Flowers And Flower-Gardens Part 25

SURYJA MANI (_Hibiscus Phoeniceus_).--A small red flower.

GOLAKA CHAMPA.--A large beautiful white tulip-shaped flower having a sweet smell. It is externally white but internally orange-colored.

TAGUR (_Tabernoemontana Coronaria_).--A white flower having a slight smell.

TARU LATA.--A beautiful creeper with small red flowers. It is used in native gardens for making hedges.

K.G.

Pliny in his Natural History alludes to the marks of time exhibited in the regular opening and closing of flowers. Linnaeus enumerates forty-six flowers that might be used for the construction of a floral time-piece. This great Swedish botanist invented a Floral horologe, "whose wheels were the sun and earth and whose index-figures were flowers."

Perhaps his invention, however, was not wholly original. Andrew Marvell in his "_Thoughts in a Garden_" mentions a sort of floral dial:--

How well the skilful gardener drew Of flowers and herbs this dial new!

Where, from above, the milder sun Does through a fragrant zodiac run: And, as it works, th'industrious bee Computes its time as well as we: How could such sweet and wholesome hours Be reckoned, but with herbs and flowers?

_Marvell_[106]

Milton's notation of time--"_at shut of evening flowers_," has a beautiful simplicity, and though Shakespeare does not seem to have marked his time on a floral clock, yet, like all true poets, he has made very free use of other appearances of nature to indicate the commencement and the close of day.

The sun no sooner shall the mountains touch-- Than we will ship him hence.

_Hamlet_.

Fare thee well at once!

The glow-worm shows the matin to be near And gins to pale his uneffectual fire.

_Hamlet_.

But look! The morn, in russet mantle clad, Walks o'er the dew of yon high eastern hill:-- Break we our watch up.

_Hamlet_.

_Light thickens_, and the crow Makes wing to the rooky wood.

_Macbeth_.

Such picturesque notations of time as these, are in the works of Shakespeare, as thick as autumnal leaves that strew the brooks in Valombrosa. In one of his Sonnets he thus counts the years of human life by the succession of the seasons.

To me, fair friend, you never can be old, For as you were when first your eye I eyed, Such seems your beauty still. Three winters cold Have from the forests shook three summers' pride; Three beauteous springs to yellow autumn turned In process of the seasons have I seen; Three April's perfumes in three hot Junes burned Since first I saw you fresh which yet are green.

Grainger, a prosaic verse-writer who once commenced a paragraph of a poem with "Now, Muse, let's sing of rats!" called upon the slave drivers in the West Indies to time their imposition of cruel tasks by the opening and closing of flowers.

Till morning dawn and Lucifer withdraw His beamy chariot, let not the loud bell Call forth thy negroes from their rushy couch: And ere the sun with mid-day fervor glow, When every broom-bush opes her yellow flower, Let thy black laborers from their toil desist: Nor till the broom her every petal lock, Let the loud bell recal them to the hoe, But when the jalap her bright tint displays, When the solanum fills her cup with dew, And crickets, snakes and lizards gin their coil, Let them find shelter in their cane-thatched huts.

_Sugar Cane_.[107]

I shall here give (_from Loudon's Encyclopaedia of Gardening_) the form of a flower dial. It may be interesting to many of my readers:--

'Twas a lovely thought to mark the hours As they floated in light away By the opening and the folding flowers That laugh to the summer day.[108]

_Mr. Hemans_.

A FLOWER DIAL.

TIME OF OPENING.

[109] h. m.

YELLOW GOAT'S BEARD T.P. 3 5 LATE FLOWERING DANDELION Leon.S. 4 0 BRISTLY HELMINTHIA H.B. 4 5 ALPINE BORKHAUSIA B.A. 4 5 WILD SUCCORY C.I. 4 5 NAKED STALKED POPPY P.N. 5 0 COPPER COLOURED DAY LILY H.F. 5 0 SMOOTH SOW THISTLE S.L. 5 0 ALPINE AGATHYRSUS Ag.A. 5 0 SMALL BIND WEED Con.A. 5 6 COMMON NIPPLE WORT L.C. 5 6 COMMON DANDELION L.T. 5 6 SPORTED ACHYROPHORUS A.M. 6 7 WHITE WATER LILY N.A. 7 0 GARDEN LETTUCE Lec.S. 7 0 AFRICAN MARIGOLD T.E. 7 0 COMMON PIMPERNEL A.A. 7 8 MOUSE-EAR HAWKWEED H.P. 8 0 PROLIFEROUS PINK D.P. 8 0 FIELD MARIGOLD Cal.A. 9 0 PURPLE SANDWORT A.P. 9 10 SMALL PURSLANE P.O. 9 10 CREEPING MALLOW M.C. 9 10 CHICKWEED S.M. 9 10

TIME OF CLOSING.

h. m.

HELMINTHIA ECHIOIDES B.H. 12 0 AGATHYRSUS ALPINUS A.B. 12 0 BORKHAUSIA ALPINA A.B. 12 0 LEONTODON SEROTINUS L.D. 12 0 MALVA CAROLINIANA C.M. 12 1 DAINTHUS PROLIFER P.P. 1 0 HIERACIUM PILOSELLA M.H. 0 2 ANAGALLIS ARVENSIS S.P. 2 3 ARENARIA PURPUREA P.S. 2 4 CALENDULA ARVENSIS F.M. 3 0 TACETES ERECTA A.M. 3 3 CONVOLVULUS ARVENSIS S.B. 4 0 ACHYROPHORUS MACULATUS S.A. 4 5 NYMPHAEA ALBA W.W.B. 5 0 PAPAVER NUDICAULE N.P. 7 0 HEMEROCALLIS FULVA C.D.L. 7 0 CICHORIUM INTYBUS W.S. 8 9 TRAGOPOGON PRATENSIS Y.G.B. 9 10 STELLARIA MEDIA C. 9 10 LAPSANA COMMUNIS C.N. 10 0 LACTUCA SATIVA G.L. 10 0 SONCHUS LAEVIS S.T. 11 10 PORTULACA OLERACEA S.P. 11 12

Of course it will be necessary to adjust the _Horologium Florae_ (or Flower clock) to the nature of the climate. Flowers expand at a later hour in a cold climate than in a warm one. "A flower," says Loudon, "that opens at six o'clock in the morning at Senegal, will not open in France or England till eight or nine, nor in Sweden till ten. A flower that opens at ten o'clock at Senegal will not open in France or England till noon or later, and in Sweden it will not open at all. And a flower that does not open till noon or later at Senegal will not open at all in France or England. This seems as if heat or its absence were also (as well as light) an agent in the opening and shutting of flowers; though the opening of such as blow only in the night cannot be attributed to either light or heat."

The seasons may be marked in a similar manner by their floral representatives. Mary Howitt quotes as a motto to her poem on _Holy Flowers_ the following example of religious devotion timed by flowers:--

"Mindful of the pious festivals which our church prescribes," (says a Franciscan Friar) "I have sought to make these charming objects of floral nature, the _time-pieces of my religious calendar_, and the mementos of the hastening period of my mortality. Thus I can light the taper to our Virgin Mother on the blowing of the white snow-drop which opens its floweret at the time of Candlemas; the lady's smock and the daffodil, remind me of the Annunciation; the blue harebell, of the Festival of St George; the ranunculus, of the Invention of the Cross; the scarlet lychnis, of St. John the Baptist's day; the white lily, of the Visitation of our Lady, and the Virgin's bower, of her a.s.sumption; and Michaelmas, Martinmas, Holyrood, and Christmas, have all their appropriate monitors. I learn the time of day from the shutting of the blossoms of the Star of Jerusalem and the Dandelion, and the hour of the night by the stars."

Some flowers afford a certain means of determining the state of the atmosphere. If I understand Mr. Tyas rightly he attributes the following remarks to Hartley Coleridge.--

"Many species of flowers are admirable barometers. Most of the bulbous-rooted flowers contract, or close their petals entirely on the approach of rain. The African marigold indicates rain, if the corolla is closed after seven or eight in the morning. The common bind-weed closes its flowers on the approach of rain; but the anagallis arvensis, or scarlet pimpernel, is the most sure in its indications as the petals constantly close on the least humidity of the atmosphere. Barley is also singularly affected by the moisture or dryness of the air. The awns are furnished with stiff points, all turning towards one end, which extend when moist, and shorten when dry. The points, too, prevent their receding, so that they are drawn up or forward; as moisture is returned, they advance and so on; indeed they may be actually seen to travel forwards. The capsules of the geranium furnish admirable barometers. Fasten the beard, when fully ripe, upon a stand, and it will twist itself, or untwist, according as the air is moist or dry. The flowers of the chick-weed, convolvulus, and oxalis, or wood sorrel, close their petals on the approach of rain."

The famous German writer, Jean Paul Richter, describes what he calls _a Human Clock_.

A HUMAN CLOCK.

"I believe" says Richter "the flower clock of Linnaeus, in Upsal (_Horologium Florae_) whose wheels are the sun and earth, and whose index-figures are flowers, of which one always awakens and opens later than another, was what secretly suggested my conception of the human clock.

I formerly occupied two chambers in Scheeraw, in the middle of the market place: from the front room I overlooked the whole market-place and the royal buildings and from the back one, the botanical garden.

Whoever now dwells in these two rooms possesses an excellent harmony, arranged to his hand, between the flower clock in the garden and the human clock in the marketplace. At three o'clock in the morning, the yellow meadow goats-beard opens; and brides awake, and the stable-boy begins to rattle and feed the horses beneath the lodger. At four o'clock the little hawk weed awakes, choristers going to the Cathedral who are clocks with chimes, and the bakers. At five, kitchen maids, dairy maids, and b.u.t.ter-cups awake. At six, the sow-thistle and cooks. At seven o'clock many of the Ladies' maids are awake in the Palace, the Chicory in my botanical garden, and some tradesmen. At eight o'clock all the colleges awake and the little mouse-ear. At nine o'clock, the female n.o.bility already begin to stir; the marigold, and even many young ladies, who have come from the country on a visit, begin to look out of their windows. Between ten and eleven o'clock the Court Ladies and the whole staff of Lords of the Bed-chamber, the green colewort and the Alpine dandelion, and the reader of the Princess rouse themselves out of their morning sleep; and the whole Palace, considering that the morning sun gleams so brightly to-day from the lofty sky through the coloured silk curtains, curtails a little of its slumber.

At twelve o'clock, the Prince: at one, his wife and the carnation have their eyes open in their flower vase. What awakes late in the afternoon at four o'clock is only the red-hawkweed, and the night watchman as cuckoo-clock, and these two only tell the time as evening-clocks and moon-clocks.

From the eyes of the unfortunate man, who like the jalap plant (Mirabilia jalapa), first opens them at five o'clock, we will turn our own in pity aside. It is a rich man who only exchanges the fever fancies of being pinched with hot pincers for waking pains.

I could never know when it was two o'clock, because at that time, together with a thousand other stout gentlemen and the yellow mouse-ear, I always fell asleep; but at three o'clock in the afternoon, and at three in the morning, I awoke as regularly as though I was a repeater.

Thus we mortals may be a flower-clock for higher beings, when our flower-leaves close upon our last bed; or sand clocks, when the sand of our life is so run down that it is renewed in the other world; or picture-clocks because, when our death-bell here below strikes and rings, our image steps forth, from its case into the next world.

On each event of the kind, when seventy years of human life have pa.s.sed away, they may perhaps say, what! another hour already gone! how the time flies!"--_From Balfour's Phyto-Theology_.

Some of the natives of India who possess extensive estates might think it worth their while to plant a LABYRINTH for the amus.e.m.e.nt of their friends. I therefore give a plan of one from London's _Arboretum et Fruticetum Britannic.u.m_. It would not be advisable to occupy much of a limited estate in a toy of this nature; but where the ground required for it can be easily spared or would otherwise be wasted, there could be no objection to adding this sort of amus.e.m.e.nt to the very many others that may be included in a pleasure ground. The plan here given, resembles the labyrinth at Hampton Court. The hedges should be a little above a man's height and the paths should be just wide enough for two persons abreast. The ground should be kept scrupulously clean and well rolled and the hedges well trimmed, or in this country the labyrinth would soon be damp and unwholesome, especially in the rains. To prevent its affording a place of refuge and concealment for snakes and other reptiles, the gardener should cut off all young shoots and leaves within half a foot of the ground. The centre building should be a tasteful summer-house, in which people might read or smoke or take refreshments.

To make the labyrinth still more intricate Mr. Loudon suggests that stop-hedges might be introduced across the path, at different places, as indicated in the figure by dotted lines.[110]

[Ill.u.s.tration of A GARDEN LABYRINTH with a scale in feet.]

Of strictly Oriental trees and shrubs and flowers, perhaps the majority of Anglo Indians think with much less enthusiasm than of the common weeds of England. The remembrance of the simplest wild flower of their native fields will make them look with perfect indifference on the decorations of an Indian Garden. This is in no degree surprizing. Yet nature is lovely in all lands.