ASTOR, LANOX AND

TILDEN FOUNDATIONS

THE

BOTANIC GARDEN.

LOVES OF THE PLANTS.

CANTO I.

DESCEND, ye hovering Sylphs! aerial Quires,
And fweep with little hands your filver lyres;
With fairy footsteps print your graffy rings,
Ye Gnomes! accordant to the tinkling strings:
While in foft notes I tune to oaten reed
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.

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 Primrose pale,
Bow their sweet heads, and whifper to the gale;
With fecret fighs the Virgin Lily droops,
And jealous Cowflips hang their tawny cups.
How the young Rose, in beauty's damask pride,
Drinks the warm blushes of his bashful bride;
With honey'd lips enamoured Woodbines meet,
Clafp with fond arms, and mix their kiffes fweet.-

Vegetable Loves. 1. 10. Linnæus, the celebrated Swedish naturalift, has demonftrated, that all flowers contain families of males or females, or both; and on their marriages has conftructed his invaluable fyftem of Botany.

Stay thy foft-murmuring waters, gentle Rill;
Hush, whispering Winds; ye rustling Leaves be still;
Reft, filver Butterflies, your quivering wings;
Alight, ye Beetles, from your airy rings;

Ye painted Moths, your gold-eyed plumage furl,
Bow your wide horns, your fpiral trunks uncurl;
Glitter, ye Glow-worms, on your moffy beds;
Defcend, ye Spiders, on your lengthened threads;
Slide here, ye horned Snails, with varnish'd fhells;
Ye Bee-nymphs, liften in your waxen cells!

BOTANIC MUSE! who, in this latter age,
Led by your airy hand the Swedish sage,
Bade his keen eye your fecret haunts explore
On dewy dell, high wood, and winding fhore;
Say on each leaf how tiny graces dwell;
How laugh the Pleasures in a bloffom's bell;
How infect Loves arife on cobweb wings,

Aim their light fhafts, and point their little ftings.

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"Firft the tall CANNA lifts his curled brow Erect to heaven, and plights his nuptial vow; The virtuous pair, in milder regions born, Dread the rude blaft of Autumn's icy morn; Round the chill fair he folds his crimson veft, And clafps the timorous beauty to his breast.

Thy love CALLITRICHE, two Virgins fhare,

Smit with thy ftarry eye and radiant hair;-
On the green margin fits the youth, and laves
His floating train of treffes in the waves;

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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-houses, and bears a beautiful crimson flower; the feeds are used as fhot by the Indians, and are ftrung for prayer-beads in fome catholic countries.

Callitriche. 1. 45. Fine-Hair, Stargrafs. One male and two females inhabit each flower. The upper leaves grow in form of a ftar, whence it is called Stellaria Aquatica by Ray and others; its ftems and leaves float far on the water, and are often fo matted together, as to bear a perfon walking on them. The male fometimes lives in a feparate flower.

Sees his fair features paint the streams that pafs,
And bends for ever o'er the watery glass.

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 unsteady 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.

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Collinfonia. 1. 51. Two males, one female. I have lately obferved a very fingular circumftance in this flower; the two males ftand widely diverging from each other, and the female bends herself into contact first with one of them, and after some time leaves this, and applies herself 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 bush, are very tall compared to the males; and bending over in a circle to them, give the flower some resemblance to a regal crown. The female of the Epilobium Auguftifolium, rose bay willow herb, bends down amongst the males for feveral days, and becomes upright again when impregnated.

Genifta. 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 Linnæus has named the clafs "two brotherhoods." In the Genista, however, they are united in but one fet. The flowers of this clafs are called papilionaceous, from their resemblance to a butterfly, as a pea-bloffom. In the Spartium Scoparium, or common broom, I have lately obferved a curious circumstance; the males, or ftamens, are in two fets, one fet rifing a quarter of an inch above the other; the upper fet does not arrive at their maturity fo foon as the lower, and the ftigma, or head of the female, is produc ed amongst the upper or immature fet; but as foon as the piftil grows tall enough to burst open the keel-leaf, or hood of the flower, it bends itself round in an inftant, like a French horn, and inferts its head, or ftigma, amongst the lower or mature fet of males. The piftil, or female, continues to grow in length; and in a few days the stigma arrives again amongst the upper set, 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 fpontaneously. See note on Collinfonia, Gloriofa, Draba.

Meliffa. 1. 60. Balm. In each flower there are four males and one female; two of the males ftand higher than the other two; whence the name of the clafs "two powers." I have observed in the Ballota, and others of this clafs, that the two lower ftamens, or males, become mature before the two higher. After they have fhed their duft, they turn themselves away outwards; and the piftil, or female, continuing to grow a little taller, is applied to the upper ftamens. See Gloriofa and Genifta.