Volume Ii Part 14 (1/2)
Thus when loud thunders o'er Gomorrah burst, And heaving earthquakes shook his realms accurst, An Angel-guest led forth the trembling Fair With shadowy hand, and warn'd the guiltless pair;
[_Ice-flower_. l. 235. Mesembryanthemum crystallinum.]
245 ”Haste from these lands of sin, ye Righteous! fly, Speed the quick step, nor turn the lingering eye!”-- --Such the command, as fabling Bards indite, When Orpheus charm'd the grisly King of Night; Sooth'd the pale phantoms with his plaintive lay, 250 And led the fair a.s.surgent into day.-- Wide yawn'd the earth, the fiery tempest flash'd, And towns and towers in one vast ruin crash'd;-- Onward they move,---loud horror roars behind, And shrieks of Anguish bellow in the wind.
255 With many a sob, amid a thousand fears, The beauteous wanderer pours her gus.h.i.+ng tears; Each soft connection rends her troubled breast, --She turns, unconscious of the stern behest!-- ”I faint!--I fall!--ah, me!--sensations chill 260 Shoot through my bones, my shuddering bosom thrill!
I freeze! I freeze! just Heaven regards my fault, Numbs my cold limbs, and hardens into salt!-- Not yet, not yet, your dying Love resign!-- This last, last kiss receive!--no longer thine!”-- 265 She said, and ceased,--her stiffen'd form He press'd, And strain'd the briny column to his breast; Printed with quivering lips the lifeless snow, And wept, and gazed the monument of woe.-- So when Aeneas through the flames of Troy 270 Bore his pale fire, and led his lovely boy; With loitering step the fair Creusa stay'd, And Death involved her in eternal shade.-- Oft the lone Pilgrim that his road forsakes, Marks the wide ruins, and the sulphur'd lakes; 275 On mouldering piles amid asphaltic mud Hears the hoa.r.s.e bittern, where Gomorrah stood; Recalls the unhappy Pair with lifted eye, Leans on the crystal tomb, and breathes the silent sigh..
With net-wove sash and glittering gorget dress'd, 280 And scarlet robe lapell'd upon her breast, Stern ARA frowns, the measured march a.s.sumes, Trails her long lance, and nods her shadowy plumes;
[_Arum_. I. 281. Cuckow-pint, of the cla.s.s Gynandria, or masculine ladies.
The pistil, or female part of the flower, rises like a club, is covered above or clothed, as it were, by the anthers or males; and some of the species have a large scarlet blotch in the middle of every leaf.
The singular and wonderful structure of this flower has occasioned many disputes amongst botanists. See Tourniff. Malpig. Dillen. Rivin. &c. The receptacle is enlarged into a naked club, with the germs at its base; the stamens are affixed to the receptacle amidst the germs (a natural prodigy), and thus do not need the a.s.sistance of elevating filaments: hence the flower may be said to be inverted. _Families of Plants_ translated from Linneus, p. 618.
The spadix of this plant is frequently quite white, or coloured, and the leaves liable to be streaked with white, and to have black or scarlet blotches on them. As the plant has no corol or blossom, it is probable the coloured juices in these parts of the sheath or leaves may serve the same purpose as the coloured juices in the petals of other flowers; from which I suppose the honey to be prepared. See note on h.e.l.leborus. I am informed that those tulip-roots which have a red cuticle produce red flowers. See Rubia.
When the petals of the tulip become striped with many colours, the plant loses almost half of its height; and the method of making them thus break into colours is by transplanting them into a meagre or sandy soil, _after they have previously enjoyed a richer soil: hence it appears, that the plant is weakened when the flower becomes variegated. See note on Anemone. For the acquired habits of vegetables, see Tulipa, Orchis.
The roots of the Arum are scratched up and eaten by thrushes in severe snowy seasons. White's Hist. of Selbourn, p. 43.]
While Love's soft beams illume her treacherous eyes, And Beauty lightens through the thin disguise.
285 So erst, when HERCULES, untamed by toil, Own'd the soft power of DEJANIRA'S smile;-- His lion-spoils the laughing Fair demands, And gives the distaff to his awkward hands; O'er her white neck the bristly mane she throws, 290 And binds the gaping whiskers on her brows; 290 Plaits round her slender waist the s.h.a.ggy vest, And clasps the velvet paws across her breast.
Next with soft hands the knotted club she rears, Heaves up from earth, and on her shoulder bears.
295 Onward with loftier step the Beauty treads, 295 And trails the brinded ermine o'er the meads; Wolves, bears, and bards, forsake the affrighted groves, And grinning Satyrs tremble, as she moves.
CARYO'S sweet smile DIANTHUS proud admires, 300 And gazing burns with unallow'd desires; 300
[_Dianthus_. l. 299. Superbus. Proud Pink. There is a kind of pink called Fairchild's mule, which is here supposed to be produced between a Dianthus superbus, and the Garyophyllus, Clove. The Dianthus superbus emits a most fragrant odour, particularly at night. Vegetable mules supply an irrefragable argument in favour of the s.e.xual system of botany.
They are said to be numerous; and, like the mules of the animal kingdom, not always to continue their species by seed. There is an account of a curious mule from the Antirrbinum linaria, Toad-flax, in the Amoenit.
Academ. V. I. No. 3. and many hybrid plants described in No. 32. The Urtica alienata is an evergreen plant, which appears to be a nettle from the male flowers, and a Pellitory (Parietaria) from the female ones and the fruit; and is hence between both. Murray, Syft. Veg. Amongst the English indigenous plants, the veronica hybrida mule Speedwel is supposed to have originated from the officinal one; and the spiked one, and the Sibthorpia Europaea to have for its parents the golden saxifrage and marsh pennywort. Pulteney's View of Linneus, p. 250. Mr. Graberg, Mr. Schreber, and Mr. Ramstrom, seem of opinion, that the internal structure or parts of fructification in mule-plants resemble the female parent; but that the habit or external structure resembles the male parent. See treatises under the above names in V. VI. Amaenit. Academic. The mule produced from a horse and the a.s.s resembles the horse externally with his ears, main, and tail; but with the nature or manners of an a.s.s: but the Hinnus, or creature produced from a male a.s.s, and a mare, resembles the father externally in stature, ash-colour, and the black cross, but with the nature or manners of a horse. The breed from Spanish rams and Swedish ewes resembled the Spanish sheep in wool, stature, and external form; but was as hardy as the Swedish sheep; and the contrary of those which were produced from Swedish rams and Spanish ewes. The offspring from the male goat of Angora and the Swedish female goat had long soft camel's hair; but that from the male Swedish goat, and the female one of Angora, had no improvement of their wool. An English ram without horns, and a Swedish horned ewe, produced sheep without horns. Amoen. Academ. V. VI. p. 13.]
With sighs and sorrows her compa.s.sion moves, And wins the damsel to illicit loves.
The Monster-offspring heirs the father's pride, Mask'd in the damask beauties of the bride.
305 So, when the Nightingale in eastern bowers On quivering pinion woos the Queen of flowers; Inhales her fragrance, as he hangs in air, And melts with melody the blus.h.i.+ng fair; Half-rose, half-bird, a beauteous Monster springs, 310 Waves his thin leaves, and claps his glossy wings; Long horrent thorns his mossy legs surround, And tendril-talons root him to the ground; Green films of rind his wrinkled neck o'espread, And crimson petals crest his curled head; 315 Soft-warbling beaks in each bright blossom move, And vocal Rosebuds thrill the enchanted grove!-- Admiring Evening stays her beamy star, And still Night listens from his ebon ear; While on white wings descending Houries throng, 320 And drink the floods of odour and of song.
When from his golden urn the Solstice pours O'er Afric's sable sons the sultry hours; When not a gale flits o'er her tawny hills, Save where the dry Harmattan breathes and kills;
[_The dry Harmattan_. l. 324. The Harmattan is a singular wind blowing from the interior parts of Africa to the Atlantic ocean, sometimes for a few hours, sometimes for several days without regular periods. It is always attended with a fog or haze, so dense as to render those objects invisible which are at the distance of a quarter of a mile; the sun appears through it only about noon, and then of a dilute red, and very minute particles subside from the misty air so as to make the gra.s.s, and the skins of negroes appear whitish. The extreme dryness which attends this wind or fog, without dews, withers and quite dries the leaves of vegetables; and is said of Dr. Lind at some seasons to be fatal and malignant to mankind; probably after much preceding wet, when it may become loaded with the exhalations from putrid marshes; at other seasons it is said to check epidemic diseases, to cure fluxes, and to heal ulcers and cutaneous eruptions; which is probably effected by its yielding no moisture to the mouths of the external absorbent vessels, by which the action of the other branches of the absorbent system is increased to supply the deficiency. _Account of the Harmattan. Phil.
Transact. V. LXXI._