of land-animals. The whale feems to be an exception to the above, as he receives water and fpouts it out again from an organ, which I fuppofe to be a refpiratory one. As fpring- water is nearly of the fame degree of heat in all climates, the aquatic plants, which grow in rills or fountains, are found equally in the torrid, temperate, and frigid zones, as water-crefs, water-parfnip, ranunculus, and many others. In warmer climates the watery grounds are ufually cultivated, as with rice; and the roots of fome aquatic plants are faid to have fupplied food, as the ancient Lotus in Egypt, which fome have fuppofed to be the Nymphxa In Siberia the roots of the Butomus, or flowering rufti, are eaten, which is well worth further inquiry, as they grow fpontaneoufly in bur ditches and rivers, which at prefent produce no efculent vegetables; and might thence become an article of ufeful cultivation. Herodotus affirms, that the Egyp- tian Lotus grows in the Nile, and *efembles a Lily. That the natives dry- it in the fun, and take the pulp out of it, which grows like the head of a poppy, and bake it for bread. Euterpe. Many grit-ftones and coals, which I have feen, feem to bear an impreflion of the roots of the Nymphsea, which arc often three or four inches thick, efpecially the white-flowered one. Hi BOTANIC GARDEN. PART II. Delighted OCYMA at twilight hours 225 Calls her light car, and leaves the fultry bowers ; Love's rifing ray, and Youth's fedu&ive dye, Bloom'd on her cheek, and brighten'd in her eye; Chafte, pure, and white, a zone of fllver graced Her tender breaft, as white, as pure, as chafte; 230 By four fond fwains in playful circles drawn, On glowing wheels {he tracks the moon-bright lawn, Mounts the rude cliff, unveils her blufhing charms, And calls the panting zephyrs to her arms. Emerged from ocean fprings the vaporous air, 235 Bathes her light limbs, uncurls her amber hair, Incrufls her beamy form with films faline, And Beauty blazes through the cryftal (hrine. So with pellucid ftuds the ice-flower gems Her rimy foliage, and her candied ftems. 240 Oeymum falitnim. 1. 325. Saline Bafil. Clafs Two Powers. The Abbe Molina, in his Hiftory of Chili, tranflated from the Italian by the Abbe Grewvel, mentions a fpecies of Bafil, which he calls Oeymum falinum : he fays it refemblesthe common bafil, except that the ftalk is round and jointed; and that though it grows fixty miles from the fea, yet every morning it is covered with faline globules, which are hard and fplendid, appearing at a diftance like dew; and that each plant furnifhes about half an ounce of fine fait every day, which the peafants colled:, and ufe as common fait, but efteem it fuperior in flavour. As an article of diet, fait feems to a6t limply as a ftimulus, not contain- ing any nourifhment, and is the only foffil fubftance which the caprice of mankind has yet taken into their ftomachs along with their food; and, like all other unnatural ftimuli, is not neceffary to people in health, and contri- butes to weaken our fyftem, though it may be ufeful as a medicine. It feems to be the immediate caufe of the fea-fcurvy, as thofe patients quickly reco- ver by the ufe of frefh provifions ; and is, probably, a remote caufe of fcro- phula, (which confifts in the want of irritability in the abforbent vefiels,) and is, therefore, ferviceable to thefe patients, as wine is neceflary to thofe Avhofe ftomachs have been weakened by its ufe. The univerfality of the life of fait with our food, and in our cookery, has rendered it difficult to prove the truth of thefe obfervations. I fufpedl that flefti-meat, cut into thin flices, either raw or boiled, might be preserved in coarfe fugar or trea- cle; and thus a very nourifhing and falutary diet might be prefented to qur feamen. See note on Salt-rocks, in part i. Canto II. If a perfon, unac- cuftomed to much fait, (hould eat a couple of red herrings, his infenfible perforation will be fo much increafed by the ftimulus of the fait, that he will find it neceflary, in about two hours, to drink a quart of water: the effects of a continued ufe of fait in weakening the a&ion of the lymphatic, fyftem, may hence be deduced. CANTO IV. LOVES QF THE PLANTS, 113 So from his glafly horns, and pearly eyes, The diamond-beetle darts a thoufand dyes ; Mounts with enamel 'd wings the vefper gale, And wheeling (nines in adamantine mail. Thus when loud thunders o'er Gomorrah burft, 243 And heaving earthquakes fhaok his realms accurft, An Angel-gueft led forth the trembling Fair With fhadowy hand, and warn'd the guiltlefs pair ; " Hafte from thefe lands of fin, ye Righteous ! fly, " Speed the quick ftep, nor turn the lingering eye!" 250 Such the command, as fabling Bards recite, When Orpheus charm'd the grifly King of Night; Sooth'd the pale phantoms with his plaintive lay, And led the fair Aflurgent into day. Wide yawn'4 the earth, the fiery tempeft flafli'd, 255 And towns and towers in one vaft ruin crafh'd ; Onward they move, loud horror roars behind, And fhrieks of Anguifh bellow in the wind. With many a fob, amid a thoufand fears, The beauteous wanderer pours her gufhing tears; 260 Each foft connection rends her troubled breaft, She turns, unconfcious of the ftern beheft ! " I faint ! I fall ! ah, me ! fenfations chill " Shoot through my bones, my fhuddering bofom thrill ! " I freeze! I freeze! juft Heaven regards my fault, 265 " Numbs my cold limbs, and hardens into fait ! " Not yet, not yet, your dying love refign ! " This laft, laft kifs receive! no longer thine!" She faid, and ceafed, her ftiffen'd form He pre/s'd, And ftrain'd the briny column to his breaft; 270 Printed with quivering lips the lifelefs fnow, And wept ; and gazed the monument of woe. So when ^Eneas through the flames of Troy- Bore his pale fire, and led his lovely boy, With loitering ftep the fair Creufa ftay'd, 275 And Death involved her in eternal fhade.-^- Oft the lone Pilgrim, that his road forfakes, Marks the wide ruins, and the fulphur'd lakes ; PART II. P ii4 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART II. On mouldering piles amid afphaltic mud Hears the hoarfe bittern, where Gomorrah flood; 280 Recals the unhappy Pair with lifted eye, Leans on the cryftal tomb, and breathes the filent fighi With net- wove fafh and glittering gorget drefs'd, And fcarlet robe lapell'd upon her bread, Stern ARA frowns, the meafured march affumes, 285 Trails her long lance, and nods her fhadowy plumes ; While Love's foft beams illume her treacherous eyes, And Beauty lightens through the thin difguife. So erft, when HERCULES, untamed by toil, Own'd the foft power of DEJANIRA'S fmile;^- 290 His lion-fpoils the laughing Fair demands^ And gives the diftaff to his awkward, hands ; O'er her white neck the briftly mane fhe throws, And binds the gaping whifkers on her brows ; Plaits round her flender waift the Shaggy veft, 295 And clafps the velvet paws acrofs her breafl. Arum. 1. 285. Cuckow-pint, of the clafs Gynandria, or mafculine ladies, The piftil, or female part of the flower, rifes like a club, is covered above, or clothed, as it were, by the anthers or males ; and forrie of the fpecies have a large fcarlet blotch in the middle of every leaf. The iingular and wonderful ftru&ure of this flower has occafioned many difputes amongft botanifts. See Tourniff. Malpig. Dillen. Riven. &c. The receptacle is enlarged into a naked club, with the germs at itsbafe; the fta- mens are affixed to the receptacle amidft the germs (a natural prodigy), and thus do not need the afiiftancc of elevating filaments: hence the flower may be faid to be inverted. Families of Plants, tranflated from Linnaeus, p. 618. The fpadix of this plant is frequently quite white, or coloured, and the leaves liable to be ftreaked with white, and to have black or fcarlet blotches on them. As the plant has no corol or bloffom, it is probable the coloured juices in thcfe parts of the fiieath or leaves may ferve the fame purpo-fe as the coloured juices in the petals of other flowers; from which I fuppofe the honey to be prepared. See note on Hellebofus. I am informed that thofe tulip-roots which have a red cuticle produce red flowers. See Rubia. When the petals of the tulip become flripcd with many colours, the plant lofes almoft half of its height; and the method of making them thus break into colours, is by tranfplanting them into a meagre or fandy foil, after they have prcvioujly enjoyed a richer foil: hence it appears, that the plant is weak- ened when the flower becomes variegated. See note on Anemone. For the acquired habits of vegetables, fee Tulipa, Orchis. The roots of the Arum are fcratched up, and eaten by thruihes in fevers fnowy fealbns. "White's Hill, of Selbourn, p. 43- CANTO IV. LOVES OF THE PLANTS. 115 Next with foft hands the knotted club (lie rears, Heaves up from earth, and on her (houlder bears* Onward with loftier ftep the Beauty- treads, And trails the brinded ermine o'er the meads; 300 Wolves, bears, and pards, forfake the affrighted groves, And grinning Satyrs tremble, as (he moves. CARYO'S fweet (mile DIANTHUS proud admires, And gazing burns with unallow'd defjres ; With fighs and forrows her compaflion moves, 305 And wins the damfel to illicit loves. The Monfter- offspring heirs the father's pride, Mafk'd in the damafk beauties of the bride. So, when the Nightingale in eaftern bowers On quivering pinion woos the Queen of Flowers; 310 Dianthus. 1. 303. Superbus. Pro'ud Pink. There is a kind of pink, called Fairchild's mule, which is here fuppofed to be produced between a Dianthus fuperbus, and the 'Caryophyllus, Clove. The Dianthus fuperbus emits a moft fragrant odour, particularly at night. Vegetable mules fupply an irrefragable argument in favour of the fexual fyftem of botany. They are faid to be numerous; and, like the mules of the animal kingdom, not always to continue their fpecies by feed. There is an account of a curious mule from the Antirrhinum linaria, Toad-flax, in the Amoenit. Academ. vol. i. No. 3. and many hybrid plants defcribed 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. Amongft the Engliih in- digenous plants, the veronica hybrida mule Speedwel is fuppofed to have originated from the officinal one, and the fpiked one. And the Sibthorpia Europxa to have for its parents the golden faxifrage and marfti pennywort. Pulteney's View of Linnaeus, p. 253. Mr. Graberg, Mr. Schreber, and Mr> Ramftrom, feem of opinion, that the internal ftrutSluve, or parts of fructification in mule-plants, refemble the female parent ; but that the habit, or external ftrudhire, referable* the male parent. See treatifes under the above names, in vol. vi. Amoenit. Academic. The mule produced from a horfe and the afs, refembles the horfe externally with his ears, mane, and tail; but with the nature or manners of an afs: but the Hinnus, or creature produced from a male afs and a mare, refembles the father externally in fla- ture, afh-colour, and the black crofs, but with the nature or manners of a horfe. The breed from Spanish rams and 'Swedifh ewes refembled the Spanilh fheep in wool, ftature, and external form ; but was as hardy as the Swedifh fheep; and the contrary of thofe which were produced from Swedifh rams and Spanifh ewes. The offspring from the male goat of An- gora, and the Swedifh female goat, had long foft camel's hair; but that from the male Swedifh goat, and the female one of Angora, had no im- provement of their wool. An Englifh ram without horns, and a Swedifh horned ewe, produced fheep without horns. Amcen. Acad. vol. vi. p. 13. li* . BOTANIC GARDEN. PART II. tnhsues her fragrance, as he hangs in air, And melts with melody the blufhing fair; Half-rofe, half-hird, a beauteous Monfter fprings^ Waves his thin leaves, and claps his glofTy wings ; Long horrent thorns his moffy legs furround, 315 And tendril-talons root him to the ground ; Green films of rind his wrinkled neck o'erfpread, And crimfon petals creft his curled head ; Soft- warbling beaks in each bright blofTom move, And vocal Rofebuds thrill the enchanted grove! 320 Admiring Evening flays her beamy ftar, And ftill Night liftens from his ebon car ; While on white wings defcending Houries throng, And drink the floods of odour and of fong. When from his golden urn the Solftice pours 325 O'er Afric's fable fons the fultry hours ; When not a gale flits o'er her tawny hills, Save where the dry Harmattan breathes and kills ; The dry Harmattan. \. 328. The Harmattan is a fingular wind, blowing from the interior parts of Africa to the Atlantic ocean, fometimes for a few hours, fometimes for feveral days, without regular periods. It is al- ways attended with a fog or haze, fo denfe as to render thofe obje&s invi- fible which are at the diftance of a quarter of a mile : the fun appears through it only about noon, and then of a dilute red, and very minute particles fubfide from the mifty air, fo as to make the grafs, and the fkins of negroes, appear whitifh. The extreme drynefs which attends this wind or fog, without dews, withers, arM quite dricsj the leaves of vegetables; and is faid, by Dr. Lind, at fome feafohs, to be fatal and malignant to mankind; probably after much preceding wet, when it may become loaded with the exhalations from putrid marines: at other feafons it is faid to check epi- demic difeafes, . to cure fluxes, and to heal ulcers and cutaneous eruptions ; which is, probably, effected by its yielding no moiflure to the mouths of the External abforbent veffels, by which the aclJon of the Other branches of the abforbent fyilem is increafed to fupply the deficiency. Account of the Har- m ait an, Phil. Tranf. vol, Ixxi. The Reverend Mr. Sterling gives an account of a darknefs for fix or eight hours at Detroit, in America, on the lythof October, 1762, in which the fun appeared as red as blood, and thrice its ufual fize: fome rain fall- ing, covered white paper with dark drops, like fulphur or dirt, which burnt like wet gun-powder, and the air had a very fulphureo'us fmell. He fup- pofes this to have been emitted from fomfe diftant earthquake or volcano. Phil. Tranf. .vol. liii. p. 63. In, many circumftances this wind feem's nfuch to refemble the dry fog which covered mofl parts of Europe, for many weeks, in the fummer of I * CANTO IV. LOVES OF THE PLANTS. '* n# When ftretch'd in duft her gafping panthers lie, And writh'd in foamy folds her ferpenrs die ; 330 Indignant Atlas mourns his leaflefs woods, And Gambia trembles for his finking floods; Contagion ftalks along the briny fand, And Ocean rolls his fickening fhoals to land, Fair CHUNDA fmiles amid the burning wafte, 335 Her brow unturban'd, and her zone unbraced ; Ten brother-youths with light umbrella's fhade, Or fan with bufy hands the panting maid; 1780, which has been fuppofed to have had a volcanic origin, as it fucceeded the violent eruption of Mount Hecla, and its neighbourhood. From the. fubfidence of a white powder, it feems probable that the Harmattan has a fimilar origin, from the unexplored mountains of Africa. Nor is it impro- bable, that the epidemic coughs, which occafionally traverfe immenfe tracls of country, may be the produces of volcanic eruptions ; nor impoflible, that at fome future time, contagious miafmata may be thus emitted from fub- tcrraneous furnaces, in fuch abundance as to contaminate the whole atmof- phere, and depopulate the earth ! His fattening Jkoah. 1. 334. Mr. Marfden relates, that in the ifland of Sumatra, during the November of 1775, the dry monfoons, or S. E. winds, continued fo much longer than ufual, that the large rivers became dry; and prodigious quantities of fea-fifh, dead and dying, were feen floating for leagues on the fea, and driven on the beach by the tides. This was fup- pofed to have been caufed by the great evaporation, and the deficiency of freih-water rivers having rendered the fea too fait for its inhabitants. The feafon then became fo fickly as to deftroy great numbers of people, both foreigners and natives. Fhil. Tranf. vol. Ixxi. p. 384. Chunda. 1. 335, Chundali Borrum is the name which the natives give to this plant: it is the Hedyfarum gyrans, or moving plant: its clafs is two brotherhoods, ten males. Its leaves are continually in fpontane- ous motion; fome rifing and others falling; and others whirling circularly by twifting their ftems. This fpontaneous movement of the leaves, when the air is quite ftill and very warm, feems to be neceflary to the plant, as perpetual refpiration is to animal life. A more particular account, with a. good print of the Hedyfarum gyrans, is given by M. Brouffonet, in a pa- per on vegetable motions, in the Hiftoire de 1'Academie des Sciences. Ann. 1784. p. 609. There are many other inftances of fpontaneous movements of the parts of vegetables. In the Marchantia polymorpha, fome yellow wool proceeds from the flower-bearing anrhers, which moves fpontaneoufly in the anther, while it drops its duft Rke atoms. Murray, Syft. Ve'g. See note on Collinfonia, for other inftances of vegetable fpontaneity. Add to this, that as the fleep of animals confifts in a fufpenfion of voluntary motion, and as vegetables are likewife fubjedl to fleep, therq is reafon to conclude, that the various actions of opening and clofing their petals and foliage may be juftly afcribed to a voluntary power: for without the faculty of volition, fleep would not have been neceflary to them. ti8 BOTANIC GARDE tf. PART It Loofe wave her locks, difclofing as they breafc, The rifing bofom and averted cheek ; 340 ClafpM round her ivory neck with ftuds of gold Flows her thin veft in many a gauzy fold ; O'er her light limbs the dim tranfparence plays, And the fair form, it feems to hide, betrays. Cold from a thoufand rocks, where Ganges leads 345 The gufhrng waters to his fultry meads ;' By moon-crown'd mofques with, gay reflections glides* And vaft pagodas trembling on his iides ; With fweet loquacity NELUMBO fails, Shouts to his {hores, and parleys with his gales ; 350 Invokes his echoes, as {he moves along, And thrills his ripling furges with her fong. As round the Nymph her liftening lovers play, And guard the Beauty on her watery way ; Charm'd on the brink relenting tygers gaze, 35$ And paufing buffaloes forget to graze ; Admiring elephants forfake their woods, Stretch their wide ears, and wade into the floods ; In filent herds the wondering fea-calves lave, Or nod their {limy foreheads o'er the wave ; 360 Coifed on ftill wing attentive vultures fweep, And winking crocodiles are lull'd to fleep. Where leads the northern Star his lucid train High o'er the fnow-clad earth, and icy main, With milky light the white horizon ftreams, 365 And to the moon each fpaikling mountain gleams. Nelunilo. 1. 349. Nymph sea Nelumbo. A beautiful rofe-red flower on "a receptacle as large as an artichoke. The capfule is perforated with holes at the top, and the feeds rattle in it. Perfect leaves are feen in the feeds before they germinate. Linnaeus, who has enlifted all our fenfes into the fervice of botany, has obferved this rattling of the Nelumbo; and mentions what he calls an ele&ric murmur, like diftant thunder, in hop-yards, when the wind blows, and afks the caufe of it. We have one kind of pedicula- ris in our meadows, which has obtained the name of rattle-grafs, from the rattling of its dry feed-veffels under our feet. CANTO IV. LOVES OF TttE PLANTf. Ug Slow o'er the printed fnows with filent walk Huge ftiaggy forms acrofs the twilight ftalk ; And ever and anon with hideous found Burft the thick ribs of ice, and thunder round. 370 There, as old Winter flaps his hoary wing, And lingering leaves his empire to the Spring, Pierced with quick {hafts of filver-fhooting light Fly in dark troops the dazzled imps of night. " Awake, my Love!" enamoured MUSCHUS cries, 375 " Stretch thy fair limbs, refulgent Maid! arife; *' Ope thy fweet eye-lids to the riling ray, " And hail with ruby lips returning day. " Down the white hills diffolving torrents pour, " Green fprings the turf, and purple blows the flower; 380 " His torpid wing the Rail exulting tries, " Mounts the foft gale, and wantons in the ikies; " Rife, let us mark how bloom the awaken'd groves, " And 'mid the banks of rofes hide our loves." Night's tinfel beams on fmooth Lock-lomond dance, 385 Impatient ^GA views the bright expanfe; Bur/1 the thick ribs of ice. 1. 370. The violent cracks of ice heard from the Glaciers, feem to be caufed by fome of the fnow being melted in the middle of the day; and the water thus produced running down into yal- lies of ice, and, congealing again in a few hours, forces off, by its expan- lion, large precipices from the ice-mountains. Mufchus. 1. 375. Corallinus, or lichen rangiferinus. Coral-mofs. Clan- deftine marriage. This mofs vegetates beneath the fnow, 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 fole food of the rein-deer, who digs furrows in the fnow to find it; and as the milk and flefh of this animal is almoft the only fuftenance which can be procured during the long winters of the higher latitudes, this mofs may be faid to fupport fome millions of mankind. The quick vegelation that occurs on the folution of the fnows in high latitudes, appears very aftonifhing: it feems to arife from two caufes; I. The long continuance of the approaching fun above the horizon ; a. The Incrcafed irritability of plants which have been long cxpofed to the cold. See note on Anemone. All the water -fowl on the lakes of Siberia are faid, by Profeffor Gmelin, to retreat fouthwards on the commencement of the froft, except the Rail, which fleeps buried in the fnow. Account of Siberia. Mga. 1. 386. Conferva ajgagropila. It is found loofe in many lakes, in a globular form, from the fize of a walnut to thst of a melon, much re- 120 BOTANIC GARDEN PART 1L In vain her eyes the pafling floods explore, Wave after wave rolls freightlefs to the fhore. Now dim amid the diftant foam ihe fpies A rifing fpeck, " 'tis he ! 'tis he !' - fhe cries ; 390 As with firm arms he beats the ftreams afide, And cleaves with rifing chefl the tofling tide, With bended knee {he prints the humid fands, Up-turns her gliftening eyes, and fpreads her hands; " 'Tis he, 'tis he ! My Lord, my life, my love ! 395 " Slumber, ye winds ; ye billows, ceafe to move ! " Beneath his arms your buoyant plumage fpread, " Ye Swans ! ye Halcyons ! hover round his head !"- With eager ftep the boiling furf flie braves, And meets her refluent lover in the waves ; 400 Loofe o'er the flood her azure mantle fwims, And the clear ftream betrays her fnowy limbs. So on her fea-girt tower fair HERO flood At parting day, and mark'd the dafhing flood ; While high in air, the glimmering rocks above, 405 Shone the bright lamp, the pilot-ftar of love. With robe outfpread the wavering flame behind She kneels, and guards it from the fhifting wind ; Breathes to her Goddefs all her vows, and guides Her bold LEANDER o'er the dufky tides; 410 Wrings his wet hair, his briny bofom warms, And clafps her panting lover in her arms. Deep, in wide caverns and their fhadowy ailes. Daughter of Earth, the chafte TRUFFELIA fmiles; fembling the balls of hair found in the ftomachs of cows: it adheres to nothing, but tolls from one part of the lake to another. The Conferva va- gabunda dwells on the European feas, travelling along in the midft of the waves. (Spec. Plant.) Thefe may not improperly be called itinerant ve- getables. In a fimilar manner the Fucus natans '(fwimming) ftrikes no roots into the earth, but floats on the fea in very extenfive maffes, ind may be faid to be a plant of paflage, as it is wafted by the winds from one Ihore to another. Tni/elia. 1. 414. (Lycoperdon Tuber) Truffle. Clandestine marriage. This fungus never appears above ground, requiring little air, and, perhaps, CANTO IV. LOVES OF THE PLANTS. 121 On filvery beds, of foft afbeflus wove,' 415 Meets her Gnome-hufband, and avows her love, High o'er her couch impending diamonds blaze, And branching gold the cryftal roof inlays ; With verdant light the modefl emeralds glow, Blue fapphires glare, and rubies bjufli, below, 420 Light piers of lazuli the dome furround, And pi&ured mochoes tefTelate the ground ; In glittering threads along reflective walls The warm rill murmuring twinkles, as it falls; Now fmk the Eolian firings, and now they fwell, 425 And Echoes woo in every vaulted cell; While on white wings delighted Cupids play, Shake their bright lamps, and flied celeftial day. Clofcd in an azure fig by fairy' fp>ils, Bofom'd in down, fair CAPRI-FICA dwells; 430 no light. It is found by dogs or fwine, who hunt it by the fmell. Other plants which have no buds or branches on their ftems, as the grafles, (hoof, out numerous ftoles or fcions under ground; and this ttye more, as their tops or herbs are eaten by cattle, and thus preferve themfelyes. Capri-feus. 1. 430. Wild fig. The fruit of the fig is not a feed-vefiel, but a receptacle inclofing the flov/er within it. As thefe trees bear fome male and others female flowers, immured on all fides by the fruit, the man- ner of their fecundation was very unintelligible, till Tournefort and Ponte- dera difcovered, that a kind of gnat, produced in the male figs, carried the fecundating duft on its wings, (Cynips Pfenes Syft. Nat. 919.) and, pene- trating the female fig, thus impregnated the flowers. For the evidence of this wonderful fad, fee the word Caprification, in Milne's Botanical Dic- tionary. The figs of this country are all female, and their feeds not proli- fic ; and, therefore, they can only be propagated by layers and fuckers. Monfieiir de la Hire has fhewn, in the Memoir, de PAcadem. de Science, that the fummer figs of Paris, in Provence, Italy, and Malta, have all per- fect ftamina, and ripen not only their fruits, but their feed; from which feed other fig-trees are raifcd ; but that the ftamina of the autumnal figs arc abortive, perhaps owing to the want of due warmth. Mr. Milne, in his Botanical Dictionary (art. Caprification), fays, that the cultivated fig-trees have a few male flowers placed above the female within the fame caver- ing or receptacle ; which, in warmer climates, perform their proper office, but in colder ones become abortive. And Linnxus obferves, that fome figfc have the navel of the receptacle open; which was one reafon that induced him to remove this plant from the clafs Clandestine Marriage to the clafs Polygamy. Lin. Spec. Plant. From all thcfc circumftances I mould conjecture that thofe female fig- flowers, which are clofed on all fides in the fruit or receptacle without any PART II. i2 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART H. So fleeps in fllence the Curculio, fhut In the dark chambers of the cavern'd nut, Erodes with ivory beak the vaulted fhell, And quits', on filmy wings, its narrow cell. So the pleafed Linnet, in the mofs-wove neft, 435 Waked into life beneath its parent's breaft, Chirps in the gaping iliell, burfts forth erelong, Shakes its new plumes, and tries its tender fong. And now the talifman (he ftrikes, that charms Her hufband- Sylph, and calls him to her arms. - 440 Quick, the light Gnat her airy Lord beftrides, With cobweb reins the flying courfer guides^ From cryflal fteeps of viewlefs ether fprings, Cleaves the foft air on ftill expanded wings ; Darts like a funbeam o'er the boundlefs wave, 445 And feeks the beauty in her fecret cave. So with quick impulfe through all Nature's frame Shoots the ele&ric air its fubtle flame. So turns the impatient needle to the pole, Tho' mountains rife between, and oceans roll. 450 Where round the Orcades white torrents roar, Scooping with ceafelefs rage the incumbent fhore. Wide o'er the deep a dulky cavern bends Its marble arms, and high in air impends ; male ones, are rhonfters, which have been propagated for their fruit, like barberries, and grapes without feeds in them; and that the Caprification is either an ancient procefs of imaginary ufe, and blindly followed in fome countries, or that it may contribute to ripen the fig by decreafing its vigour, like cutting off a circle of the bark from the branch of a pear-tree. Tour- nefort feems inclined to this opinion ; who fays, that the figs in Provence and at Paris ripen fooner if their buds be pricked with a draw dipped in olive-oil. Plumbs and pears pumftured by fome infe<5l ripen fooner, and the part round the puncture is fweeter. Is not the honey-dew produced by the pun&ure of infeds? Will not wounding the branch of a pear-tree, which is too vigorous, prevent the bloffoms from falling off; as from fome fig-tree* the fruit is faid to fall off unlefs they are wounded by caprification? I had laft fpring fix young trees of the Ifchia fig, with fruit on them, in pots in a ftove ; on removing them into larger boxes, they protruded very vigorous (hoots, and the figs all fell offj which I afcribed to the incrcafed vigour of the plants. CANTO IV. LOVES OF THE PLANTS. 123 Bafaltic piers the ponderous roof fuftain, 455 And fteep their mafly fandals in the main ; Round the dim walls, and through the whifpering ailes, Hoarfe breathes the wind, the glittering water boils. Here the charm'd BYSSUS, with his blooming bride, Spreads his green fails, and braves the foaming tide ; 460 The ftar of Venus gilds the twilight wave, And lights her votaries to the fecret cave ; Light Cupids flutter round the nuptial bed, And each coy Sea-maid hides her blufhing head. Where cool'd by rills, and curtain'd round by woods, 465 Slopes the green dell to meet the briny floods, The fparkling noon-beams trembling on the tide, The PROTEUS-LOVER woos his playful bride, To win the fair he tries a thoufand forms, Bafks on the faads, or gambols in the ftorms, 470 Bafaltic piers. 1. 455. This defcription alludes to the cave of Fingal, in the ifland of Staffa. The bafaltic columns, which compofe the Giants Caufe- way on the coaft of Ireland, as well as thofe which fupport the cave of Fin- gal, are evidently of volcanic origin, as is well illuftrated in an ingenious paper of Mr. Keir, in the Philof. Tranf. who obferved in the glafs, which had been long in a fufing heat at the bottom of the pots in the glafs-houfes, at Stourbridge, that cryftals were produced of a form limilar to the parts of the bafalf ic columns of the Giants Caufeway. ByJJus. 1. 459. Clandestine Marriage. It floats on the fea in the day, and, finks a little during the night ; it is found in caverns on the northern fhores, of a pale green colour, and as thin as paper. The Proteus-lover. 1. 468. Conferva polymorpha. This vegetable is put amongft the cryptogamia, or clandeftine marriages, by Linnaeus; but, ac- cording to Mr. Ellis, the males and females are on different plants. Philof. Tranf. vol. Ivii. It twice changes its colour, from red to brown, and then to black ; and changes its form by lofmg its lower leaves, and elongating fome of the upper ones, fo as to be miftaken by the unfkilful for different plants. It grows on the fhores of this country. There is another plant, Medicago polymorpha, which may be faid to af- fume a great variety of fhapes; as the feed-veffels refemble fometimes fnail- horns, at other times caterpillars with or without long hair upon them; by which means it is probable they fometimes elude the depredations of thofc infers. The feeds of Calendula, Marigold, bend up like a hairy caterpil- lar, with their prickles briflling outwards, and may thus deter fome birds or infe<Sls from preying upon them. Salicornia alfo affumes an animal fimili- tude. Phil. Bot. p. 87. See note on Iris in additional notes; and Cypripe* dia, in Part I. iH BOTANIC CAREEN. PARI-IL A Dolphin now, his fcaly fides he laVes, And bears the fportive Darrifel on the waves ; She flrikes the cymbal as he moves along, And wondering Ocean liftens to the fong. And now a (potted Pard the lover ftalks, 475 Plays round her fteps, and guards her favour'd walks ; As with white teeth he prints her hand, carefs'd, And lays his velvet paw upon her breaft, O'er his round face her fnowy fingers (train The filken knots, and fit the ribbon-rein. 480 And now a Swan, he fpreads his plumy fails, And proudly glides before the fanriing gales; Pleafed on the flowery brink, with graceful hand; She waves her floating lover to the land ; Bright fhines his finuous neck, with crimfon beak 485 He prints fond kiffes on her glowing cheek, Spreads his broad wings, elates his ebon creft, And clafps the beauty to his downy bred. A hundred virgins join a hundred fwains, And fond ADONIS leads the fprighKty trains; 490 Pair after pair, along his facred groves To Hymen's fane the bright proceflion moves 5 Each fmiling youth a myrtle garland (hades, And wreaths of rofes veil the bluihing maids ; Light Joys on twinkling feet attend the throng, 495 Weave the gay dance, or raife the frolic fong ; Adonis. 1. 490. Many males and many females live together in the fame flower. It may feem a folecifm in language, to call a flower, which con- tains many of both i'exes, an individual ; and the more fo to call a tree or fiirub an individual, which confifts of Ib many flowers. Every tree, indeed, ought to be confidered as a family or fwarm of its refpective buds; but the buds themfelves feem to be individual plants; becaufe each has leaves or lungs appropriated to it; and the bark of the tree is only a congeries of the roots of all thefe individual buds. Thus hollow oak-trees and willows are often fecrt with the whole wood decayed and gone, and yet the few remain- ing branches flourifh with vigour; but in refped: to the male and female parts of a flower, they do not deftroy its individuality any more than the number of paps of a fow, or the number of her cotyledons, each of which includes one of her young. The fociety called the Areoi, in the ifland of Otaheite, confifts of about IOO males arid Ico females, Vvho form one promifcuous marriage. CANTO IV. LOVES OF THE PLANTS. Thick, as they pafs, exulting Cupids fling Promifcuous arrows from the founding firing ; On wings of gofTamer foft Whifpers fly, And the fly Glance fteals fide-long from the eye. 500 As round his fhrine the gaudy circles bow, And feal with muttering lips the faithlefs vow, Licentious Hymen joins their mingled hands, And loofely twines the meretricious bands. Thus where pleafed VENUS j in the fouthern main, 505 Sheds all her fmiles on Otaheite's plain, Wide o'er the ifle her filken net {lie draws, And the Loves laugh at all but Nature's laws.*' Here ceafed the Goddefs, o'er the filent firings Applauding Zephyrs fwept their fluttering wings; 510 Enraptured Sylphs arofe in murmuring crowds To air-wove canopies and pillowy clouds ; Each Gnome relu6tant fought his earthy cell, And each chill Floret clos'd her velvet bell. Then, on foft tiptoe, NIGHT approaching near 515 Hung o'er the tunelefs lyre his fable ear; Gem'd with bright ftars the ftill ethereal plain, And bade his Nightingales repeat the ftrain* TH E BOTANIC GARDEN. ADDITIONAL NOTES. T, HESE antherlefs filaments feem to be an endeavour of the plant to produce more ftamens, as would appear from, fome experiments of M. Reynier, inftituted for another purpofe : he cut away the ftamens of many flowers, with defign to prevent their fecundity, and in many inftances the flower threw out new filaments from the wounded part, of different lengths, but did not produce new anthers. The experi- ments were made on the geum rivale, different kinds of mallows, and the aechinops citro. Critical Review for March, 1788. P. 15. Addltian to the note on Iris. In the Perfian Iris the end of the lower petal is purple, with white edges and orange ftreaks, creeping, as it were, into the mouth of the flower like an infect ; by which deception in its native climate it probably prevents a fimilar infect from plundering it of its honey; the edges of the lower petal lap over thofe of the upper one, which pre- vents it from opening too wide on fine days, and facilitates its return at night ; whence the rain is excluded, and the air admitted. See Polymor- pha, Rubia, and Cypripedia, in Part I. P. 17. Additional note on Cbondrilla. In the natural ftate of the expanded flower of the barberry, the ftamens lie on the petals; under the concave iummits of which the anthers flicker themfelves, and in this fituation re- main perfectly rigid; button touching the infide of the filament near its bafe with a fine briftle, or blunt needle, the ftamen inftantly bends up- wards, and the anther, embracing the ftigma, fheds its duft. Obfervations oa the Irritation of Vegetables, by T. E. Smith, M. D. P. 19. Addition to the note on Silene. I faw a plant of the Dionaea Muf- cipula, Fly-trap of Venus, this day, in the collection of Sir B. Boothby, at Afhbui'n-Hall, Derbyfhire, Aug. 20th, 1788; and on drawing a ftraw along the middle of the rib of the leaves as they lay upon the ground round the ftem, each of them, in about a fecond of time, clofed and doubled itfelf up, crofling the thorns over the oppofite edge of the leaf, like the teeth of a fpring rat-trap : of this plant I was favoured with an elegant coloured draw- ing, by Mifs Mara Jackfon, of Tarporly, in Cheshire, a Lady who adds much botanical knowledge to many other elegant acquirements. In the Apocynum Androfajmifolium, one kind of Dog's bane, the anthers converge over the nectaries, which confift of five glandular oval corpuicles furrousding the germ; and, at the fame time, admit air to the nectariej 128 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART II. at the interface between each anther. But when a fly inferts its probofcia between thle anthers to plunder the honey, they converge clofer, and with fuch violence as to detain the fly, which thus generally perifhes. This ac- count was related to me by R. W. Darwin, Efq. of Elfton, in Nottingharn- fliire, who Ihowed me the plant in flower, July 2d, 178.8, with a fly thus held fail by the end of its probofcis, and was well feen by a magnifying lens, and which, in vain, repeatedly ftruggled to difengagc itfelf, till the converg- ing anthers were feparated by means of a pin: on fome days he had ob- ferved that almoft every flower of this elegant plant had a fly in it thus en- tangled; and, a few weeks afterwards, favoured me with his further ob- fervations on this fubjedt. " My Apocynum is not yet out of flower. I have often vifited it, and " have frequently found four or five flies, fome alive, and fome dead, in its u flowers; they are generally caught by the trunk or probofcis, fometimes " by the trunk and. a. leg : there is one at prefent only caught by a leg. " I don't know that this plant fleeps, as the flowers remain open in the " night; yet the flies frequently make their efcape. In a plant of Mr. Or- " doyno's, an ingenious gardener at Newark, who is pofleffed of a great col- " lection of plants, I faw many flowers of an Apocynum with three dead " flies in each : they are a thin-bodied fly, and rather lefs than the common " houfe-fly ; but I have feen two or three other forts of flies thus arrefted " by the plant. Aug. I a, 1788." P. 21. Additional note on Ilex. The efficient caufe which renders the hol- lies prickly, in Needwood Foreft, only as high as the animals can reach them, may arife from th lower branches being conftantly cropped by them, and thus fhoot forth more luxuriant foliage : it is probable the fhears in garden- hollies may produce the fame effedr., which is equally curious, as prickles are not thus produced on other plants. . P. 35. Additional note on Ufoa. M. Hubert made fome obfervations on the air contained in the cavities of the bambou. The ftems of thefe canes were from 40 to 50 feet in height, and 4 or 5 inches in diameter, and might contain about 30 pints of elaftic air. He cut a bambou, and introduced a lighted candle into the cavity, which was extinguifhed immediately on its entrance. He tried this about 60 times in a cavity of the bambou, containing about two pints. He introduced mice at different times into thefe cavities, which feemed to be fomewhat affected, but foon recovered their agility. The ft em of the bambou is not hollow till it rifes more than one foot from the earth ; the divifions between the cavities are convex downwards. Ob- ferv. fur la Physique, par M. Rozier, 1. 33, p. 130. P. 103. Addition to the note on Troptfolum. In Sweden a very curious phenomenon has been obferved on certain flowers, by M. Haggren, Lec- turer in Natural Hiftory. One evening he perceived a faint flafh of light repeatedly dart from a Marigold: furprized at fuch an uncommon appear- ance, he refolved to examine it with attention; and, to be affured that it \vas no deception of the eye, he placed a man near him, with orders to make a fignal at the moment when he obferved the light. They both iVw It conftantly at the fame moment. DESCRIPTION QF THE BOHON-UPAS. 129 The light was moil brilliant on Marigolds, of an orange or flame colour 5 but fcarcely vifible on pale ones. The flafli was frequently feen on the fame flower two or three times in quick fucceflion, but more commonly at intervals of feveral minutes; ami when feveral flowers in the fame place emitted their light together, it cou!4 be obferved at a confiderable diftance. This phenomenon was remarked in the months of July and Auguft, at fun-fet, and for half an hour after, when the atmpfphere was clear; bu^ after a rainy day, or when the air was loaded with vapours, nothing of i$ was feen. The following flowers emitted flafhes more or lefs vivid, in this order; I. The Marigold, (Calendula Ojjiciiialis). . 2. Garden Naflurtion, (tropcsolum majusj. 3. Orange Lily, ( Lilium liMiferum). 4. African Marigold, (Tagetes patula et erefta). Sometimes it was alfo obferved on the Sun -flowers, (Heliantbus annum}, But blight yellow, or flame colour, feemed in general neceffary for the pro- duction of this light; for it was never feen on the flowers of any other colour. To dJfcover whether fome little infecls, or phofphoric worms, might not be the caufe of it, the flowers Avere carefully examined even with a microf- cope, without any fuch being found. From the rapidity of the flaih, and other circumftances, it might be conjee? tured, that there is fomething of electricity in this phenomenon. It is well known, that when the pljlil of a flower is impregnated, the pollen burfts away by its elafticity, with which electricity may be combined. But M. Haggren, after having obferved the flafh from the Orange-lily, the anther* of which are a confiderable fpace diftanf from the petals, found that the light proceeded from the petals only ; whence he concludes that this electric light is caufed by the pollen, which, in flying off, is fcattered upon the petals. Obfer. Physique par M. Rozier, vol. xxxiii. p. ill. Defer -iption of tie Poifon-Tree in the I/land of JAVA. Tranjlatcd from tie ori- ginal Dutch of N. P. Foerfch. THIS deftructive tree is called, in the Malayan language, Bohon-Upas f and has been defer ibed by naturajiib; but their accounts have been fo tinc- tured with the marvellous, that the whole narration has been fuppofed to be an ingenious fiction by the generality of readers. Nor is this in the leafl degree furprifing, when the circumftances, which we fiiall faithfully relate in this defcription, are confidered. I muft acknowledge, that I long doubted the exiftence of this tree, un- til a ftricler inquiry convinced me of my error. 1 fhall now only relato .fimple unadorned facts, of which I have been an eye-witnefs. My readers may depend upon the fidelity of this account. In the year 1774, I was fia- tioned at Batavia, as a furgeon, in the fervice of the Dutch Baft-India Com- PART 11. K '3 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART II. pany. During my refidence there, I received feveral different accounts of the Bohon-Upas, and the violent effe&s of its poifon. They all then feemed incredible to me, but raifed my curiofity in fo high a degree, that I refolved to inveftigate this fubjecl: thoroughly, and to truft only to my own Derivations. In confequence of this refolution, I applied to the Governor- General, Mr. Petrus Albertus van der Parra, for a pafs to travel through the country : my requeft was granted; and, having procured every informa- tion, I fet out on my expedition. I had procured a recommendation from an old Malayan prieft to another prieft, who lives on the nearefl inhabita- ble fpot to the tree, which is about fifteen or fixteen miles diftant. The letter proved of great fervice to me in my undertaking, as that prieft is ap- pointed by the Emperor to refide there, in order to prepare for eternity the fouls of thofe who, for different crimes, are fentenced to approach the tree, and to procure the poifon. The Bohon-Upas is fituated in the ifland of Java, about twenty-feven leagues from Bata-via, fourteen from Soura-Cbarta, the feat of the Emperor, and between eighteen and twenty leagues from Tinkjoe, the prefent refidence of the Sultan of Java. It is furrounded on all fides by a circle of high hills and mountains; and the country round it, to the diftance of ten or twelve miles from the tree, is entirely barren. Not a tree, nor a fhrub, nor even the leaft plant or grafs, is to be feen. I have made the tour all around this dangerous fpot, at about eighteen miles diftant from the centre, and I found the afpe6l of the country on all fides equally dreary. The eafieft af- cent of the hills is from that part where the old ecclefiaftic dwells. From his houfe the criminals are fent for the poifon, into which the points of all warlike inftruments are dipped. It is of high value, and produces a confi- derable' revenue to the Emperor. yf jv0z.v;# of the matins? in ti'hicb the Poifon Is procured. The poifon which is procured from this tree, is a gum that ifTues out be- tween the bark and the tree itfelf, like the camphor. Malefactors who, for their crimes, are fentenced to die, are the only perfons who fetch the poifon ; and. this is the only chance they have of faving their lives. After fentence is pronounced upon them by the judge, they are afked in court, whether they will die by the hands of the executioner, or whether they will go to the Upas tree for a box of poifon ? They commonly prefer the latter propofal, as there is not only fome chance of preferving their lives, but alfo a cer- tainty, in cafe of their fafe return, that a provifion will be made for them in future by the Emperor. They are alfo permitted to afk a favour from the Emperor, which is generally of a trifling nature, and commonly granted. They are then provided with a filver or tortoifefhell box, in which they arc to put the poifonous gum, and are properly inftrucled how to proceed while they are Upon their dangerous expedition. Among other particulars, they are always told to attend to the direction of the winds ; as they are to go to- wards the tree before the wind, fo th^t the effluvia from the tree are al- ways blown from them. They are told, like wife, to travel with the utmoftt Uifpatch, as that is the only method of infuring a fafe return. They are aK DESCRIPTION OF THE BOHON-UPAS. 1 3 1 terwards fent to the houfe of the old prieft, to which place they are com- moniy attended by their friends and relations. Here they generally remain fome days, in expectation of a favourable breeze. During that time the ccclefiaftic prepares them for their future fate by prayers and admonitions. When the hour of their departure arrives, the prieft puts on them a long leather-cap, with two glafles before their eyes, which comes down as far as their breaft; and alfo provides them with a pair of leather gloves. They are then conducted by the prieft, and their frknds and relations, about two miles on their journey. Here the prieft repeats his inftru&ions, and tells them where they are to look for the tree. He fhews them a hill, which they are told to afcend, and that on the other fide they will find a rivulet which they are to follow, and which will conduct them directly to the Upas. They now take leave of each other ; and, amidft prayers for their fuccefs, the delinquents haften away. The worthy old ecclefiaftic has affured me, that during his refidence there? for upwards of thirty years, he had difmiffed above feven hundred crimi- nals in the manner which I have defcribed ; and that fcarcely two out of twenty have returned. He fhewed me a catalogue of all the unhappy fuf- ferers, with the date of their departure from his houfe annexed; and a lift of the offences for which they had been condemned: to which was added, a lift of thofe who had returned in fafety. I afterwards faw another lift of thefe culprits, at the jail-keeper's, at S our a- Chart a ^ and found that they perfectly correfpanded with each other, and with the different informations which I afterwards obtained. I was prefent at fome of thefe melancholy ceremonies, and defired different delinquents to bring with them fome pieces of the wood, or a fmall branch, or fome leaves, of this wonderful tree. I have alfo given them filk cords, defiring them to meafure its thicknefs. I never could procure more than two dry leaves that were picked up by one of them on his return ; and all I could learn from him, concerning the tree itfelf, \yas, that it flood on the border of a rivulet, as defcrihed by the old prieft ;. that it was of a middling fize ; that five or fix young trees of the fame kind flood clofe by it ; but that no other fhrub or plant could be feen near it; and that the ground was of a brownifh fand, full of ftones, almoft impracticable for travelling, and covered with dead bodies. After many converfutions with the old Malayan prieft, I queftioned him about the firft difcovery, and afked his opinion of this dangerous tree ; upon which he gaye me the following anfwer ; " We are told in our new Alcoran, that, above an hundred years ago, the " country around the tree was inhabited by a people ftrongly addicted to the " fins of Sodom and Gomorrha; .when the great Prophet Mahomet deter- " mined not to fuffer them to lead fuch deteftable lives any longer, he applied " to God to punifh them : upon which God caufed this tree to grow out of " the earth, whi>* deftroyed them all, and rendered the country for ever " uninhabitable." Such was the Malayan opinion. I fhall not attempt to comment; but mTjft obferve, that all the Malayans confider this tree as an holy inftru- ment of the great prophet to punifh the fins of mankind ; and, therefore, i$z BOTANIC GARDEM. PART II. to die of the poifon of the Upas is generally confidered among them as ah honourable death. For that reaibn I alfo obfervcd, that the delinquents. Who were going to the tree, were generally dreffed in their beft apparel. This, however, is certain, though it may appear incredible, that from fifteen to eighteen miles round this tree, not only no human creature can exift, but that, in that fpace of ground, no living animal of any kind has ever been difcovered. I have alfo been affured by feveral perfons of vera- city, that there are no fiih in the waters, nor has any rat^ moufe, or any other vermin, been feen there; and when any birds fly fo near this tree, that the effluvia reaches them, they fall a facrifice to the effects of the poi- fon. This circumftance has been afcertained by different delinquents, who, in their return, have feen the birds drop down, and have picked them up dead, and brought them to the old ecclefiaftlc. I will here mention an inilance, which proves the fact beyond all doubt, knd which happened during my ftay at Java. In the year 1775, a rebellion broke out among the fubjeets of the Maf- Tay, a fovereign prince, whofe dignity is nearly equal to that of the Em- peror. They refufed to pay a duty impofed upon them by their fovereign, ivhom they openly oppofed. The Maflay fent a body of a thoufand troops to difperfe the rebels^ and to drive them, with their families, out of his dominions. Thus four hundred families, confifting of above fix- teen hundred fouls, were obliged to leave their native country. Neither the Emperor nor the Sultan would give them protection, not only becaufe they were rebels, but alfo through fear of difpleafing their neighbour, the Maffay. In this diftrefsftil fituation, they had no other refource than to repair to the uncultivated parts round the Upas, and requefted permiffioii of the Emperor to fettle there. Their requeft was granted, on condition of their fixing their abode not more than twelve or fourteen miles from the tree, in order not to deprive the inhabitants already fettled there, at a greater diflance, of their cultivated lands. With this they were obliged to comply; but the confequence was, that in lefs than two months their number was reduced to about three hundred. The chiefs of thofe who re- mained returned to the Maflay, informed him of their loffes, and intreated his pardon, which induced him to receive them again as ftibjects, thinking them fufficiently punifhed for their mifconduct. I have feen and converfed with feveral of thofe who furvived, foon after their return. They all had the appearance of perfons tainted with an infectious diforder; they looked pale and weak, and, from the account which they gave of the lofs of their comrades, and of the fymptoms and circumftances which attended their dii- folution, fuch as ccnvulfions, and other figns of a violent death, I was fully convinced that they fell victims to the poifon. This violent effect of the poifori at fo great a diftance from the tree certainly appears furprifing, and almoit incredible; and eipecially, when we confider that it is pcflible for delinquents who approach the tree to return alive. My wonder, however, in a great meafure, ceafed, after I had made the following obfervations : I have fuid before, that malefactors are inftructcd to go to the tree with DESCRIPTION OF THE BOHON-UPAS. 133 the wind, and to return againft the wind. When the wind continues to blow from the fame quarter while the delinquent travels thirty, or fix and thirty miles, if he be of a good conftitution, he certainly furvives. But what proves the moft deftru&ive is, that there is no dependence on the wind in that part of the world for any length of time. There are no regular land- winds; and the fea-wind is not perceived there at all, the fituation of the tree being at too great a diftance, and furrounded by high mountains and uncultivated forefts. Befides, the wind there never blows a frelh regular gale, but is commonly merely a current of light, foft breezes, which pafs through the different openings of the adjoining mountains. It is alfo fre- quently difficult to determine from what part of the globe the wind really comes, as it is divided by various obftru6tions in its paffage, which eafily change the direction of the wind, and often totally deftroy its effects. I, therefore, impute the diftant effefts of the poifon, in a great meafure, to the conftant gentle winds in thofe parts, which have not power enough to difperfe the poifonous particles. If high winds were more frequent and durable there, they would certainly weaken very much, and even deftroy the obnoxious effluvia of the poifon ; but without them, the air remains in- fedled and pregnant with thefe poifonous vapours. I am the more convinced of this, as the worthy ecclefiaftic r aflured me, that a dead calm is always attended with the greateft danger, as there is a continual perfpiration iffuing from the tree, which is feen to rife and fpread in the air, like the putrid fleam of a marfhy cavern. Experiments mude ivltb tie Gum of the UPAS-TilEE. In the year 1776, in the month of February, I was prefent at the exe- cution of thirteen of the Emperor's concubines, at Soura-Charta, who were convivfled of infidelity to the Emperor's bed. It was in the forenoon, about eleven o'clock, when the fair criminals were led into an open fpace, within the walls of the Emperor's palace. There the judge paffed fentence upon them, by which they were doomed to fuffer death by a lancet, poifoned with Upas. After this the Alcoran was preferred to them, and they were, ac- cording to the law of their great prophet Mahomet, to acknowledge and to affirm by oath, that the charges brought againft them, together with the fentence and their punifhment, were fair and equitable. This they did, by laying their right hand upon the Alcoran, their left hand upon their breaft, and their eyes lifted towards heaven ; the judge then held the Alcoran to their lips, and they kifled it. Thefe ceremonies over, the executioner proceeded on his bufmefs in the following manner : Thirteen pofts, each about five feet high, had been previoufly erected. To thefe the delinquents were faftened, and their breafts flripped naked. In this fituation they remained a fhort time in continual prayers, attended by feveral priefts, until a fignal was given by the judge to the executioner ; on which the latter produced an inftrument, much like the ipring lancet ufed by farriers for bleeding horfcs. With this inftrument, it being poifoned with the gum of the Upas, the unhappy wretches were lanc- ed in the middle of their breafts, and the operation was performed upoa them all in lefs than?two minutes. 1 3 4 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART IL My aftonifhment was raifed to the higheft degree, when I beheld the fu<4- ' den effects of that poifon; for in about five minutes after they were lanced they were taken with a tremor , attended with a fubfultus tendinum, after which they died in the greateft agonies, crying out to God and Mahomet for mercy. In fixteen minutes by my watch, which I held in my hand, all the criminals were no more. Some hours after their death, I obferved their bodies full of livid fpots, much like thofe of the Petcchia:^ their faces fwelled, their colour changed to a kind of blue, their eyes looked yellow, &c. &c. About a fortnight after this I had an opportunity of feeing fuch another execution at Samarang. Seven Malays were executed there with the fame inftrument, and in the fame manner; and I found the operation in the poifoo, and the fpots in their bodies, exadly the fame. Thefe circumftances made me defirous to try an experiment with fomc animals, in order to be convinced of the real effeds of this poifon; and as I had then two- young puppies, I thought them the fitteft objects for my purpofe.- I accordingly procured, with great difficulty, fome grains of Upas. I diffolved half a grain of that gum in a fmall quantity of arrack, and dip- fed a lancet into it. With this poifoned inftrument I made an incifion in the lower mufcular part of the belly in one of the puppies. Three minutes after it received the wound the animal began to cry out moft piteoufiy, and ran as faft as poffible from one corner of the room to the other. So it con- tinued during fix minutes, when all its ftrength being exhaufted, it fell upon the ground, was taken with convulfions, and died in the eleventh minute. I repeated this experiment with two other puppies, with a cat and a fowl, and found the operation of the poifon in all of them the fame: none of thefe animals furvived above thirteen minutes. I thought it neceffary to try alfo the effec"i of the poifon given inwardly, which I did in the following manner. I diffolved a quarter of a grain of the gum in half an ounce of arrack, and made a dog of feven months old drink it. In feven minutes a retching enfued, and I obferved, at the fame time, that the animal was delirious, as it ran up and down the room, fell on the ground, and tumbled about; then it rofe again, cried out very loud, and in about half an hour after was feized with convulfion*, and died. I opened the body, and found the ftomach very much inflamed, as the intef- tines were in fome parts, but not fa much as the ftomach. There was a fmall quantity of coagulated blood in the ftomach; but I could difcover no orifice from which it could have iffued; and therefore fuppofed it to have been fqueezed out of the lungs, by the animal's {training while it was vo- miting, From thefe experiments I have been convinced that the gum of the Upas Is the moft dangerous and moft violent of all vegetable poifons; and I am apt to believe that it greatly contributes to the unhealthinefs of that ifland. Nor is this the only evil attending it: hundreds of the natives of Java, as well as Europeans, are yearly deftroyed and treacheroufly murdered by that poifon, cither internally or externally. Every man of quality or fafhion has his dagger or other arms poifoned with it ; and in times of war the Malayans poifon the fprings and other waters with it. By this treacherous practice DESCRIPTION OF THE BOA UPAS. i 3 $ tlie Dutch fuffered greatly during the laft war, as it occafioned the lofs of half their army. For this reafon they have ever fince kept fiih in the fprings of which they drink the water, and fentinels are placed near them, whxj infpevft the waters every hour, to fee whether the fifh are alive. If they march with an army or body of troops into an enemy's country, they always carry live fifli with them, which they throw into the water fome hours before they venture to drink it ; by which means they have been able to prevent their total definition. This account, I flatter myfelf, will fatisfy the curiofity of my readers, and the few fadls which I have related will be confidered as a certain proof of the exiftence of this pernicious tree, and its penetrating effedb. If it be aficed why we have not yet any more fatisfa&ory accounts of tKi* tree, I can only anfwer, that the object of moft travellers to that part of the world confifls more in commercial purfuits than in the ftudy of Natural Hiftory and the advancement of Sciences. Befides, Java is fo univerfally reputed an unhealthy ifland, that rich travellers feldom make any long flay in it; and others want money, and generally are too ignorant of the lan- guage to travel, in order to make inquiries. In future, thofe who vifit this ifland will now probably be induced to make it an object of their refearches, and will furnifti us with a fuller defcription of this tree. I will therefore only add, that there exifls alfo a fort of Cajoe-Upas on the coaft of Macafier, the poifon of which operates nearly in the fame man- ner, but is not half fo violent or malignant as that of Java, and of which I fliall likewife give a more circumftantial account in a defcription of that ifland. London Magazine. Another Account of tie Boa Upas, or Poifon-Tree of Macafler, from an inau- gural Dffirtation publijbed by Chrift. Aejmelseus, and approved by Profeflbr Thunberg, at Upfal. DOCTOR Aejmelajus firfl fpeaks of poifons in general, enumerating many virulent ones from the mineral and animal, as well as from the vegetable kingdoms of Nature. Of the firft he mentions arfenical, mercurial, and antimonial preparations; amongft the fecond he mentions the poifons of fe- veral ferpents, fifties, and infects; and amongft the laft the Curara on the bank of the Oronoko, and the Woorara on the banks of the Amazones, and many others. But he thinks the ftrongeft is that of a tree hitherto uncle- fcribcd, known by the name of Boa Upas, which grows in many of the warmer parts of India, principally in the iflands of Java, Sumatra, Borneo, Bali, Macafler, and Celebes. Rumphius teftifies concerning this Indian poifon, that it was more terri- ble to the Dutch then any warlike inftrumenc; it is by him ftyled Arbor toxicaria, and he mentions two fpecies of it, which he terms male and female ; and defcribes the tree as having a thick trunk, with fpreading branches, co- vered with a rough dark bark. The wood, he adds, is very folid, of a pale 136 BOTANIC GARDEN. PAI^T II. yellow, and variegated with black fpots; but the fructification is yet un- known. Profeffor Thunberg fuppofes the Boa Upas to be a Ceftrum, or a tree of the fame natural family; and defcribes a Ceftrum of the Cape of Good- Hope, the juice of which the Hottentots mix with the venom of a certain ferpent, which is faid to increafe the deleterious quality of them both. The Boa Upas tree is eafily recognifed at a diftance, being always folita- ry, the foil around it being barren, and, as it were, burnt up; the dried juice is dark brown, liquifying by heat, like other refins. It is colle&ed with the greateft caution, the perfon having his head, hands, and feet care- fully covered with linen, that his whole body may be protected from the vapour as well as from the droppings of the tree. No one can approach fo near as to gather the juice, hence they ftipply bamboos, pointed like a fpear, which they thrufl obliquely, with great force, into the trunk; the juice ooz- ing out gradually fills the upper joint ; and the nearer the root the wound is made, the more virulent the poifon is fuppofed to be. Sometimes up- wards of twenty reeds are left fixed in the tree for three or four days, that the juice may collect and harden in the cavities; the upper joint of the reed is then cut off from the remaining part, the concreted juice is formed into globules or fticks, and is kept in hollow reeds, carefully clofed, and wrap- ped in tenfold linen. It is every week taken out to prevent its becoming- mouldy, which fpoils it. The deleterious quality appears to be volatile, fince it lofes much of its power in the time of one year, and in a few years becomes totally effete. The vapour of the tree produces numbncfs and fpafrns of the limbs, and if any one ftands under it bare-headed, he lofes his hair; and if a drop falls on him, violent inflammation enfues. Birds which fit on the branches a Ihort time, drop down dead, and can even with difficulty fly over it; and not only no vegetables grow under it, but the ground is barren a Hone's caft around it. A perfon wounded by a dart poifoned with this juice feels immediately a fcnfe of heat over his whole body, . with great vertigo, to which death foon iucceeds. A perfon wounded with the Java poifon was affected with tre- mor of the limbs, and ftarting of the tendons in five minutes, and died in kfs than fixteen minutes, with marks of great anxiety; the corpfe, in a few hours, was covered with petechial fpots, the face became tumid and lead- coloured, and the white part of the eye became yellow. The natives try the ftrength of their poifon by a fingular teft ; fome of the expreffed juice of the root of Amomum Zerumbet is mixed with a little water, and a bit of the poifonous gum or refin is dropped into it; an effer- vefcence inftantly takes place, by the violence of which they judge of the ilrength of the poifon. What air can be extricated during this effervefcence? This experiment is faid to be dangerous to the operator. As the juice is capable of being diffolved in arrack, and is thence fuppofed to be principally of a refinous nature, the Profeffor does not credit that foun- tains have been poifoned with it. This poifon has been employed as a punifhment for capital crimes in FAIRY-SCENE. 137 Macaffer and other iflands; inthofe cafes fome experiments have heen made, and when a finger only had been wounded with a dart, the immediate am- putation of it did not fave the criminal from death. The poifon from what has been termed the female tree, is lefs deleterious than the other, and has been ufed chiefly in hunting ; the carcafes of animals thus dcflroyed are eaten with impunity. The poifon-juice is faid to be ufed externally as a remedy againft other poifons, in the form of a plafter; alfo to be ufed internally for the fame purpofe; and is believed to alleviate the pain, and extravft the poifon of venomous infedls fooner than any other ap- plication. The author concludes that thefe accounts have been exaggerated by Mahomedan priefts, who have perfuaded their followers that the Prophet Mahomet planted this noxious tree as a punifhment for the fins of mankind. An abftra<5l of. this Difiertation of C. Aejmelseus is given in Dr. Dun- can's Medical Commentaries for the year I79Qj Decad. 3d. vol. v. FAIRY-SCENE from Mr. Mundy's Neediuood Forejl. Referred to in Ganto IV. 1. 35, HERE, feen of old, the elfin race "With fprightly vigils mark'd the place; Their gay procefiions charm'd the fight, Gilding the lucid noon of night; Or, when obfcure the midnight hour, With glow-worm lantherns hung the bower. Hark ! the foft lute ! along the green Moves with majeftic ftep the QUEEN ! Attendant Fays around her throng, And trace the dance or raife the fong; Or touch the ftirill reed, as they trip, With finger light and ruby lip. High, on her brow fublime, is borne One fcarlet woodbine's tremulous horn; A gaudy Bee-bird's* triple plume Sheds on her neck its waving gloom; With filvery goffamer entwin'd Stream the luxuriant locks behind. Thin folds of tangled network break In airy waves adown her neck; ., Warp'd in his loom, the fpider fpread The far-diverging rays of thread, Then round and r< und with fhuttle fine Inwrought the undulating line; * The Lumming-bird. PART II. S BOTANIC GARDEN. PART II, Scarce hides the woof her bofom's fnow, One pearly nipple peeps below. One rofe-leaf forms her crimfon veft, The loofe edge croffes o'er her breaft ; And one tranflucent fold, that fell From the tall lily's ample bell, Forms with fvveet grace her mow-white train, Flows, as fhe fteps, and fweeps the plain. Silence and Night enchanted gaze, And Hefper hides his vanquifh'd rays ! Now the waked reed-finch fwells his throat, And night-larks trill their mingled note ; Yet hufh'd in mofs with writhed neck The blackbird hides his golden beak ; Charm'd from his dream of love he wakes, Opes his gay eye, his plumage makes, And, ftretching wide each ebon wing, Firft in low whifpers tries to fing; Then founds his clarion loud, and thrills The moon-bright lawns, and fhadowy hills. Silent the choral Fays attend, And then their {liver voices blend, Each mining thread of found prolong, And weave the magic woof of fong. Pleafed Philomela takes her ftand On high, and leads the Fairy band, Pours fweet at intervals her ftrain, And guides with beating wing the train. Whilft interrupted Zephyrs bear Hoarfc murmurs from the diftant wear; And at each paufe is heard the fwell Of Echo's foft fymphonious fhell. THE BOTANIC GARDEN, CATALOGUE POETIC EXHIBITION. CANTO t. GPage. ROUP of infers ia Tender hufband 12 Self-admirer 12 Rival lovers 13 Coquet 13 Platonic wife 14 Monfter-hufband 16 Rural happinefs 1 7 Clandeftine marriage 17 Sympathetic lovers 17 Ninon d'Enclos 19 Harlots 19 Giants 21 Mr. Wright's paintings 22 Thaleftris 23 Autumnal fcene 23 Dervife proceffion 24 Lady in full drefs 25 Lady on a precipice 26 Palace in the fea 27 Vegetable lamb 39 Whale 29 Senfibility 29 Mountain-fcene by night 32 Lady drinking water 33 Lady and cauldron 33 Medea and JEfon 34 Forlorn nymph 34 Galatea on the fea 36 Lady frozen to a ftatue 36 CANTO II. Page. Air-balloon of Montgolfier 46 Arts of weaving and fpinning 47 Arkwright's cotton mills 48 Invention of letters, figures, and crotchets 49 Mrs. Delany's paper-garden 51 Mechanifm of a watch, and de- fign for its cafe 5* Time, hours, moments 5 a Transformation of Nebuchadnezzar53 St. Anthony preaching to fifh 55 Sorcerefs 56 Mifs Crewe's drawings 56 Song to May 57 Froft fcene 58 Difcovery of the bark 58 Mofes ftriking the rock 60 Dropfy 60 Mr. Howard and prifons 6 a CANTO III. Witch and imps in a diurch 69 Infpired Prieftefs 70 Fufeli's night-mare 71 Cave of Thor and fubterranean Naiads 73 Medea and children 75 Palmira weeping 78 Group of wild creatures drinking 79 Poifon-tree of Java 79 1 4 6 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART IT, Page. | Time and hours 80 i Wounded deer , 81 ! Lady (hot in battle 82 Harlots 83 Laocoon and his foul 84 Drunkards and difeafes 85 Prometheus and the vulture 85 Lady burying her child in the plague 86 Mofes concealed on the Nile 89 Slavery of the Africans 89 "Weeping mufe 9 CANTO IV. Maid of night ioi Fairies IO2 Eledlric lady -103 Shadrec, Mefhec and Abednego, in the fiery furnace 104 Shepherdeffes 104 Song to Echo 105 Kingdom of China 105 Lady and diftaff To6 Cupid fpinning 106 Lady walking in fnow 107 Children at play 107 Venus and Loves ic8 Matlock Bath Angel bathing Mermaid and Nereids Lady in fait Lot's wife Lady in regimentals Dejanira in a lion's &in Page., 109 no III IIZ 113 114 114 Offspring from the marriage of the Rofe and the Nightingale 115 Parched deferts in Africa 116 Turkifh lady in an undrefs 117 Ice-fcene in Lapland 118 Lock-lomond by moon-light 119. Hero and Leander 120 Gnome-hufband and palace under ground 121 Lady inclofed in a fig 1 21 Sylph-hufband iaa Marine cave . 1 22 Proteus lover 123. Lady on a Dolphin 124 Lady bridling a Pard 124 Lady faluted by a Swan 124 Hymeneal proceffion 124 Night I2jf THE BOTANIC GARDEN CONTENTS OF THE NOTES. OEEDJ )S of Cannaufed for pray- er-beads Stems and leaves of Callitriche jib matted together, as they Hoat on the water, as to bear a perfon walking on them The female in Collinfonia ap- proaches firft to one of the males, and then to the other Females in NigellaandEpilobium bend towards the males for fome days, and then leave them The ftigma, or head of the fe- male, in Spartium (common broom) is produced amongft the higher fet of males; but when the keel-leaf opens, the piftilfuddenly twifts roundlike a French-horn, and places the iligma amidft the lower fet of males The two lower males in Ballota become mature before the two higher; and, when their duft is flied, turn outwards from the female The plantsof the clafsTwo Po\V- ers, with naked feeds, are all aromatic Of thefe, Marum andNepeta are delightful to cats The filaments in Meadia,Borago, Cyclamen, Solanum,&c.fhewn by reafoning to be the moft un- changeable parts of thofe flowers Rudiments of two hinder wings are feen in the clafs Diptera, or two-winged infects Teats of male animals Filaments without anthers in Cur- cuma, Linum, &c. and ftyles without ftigmas in many plants, fhew the advance of the works of nature to wards great- er perfection 15 Double flowers,or vegetablemon- fters, how produced 15, 16 The calyx and lower feries of petals not changed in double flowers 15 Difperfion of the duft in nettles and other plants 16 Cedar and Cyprefs unperifhable 16 An thoxanthum gives the fragrant fcent to hay 17 Viviparous plants : the Aphis is viviparous in fummer, and ovi- parous in autumn 17 Irritability of the ftamen of the phnts of the clafs Syngenefia, or Confederate males 17 Some of the males in Lychnis, and other flowers, arrive foon- er at their maturity 18 Males approach the female in Gloriofa, Fritillaria, and Kal- mia 1 8 Contrivances to deftroy infects in Silene, Dionrea mufcipula, Arum mufcivorum, Dypfacus, &c. 19 Some bell-flowers clofe at night; others hang the mouths down- wards; others nod and turn from the wind ; ftamens bound down to the piftil in Amaryllis formofiflima ; piftil is crooked in Hemerocallis flava, yellow day-lily ao BOTANIC GARDEN. PART II. Thorns and prickles defigned for the defence of the plant; tall Hollies have no prickles above the reach of cattle 21 Bird-lime from the bark of Hol- lies like elaftic gum 21 Adanfonia the largeft treeknown ; its dimenfions 22 Bulbous roots contain the embry- on flower, feen by difiecting a tulip-root 2 Flowers of Colchicum and Ha- mamelisappearin autumn, and ripen their feed in the fpring following 24 Sun-flower turns to the fun by nutation, not by gyration 24 Difperfion of feeds 24 Drofera catches flies 25 Of the nectary, its ftructure to preferve the honey from infects 26 Curious probofcis of the Sphinx Convolvuli 26 Final caufe of the refemblance of fome flowers to infects, as the Bee-orchis 26 In fome plants of the clafs Tetra- dynamia, or Four Powers, the two fhorter ftamens, when at maturity, rife as high as the others 26 Ice in the caves on Terierif, which were formerly hallowed by volcanic fires 27 Some parafitesdo not injure trees, as Tillandfia and Epid-endrum 27 Mofles growing on trees injure them 27 Marriages of plants necefTary to be celebrated in the air 28 Infects with legs on their backs 28 Scarcity of grain in wet feafons 28 Tartarian lamb; ufe of down on vegetables; air,glafs,wax,and fat, are bad conduct ore of heat ; mow does not moiften the liv- ing animals buried in it, illuf- trated by burning camphor in fnow 28 Of the collapfe of the fenfitive plant 29 Birds of paflage 30 The acquired habits of plants 31 Irritability of plants increafed by previous expofure to cold 3 1 Lichen produces the firft vegeta- tion on rocks 32 Plants holding water 33: Madder colours the bones of young animals 33. Colours of animals ferve to con- ceal them 33 Warm bathing retards old age 34 Male flowers of Valilneria de- tach themfelves from the plant, and float to the female ones 34 Air in the cells of plants, its va- rious ufes 35 How Mr. Day probably loft his life in his diving-fhip 36 Air-bladders of fi-fh 36 Star-jelly is voided by Herons 37 Intoxicating mufhrooms 37 Mufhrooms grow without light, and approach to animal nature 37 Seeds of Tillandfia fly on long threads, like fpiders on the gofiamer 45 Account of cotton mills 48 nvention of letters, figures, crotchets 49 Mrs. Delany's and Mrs. North's paper-gardens 5 1 The horologe of Flora 51 The white petals of Helleborus niger become firft red, and then change into a green calyx _ 53 Berries of Menifpernum intoxi- cate fiih 54 Effects of opium 55 Paintings by Mifs Crewe 56 Petals of Ciftus and CEnothera continue but a few hours 57 Method of collecting the gum from Ciftus by leathern thongs 5 7 Difcovery of the bark 58 Foxglove, how ufcd in dropfics 60 Bifhop of Marfeilles and Lord Mayor of London 6l Superftitious ufesof plants, thedi- vining rod, animal magnetifm 69 ntoxicationofthe Pythian prieft- efs, poifon from Laurel leaves, and from cherry kernels 70 Sleep confifts in the abolition of voluntary power ; night-mare explained 7% ndian fig emits {lender cords from its fummit 7* PART II. CONTENTS OF THE NOTES. Cave of Thor in Derbyfliire, and fubterraneous rivers explained 73 The capfule of the Geranium makes an hygrometer ; Barley creeps out of a barn 74 Mr. Edgworth's creeping hy- grometer 75 Flower of Fraxinella flames on the approach of a candle 76 Effential oils narcotic, poifonous, deleterious to infects 76 Dew-drops from Mancinella blif- ter the {kin 77 Ufes of poifonous juices in the vegetable economy 77 The fragrance of plants a part of their defence 77 The fting and poifon of a nettle 7 7 Vapour fromLobeliafuffbcative; unwholefomenefs of perfumed hair-powder 78 Ruins of Palmira 78 The poifon-tree of Java 79, 129 Tulip roots die annually So Hyacinth and Ranunculus roots 81 Vegetable conteftforair and light 83 Some voluble items turn E. S.\V. and others W. S. E. 83 Tops of white Bryony as grate- ful as Afparagus 84 Fermentation con verts fugar into fpirit, food into poifon 85 Fable of Prometheus applied to dram-drinkers 85 Cyclamen buries its feeds and tri- folium fubterraneum 86 Pits dug to receive the dead in the plague 87 Lakes of America confift of frefh water 87 The feeds of Caflia &fome others are carried from America, and thrown on the coafts of Nor- way and Scotland 87 Of the Gulph-ftream 88 Wonderful change predicted in the gulph of Mexico 88 In the flowers of Cactus grandi- florus, and Ciftus, fome of the ftamens are perpetually bent to the piftil IOI Ny&anthes and others are only fragrant in the night ; Cucur- bita lagenaria clofes when the fun mines on it 103 Tropseolum, nafturtion, emits fparks in the twilight 103 Nectary on its calyx 103 Phofphorefcent lights in the c- vening 103 Hot embers eaten by bull-frogs 103 Long filaments of graffes, the caufe of bad feed-wheat 104 Chinefe hemp grew in England above 14 feet in five months 106 Roots of fnow-drop and hyacinth infipid, like orchis 107 Orchis will ripen its feeds if the new bulb be cut off IO? Proliferous flowers 107 The wax on the candle-berry myr- tle faid to be made by infects 1 08 The warm fprings of Matlock produced by the condenfation of {team raifed from great depths by fubterraneous fires 109 Air feparated from water by the attraction of points to water being lefs than that of the par- ticles of water to each other I lo Minute divilion of fub-aquatic leaves HO Water-crefs, and other aquatic plants, inhabit all climates ill Butomus efculent ; Lotus of E- gypt; Nymphasa III Ocymum covered with fait every night II* Salt a remote caufe of fcrophula, and immediate caufe of fea- fcurvy Iia Coloured fpatha of Arum, and blotched leaves, if they ferve the purpofe of a coloured petal 114 Tulip roots with a red cuticle produce red flowers 114 Of vegetable mules the internal parts, as thofe of fructification, refemble the female parent ; and the external parts, the male one 1 15 The fame occurs in animal mules, as the common mule and the hinnus, and in fheep US The wind called Harmattanfrom volcanic eruptions ; fome epi- demic coughs or influenzahave the fame origin Il6 Fifh killed in the fea, by dry fum- mers, inAfia 117 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART II. Hedyfarum gyrans perpetually moves its leaves like the refpi- ration of animals 117 Plants poffefs a voluntary power of motion 117 Loud cracks from ice-mountains explained 119 Mufchus corallinus vegetates be- low the fnow, where the heat is always about 40. 119 ^uick growth of vegetables in northern latitudes, after the folution of the fnows, ex- plained 119 The Rail fleeps in the fnow 119 Conferva asgagropila rolls about the bottom of lakes 119 Lycoperdon tuber, truffle, re- quires no light I2O Account of caprification 121 Figs wounded with a ftraw, and pears and plumbs wounded by infeds, ripen fooner, and be- come Tweeter iaz Female figs clofed on all fides, fuppofed to be monfters iat Bafaltic columns produced by vol- canos, {hewn by their form 123 Byffus floats on the fea in the day, and finks in the night 123 Conferva polymorpha twice changes its colour and its form 123 Some feed-veffels and feedsrefem- ble infe&s 133 Individuality of flowers not de- ftroyed by the number of males or females which they contain 124 Trees are fwarms of buds, which are individuals. 12,4 THE BOTANIC GARDEN. INDEX NAMES OF THE PLANTS. ADONIS ....... 124 ^Egagropila ........ 119 A'icea .......... ''"' Amaryllis ........ 20 Anemone ......... 30 Anthoxanthum ...... \ 17 Arum ...... ..... 114 Avena .......... 104 Barometz jBellis Byssus 107 12 Caclus 101 Calendula 51 Callitriche 12 Canna 12 Cannabis 106 Capri-ficus 121 Carlina , 4$ Caryophy'ilus . ...... 115 Cassia 87 Cereus 101 Chondrilla 17 Chunda 117 Cinchona ij8 Circaea 69 Cistus 57 Cocculus 154 Colchicum 24 PART II. Collinsonia ........ 13 Conferva 119, 123 Cupressus . , 15 Curcuma 14 Cuscuta 83 Cyclamen . 86 Cyperus 49 Dianthus .........115 Dictamnus 76 Digitalis 60 Dodecatheon 14 Draba , 26 Drosera 25 Dy x psacus ......... 33 Ficus . . . . , 72 Fucus no Fraxinella 76 Galanthus 107 Genista 13 Gloriosa 18 Gossy'pium 48 Hedy'sarum '. . . 117 Helianthus 24 Helltborus 53 Hippomane 77 14 6 BOTANIC GARDEN. PART IT, Ilex 2,1 Impatiens 74 Iris 15 Kleinhovia 22 Lapsana ij i Lauro-cerasus 70 Lichen . 32 Linum 47 Lobelia 78 Lonicera 2,6 Lychnis 18 Lycoperdon ........ 1 2,0 Mancinella 77 Meadia 14 Melissa 13 Menispermum ...,. 54 Mimosa 29 Mtischus 119 Nymphaea 51 Nelumbo 118 'Ocymum ,112 Orchis 80 Osmvinda 17 Os'yris 16 Papaver .......... 55 Papy'rus ......... 49 Plantago ......... 16 Polymorpha ........ 123 Polypodium ........ 28 Prunus ... ....... 70 Rubia ........... 33 Silene ....... .... 19, Trapa ........... no Tremella ........ -. 36 Tropae'olum ....... 103 Truffelia ......... 120 Tiilipa ...... . . , . ^3 Ulva ....... .... 35 Upas ..... ..... . 79 Urtica ........... 77 Vallisneria ........ 34, Viscum ......... . 2ii Vitis ........... 85 Zostera THE END. ERRATA. PART I. In the Argument of the fourth Canto, page 96, line 8, for * 165,' read 177, and add 12 to each succeeding number of the lines throughout the page. Page 185, 1. 8 from the bottom, for ' porportion,' read proportion, 1 86, 1. 2, of the note, for * Borland,' read Portland. 198,1.17, for ' ceystallization,' read crystallization. PART II. Page 112, the following note should have been inserted at the bottom of the page. . I. 239. Mefembryanthemum cryftallinum. Direftions to the Binder for placing the Engravings. PART I. Mr. Wedgwood's Cameos to face page 54 Cyprepedium 122, Erythrina Corallodendron 124 Portland Vase 186 first Compartment 187 second Compartment 188 Handles and Bottom 191 Section of the Earth 1 99 PART II. The two plates of Plants to come in between pages 10 and i r Meadia to face page 14 Gloriosa Superba j8 Dionaea Muscipula 19 Amaryllis formosissima so Vallisneria Spiralis 34 Hedysarum gyrans 117 Apocynum androsaemifolium 127 3* IT was the intention of the publiihers of this work, agreeable to an article of their propofals, to have inferted, in this place, a lift of the fubfcribers* names; but it has been found impracticable, from the difficulty of collecting the fubfcription-papers from every part of the United Sut, to comply with that article, without a very confiderable delay in the pub- lication. It has therefore been thought proper, from the preffing demands for the book, to publifli it at this time, and without any names; the omiffion of the whole being deemed preferable to the infertiofl of but a fmall part of them,