The Botanic Garden Volume Ii Part 12

_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 general 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 pa.s.sages, which have been stolen from antient poets, have been translated into our language without losing any thing of the beauty of the versification.

_B._ I am glad to hear you acknowledge the thefts of the modern poets from the antient 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 poems?

_P._ 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 acknowledgement, there can be no doubt;--single words, on the contrary, taken from other authors, 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 pa.s.s over our neighbour's inclosure, without stigmatizing us with the t.i.tle of thieves; but we must not therefore plunder his cultivated 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 Ca.s.sia, "The salt tear mingling with the milk he sips," is from an interesting and humane pa.s.sage in Langhorne's Justice of Peace. There are probably many others, which, if I could recollect them, should here be acknowledged. As it is, like exotic plants, their mixture with the natives 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 unskilful 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

LOVES

OF

THE

PLANTS

CANTO IV.

Now the broad Sun his golden orb unshrouds, Flames in the west, and paints the parted clouds; O'er heaven's wide arch refracted l.u.s.tres flow, And bend in air the many-colour'd bow.-- 5 --The tuneful G.o.ddess on the glowing sky Fix'd in mute extacy her glistening eye; And then her lute to sweeter tones she strung, And swell'd with softer chords the Paphian song.

Long ailes of Oaks return'd the silver sound, 10 And amorous Echoes talk'd along the ground; Pleas'd Lichfield listen'd from her sacred bowers, Bow'd her tall groves, and shook her stately towers.

"Nymph! not for thee the radiant day returns, Nymph! not for thee the golden solstice burns, 15 Refulgent CEREA!--at the dusky hour She seeks with pensive step the mountain-bower,

[_Pleas'd Lichfield._ I. 11. The scenery described at the beginning of the first part, or economy of vegetation, is taken from a botanic garden about a mile from Lichfield.

_Cerea._ l. 15. Cactus grandiflorus, or Cereus. Twenty males, one female.

This flower is a native of Jamaica and Veracrux. It expands a most exquisitely beautiful corol, and emits a most fragrant odour for a few hours in the night, and then closes to open no more. The flower is nearly a foot in diameter; the inside of the calyx of a splendid yellow, and the numerous petals of a pure white: it begins to open about seven or eight o'clock in the evening, and closes before sun-rise in the morning.

Martyn's Letters, p. 294. The Cistus labdiniferus, and many other flowers, lose their petals after having been a few hours expanded in the day-time; for in these plants the stigma is soon impregnated by the numerous anthers: in many flowers of the Cistus lubdiniferus I observed two or three of the stamens were perpetually bent into contact with the pistil.

The Nyctanthes, called Arabian Jasmine, is another flower, which expands a beautiful corol, and gives out a most delicate perfume during the night, and not in the day, in its native country, whence its name; botanical philosophers have not yet explained this wonderful property; perhaps the plant sleeps during the day as some animals do; and its odoriferous glands only emit their fragrance during the expansion of the petals; that is, during its waking hours: the Geranium triste has the same property of giving up its fragrance only in the night. The flowers of the Cucurbita lagenaria are said to close when the sun shines upon them. In our climate many flowers, as tragopogon, and hibiscus, close their flowers before the hottest part of the day comes on; and the flowers of some species of cucubalus, and Silene, viscous campion, are closed all day; but when the sun leaves them they expand, and emit a very agreeable scent; whence such plants are termed noctiflora.]

Bright as the blush of rising morn, and warms The dull cold eye of Midnight with her charms.

There to the skies she lifts her pencill'd brows, 20 Opes her fair lips, and breathes her virgin vows; Eyes the white zenyth; counts the suns, that roll Their distant fires, and blaze around the Pole; Or marks where Jove directs his glittering car O'er Heaven's blue vault,--Herself a brighter star.

25 --There as soft Zephyrs sweep with pausing airs Thy snowy neck, and part thy shadowy hairs, Sweet Maid of Night! to Cynthia's sober beams Glows thy warm cheek, thy polish'd bosom gleams.

_In crowds_ around thee gaze the admiring swains, 30 And guard in silence the enchanted plains; Drop the still tear, or breathe the impa.s.sion'd sigh, And drink inebriate rapture from thine eye.

Thus, when old Needwood's h.o.a.ry scenes the Night Paints with blue shadow, and with milky light; 35 Where MUNDY pour'd, the listening nymphs among, Loud to the echoing vales his parting song; With measured step the Fairy Sovereign treads, Shakes her high plume, and glitters o'er the meads; Round each green holly leads her sportive train, 40 And little footsteps mark the circled plain; Each haunted rill with silver voices rings, And Night's sweet bird in livelier accents sings.

Ere the bright star, which leads the morning sky, Hangs o'er the blushing east his diamond eye, 45 The chaste TROPAEO leaves her secret bed; A saint-like glory trembles round her head;

[_ Where Mundy._ l. 35. Alluding to an unpublished poem by F. N. Mundy, Esq. on his leaving Needwood-Forest.

_Tropaeolum._ l. 45. Majus. Garden Nasturtion, or greater Indian cress.

Eight males, one female. Miss E. C. Linneus first observed the Tropaeolum Majus to emit sparks or flashes in the mornings before sun-rise, during the months of June or July, and also during the twilight in the evening, but not after total darkness came on; these singular scintillations were shewn to her father and other philosophers; and Mr. Wilcke, a celebrated electrician, believed them to be electric. Lin. Spec. Plantar. p. 490.

Swedish Acts for the year 1762. Pulteney's View of Linneus, p. 220. Nor is this more wonderful than that the electric eel and torpedo should give voluntary shocks of electricity; and in this plant perhaps, as in those animals, it may be a mode of defence, by which it harra.s.ses or destroys the night-flying insects which infest it; and probably it may emit the same sparks during the day, which must be then invisible. This curious subject deserves further investigation. See Dictamnus. The ceasing to shine of this plant after twilight might induce one to conceive, that it absorbed and emitted light, like the Bolognian Phosphorus, or calcined oyster-sh.e.l.ls, so well explained by Mr. B. Wilson, and by T. B. Beccari.

Exper. on Phosphori, by B. Wilson. Dodsley. The light of the evening, at the same distance from noon, is much greater, as I have repeatedly observed, than the light of the morning: this is owing, I suppose, to the phosph.o.r.escent quality of almost all bodies, in a greater or less degree, which thus absorb light during the sun-shine, and continue to emit it again for some time afterwards, though not in such quant.i.ty as to produce apparent scintillations. The nectary of this plant grows from what is supposed to be the calyx; but this supposed calyx is coloured; and perhaps, from this circ.u.mstance of its bearing the nectary, should rather be esteemed a part of the coral. See an additional note at the end of the poem.]

_Eight_ watchful swains along the lawns of night With amorous steps pursue the virgin light; O'er her fair form the electric l.u.s.tre plays, 50 And cold she moves amid the lambent blaze.

So shines the glow-fly, when the sun retires, And gems the night-air with phosphoric fires;

[_So shines the glow-fly._ l. 52. In Jamaica, in some seasons of the year, the fire-flies are seen in the evenings in great abundance. When they settle on the ground, the bull-frog greedily devours them; which seems to have given origin to a curious, though cruel, method of destroying these animals: if red-hot pieces of charcoal be thrown towards them in the dusk of the evening, they leap at them, and, hastily swallowing them, are burnt to death.]

Thus o'er the marsh aerial lights betray, And charm the unwary wanderer from his way.

55 So when thy King, a.s.syria, fierce and proud, Three human victims to his idol vow'd; Rear'd a vast pyre before the golden shrine Of sulphurous coal, and pitch-exsuding pine;-- --Loud roar the flames, the iron nostrils breathe, 60 And the huge bellows pant and heave beneath; Bright and more bright the blazing deluge flows, And white with seven-fold heat the furnace glows.

And now the Monarch fix'd with dread surprize Deep in the burning vault his dazzled eyes.

65 "Lo! Three unbound amid the frightful glare, Unscorch'd their sandals, and unsing'd their hair!

And now a fourth with seraph-beauty bright Descends, accosts them, and outshines the light!

Fierce flames innocuous, as they step, retire!

70 And slow they move amid a world of fire!"

He spoke,--to Heaven his arms repentant spread, And kneeling bow'd his gem-incircled head.

_Two_ Sister-Nymphs, the fair AVENAS, lead Their fleecy squadrons on the lawns of Tweed; 75 Pa.s.s with light step his wave-worn banks along, And wake his Echoes with their silver tongue; Or touch the reed, as gentle Love inspires, In notes accordant to their chaste desires.

I.

"Sweet ECHO! sleeps thy vocal sh.e.l.l, "Where this high arch o'erhangs the dell; "While Tweed with sun-reflecting streams "Chequers thy rocks with dancing beams?--

[_Ovena_. l. 73. Oat. The numerous families of gra.s.ses have all three males, and two females, except Anthoxanthum, which gives the grateful smell to hay, and has but two males. The herbs of this order of vegetables support the countless tribes of graminivorous animals. The seeds of the smaller kinds of gra.s.ses, as of aira, poa, briza, stipa, &c. are the sustenance of many sorts of birds. The seeds of the large gra.s.ses, as of wheat, barley, rye, oats, supply food to the human species.

It seems to have required more ingenuity to think of feeding nations of mankind with so small a seed, than with the potatoe of Mexico, or the bread-fruit of the southern islands; hence Ceres in Egypt, which was the birth-place of our European arts, was deservedly celebrated amongst their divinities, as well as Osyris, who invented the Plough.

Mr. Wahlborn observes, that as wheat, rye, and many of the gra.s.ses, and plantain, lift up their anthers on long filments, and thus expose the enclosed fecundating dust to be washed away by the rains, a scarcity of corn is produced by wet summers; hence the necessity of a careful choice of seed wheat, as that, which had not received the dust of the anthers, will not grow, though it may appear well to the eye. The straw of the oat seems to have been the first musical instrument, invented during the pastoral ages of the world, before the discovery of metals. See note on Cistus.]

II.

"Here may no clamours harsh intrude, No brawling hound or clarion rude; 85 Here no fell beast of midnight prowl, And teach thy tortured cliffs to howl!

III.

"Be thine to pour these vales along Some artless Shepherd's evening song; While Night's sweet bird, from yon high spray 90 Responsive, listens to his lay.

IV.