Volume I Part 14 (1/2)
There is a figure of the great Platonic year with a phenix on his hand on the reverse of a medal of Adrian. Spence's Polym. p. 189.]
2. ”Lo! on each SEED within its slender rind Life's golden threads in endless circles wind; Maze within maze the lucid webs are roll'd, And, as they burst, the living flame unfold.
385 The pulpy acorn, ere it swells, contains The Oak's vast branches in its milky veins; Each ravel'd bud, fine film, and fibre-line Traced with nice pencil on the small design.
The young Narcissus, in it's bulb compress'd, 390 Cradles a second nestling on its breast; In whose fine arms a younger embryon lies, Folds its thin leaves, and shuts its floret-eyes; Grain within grain successive harvests dwell, And boundless forests slumber in a sh.e.l.l.
395 --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, In one bright point with nice distinction lie 400 Plan'd on the moving tablet of the eye.
--So, fold on fold, Earth's wavy plains extend, And, sphere in sphere, its hidden strata bend;-- Inc.u.mbent Spring her beamy plumes expands O'er restless oceans, and impatient lands, 405 With genial l.u.s.tres warms the mighty ball, And the GREAT SEED evolves, disclosing ALL; LIFE _buds_ or _breathes_ from Indus to the Poles, And the vast surface kindles, as it rolls!
[_Maze within maze_. l. 383. The elegant appearance on dissection of the young tulip in the bulb was first observed by Mariotte and is mentioned in the note on tulipa in Vol.II, and was afterwards noticed by Du Hamel.
Acad. Scien. Lewenhook a.s.sures us that in the bud of a currant tree he could not only discover the ligneous part but even the berries themselves, appearing like small grapes. Chamb. Dict. art. Bud. Mr.
Baker says he dissected a seed of trembling gra.s.s in which a perfect plant appeared with its root, sending forth two branches, from each of which several leaves or blades of gra.s.s proceeded. Microsc. Vol. I. p.
252. Mr. Bonnet saw four generations of successive plants in the bulb of a hyacinth. Bonnet Corps Organ. Vol. I. p. 103. Haller's Physiol. Vol.
I. p. 91. In the terminal bud of a horse-chesnut the new flower may be seen by the naked eye covered with a mucilaginous down, and the same in the bulb of a narcissus, as I this morning observed in several of them sent me by Miss ---- for that purpose. Sept. 16.
Mr. Ferber speaks of the pleasure he received in observing in the buds of Hepatica and pedicularis hirsuta yet lying hid in the earth, and in the gems of the shrub daphne mezereon, and at the base of osmunda lunaria a perfect plant of the future year, discernable in all its parts a year before it comes forth, and in the seeds of nymphea nelumbo the leaves of the plant were seen so distinctly that the author found out by them what plant the seeds belonged to. The same of the seeds of the tulip tree or liriodendum tulipiferum. Amaen. Aced. Vol. VI.]
[_And the great seed_. l. 406. Alluding to the [Greek: proton oon], or first great egg of the antient philosophy, it had a serpent wrapped round it emblematical of divine wisdom, an image of it was afterwards preserved and wors.h.i.+pped in the temple of Dioscuri, and supposed to represent the egg of Leda. See a print of it in Bryant's Mythology. It was said to have been broken by the horns of the celestial bull, that is, it was hatched by the warmth of the Spring. See note on Canto I. l.
413.]
[_And the vast surface_. l. 408. L'Organization, le sentiment, le movement spontane, la vie, n'existent qu'a la surface de la terre, et dans le lieux exposes a la lumiere. Traite de Chymie par M. Lavoisier, Tom. I. p. 202.]
3. ”Come, YE SOFT SYLPHS! who sport on Latian land, 410 Come, sweet-lip'd Zephyr, and Favonius bland!
Teach the fine SEED, instinct with life, to shoot On Earth's cold bosom its descending root; With Pith elastic stretch its rising stem, Part the twin Lobes, expand the throbbing Gem; 415 Clasp in your airy arms the aspiring Plume, Fan with your balmy breath its kindling bloom, Each widening scale and bursting film unfold, Swell the green cup, and tint the flower with gold; While in bright veins the silvery Sap ascends, 420 And refluent blood in milky eddies bends; While, spread in air, the leaves respiring play, Or drink the golden quintessence of day.
--So from his sh.e.l.l on Delta's shower-less isle Bursts into life the Monster of the Nile; 425 First in translucent lymph with cobweb-threads The Brain's fine floating tissue swells, and spreads; Nerve after nerve the glistening spine descends, The red Heart dances, the Aorta bends; Through each new gland the purple current glides, 430 New veins meandering drink the refluent tides; Edge over edge expands the hardening scale, And sheaths his slimy skin in silver mail.
--Erewhile, emerging from the brooding sand, With Tyger-paw He prints the brineless strand, 435 High on the flood with speckled bosom swims, Helm'd with broad tail, and oar'd with giant limbs; Rolls his fierce eye-b.a.l.l.s, clasps his iron claws, And champs with gnas.h.i.+ng teeth his ma.s.sy jaws; Old Nilus sighs along his cane-crown'd sh.o.r.es, 440 And swarthy Memphis trembles and adores.
[_Teach the fine seed_. l. 411. The seeds in their natural state fall on the surface of the earth, and having absorbed some moisture the root shoots itself downwards into the earth and the plume rises in air. Thus each endeavouring to seek its proper pabulum directed by a vegetable irritability similar to that of the lacteal system and to the lungs in animals.
The pith seems to push up or elongate the bud by its elasticity, like the pith in the callow quills of birds. This medulla Linneus believes to consist of a bundle of fibres, which diverging breaks through the bark yet gelatinous producing the buds.
The lobes are reservoirs of prepared nutriment for the young seed, which is absorbed by its placental vessels, and converted into sugar, till it has penetrated with its roots far enough into the earth to extract sufficient moisture, and has acquired leaves to convert it into nourishment. In some plants these lobes rise from the earth and supply the place of leaves, as in kidney-beans, cuc.u.mbers, and hence seem to serve both as a placenta to the foetus, and lungs to the young plant.
During the process of germination the starch of the seed is converted into sugar, as is seen in the process of malting barley for the purpose of brewing. And is on this account very similar to the digestion of food in the stomachs of animals, which converts all their aliment into a chyle, which consists of mucilage, oil, and sugar; the placentation of buds will be spoken of hereafter.]
[_The silvery sap_. l. 419. See additional notes, No. x.x.xVI.]
[_Or drink the golden_. l. 422. Linneus having observed the great influence of light on vegetation, imagined that the leaves of plants inhaled electric matter from the light with their upper surface. (System of Vegetables translated, p. 8.)
The effect of light on plants occasions the actions of the vegetable muscles of their leaf-stalks, which turn the upper side of the leaf to the light, and which open their calyxes and chorols, according to the experiments of Abbe Tessier, who exposed variety of plants in a cavern to different quant.i.ties of light. Hist. de L'Academie Royal. Ann. 1783.
The sleep or vigilance of plants seems owing to the presence or absence of this stimulus. See note on Nimosa, Vol. II.]
XI. ”Come, YE SOFT SYLPHS! who fan the Paphian groves, And bear on sportive wings the callow Loves; Call with sweet whisper, in each gale that blows, The slumbering Snow-drop from her long repose; 445 Charm the pale Primrose from her clay-cold bed, Unveil the bashful Violet's tremulous head; While from her bud the playful Tulip breaks, And young Carnations peep with blus.h.i.+ng cheeks; Bid the closed _Petals_ from nocturnal cold 450 The virgin _Style_ in silken curtains fold, Shake into viewless air the morning dews, And wave in light their iridescent hues; While from on high the bursting _Anthers_ trust To the mild breezes their prolific dust; 455 Or bend in rapture o'er the central Fair, Love out their hour, and leave their lives in air.
So in his silken sepulchre the Worm, Warm'd with new life, unfolds his larva-form; Erewhile aloft in wanton circles moves, 460 And woos on Hymen-wings his velvet loves.