II 
 
LINES 
 
 ADDRESSED TO 
 
 DOCTOR THORNTON, 
 
 i . E ON" HIS i 
 
 TEMPLE OF FLORA. 
 
 THORNTON, while polish'd Darwin" tells 
 The loves of FLORA'S gaudy train, 
 
 'Tis thine to guard from time's decay 
 The fading glories of her reign. 
 
 Thy GARDEN of perpetual bloom 
 No change of threat'ning skies can fear ; 
 
 Nor dashing rains, nor chilling blasts, 
 Can reach the lovely fav'rites here. 
 
 Bright TULIPA in form as fair, 
 As on the lap of Nature shines ; 
 
 As gaily spreads each opening flow'r, 
 As soft each varying tint combines ; 
 
 Whether in Asia's sun-bright soil 
 
 The Nymph her crimson chalice b rears, 
 
 Or 'mid Batavkis fost'ring clime c 
 In every added chai n) appears. 
 
 Here view august, in conscious pride, 
 The ALOE lift her standard high; 
 
 Swell in full pomp her clustered flowers, 
 Resolv'd to triumph ere she die. 
 
 There CEREA, rich in countless charms, 
 Spreads to the moon her golden ray ; 
 
 Nor fears that, ere yon orb descends, 
 Each blooming grace should fade away. 
 
 Behold, in realms of endless spring, 
 MIMOSA'S beauteous form arise ; 
 
 While, circling round on festive wing, 
 The ruby-throated spoiler flies. 
 
 Here, floating on the evening air, 
 
 Fair PASSIFLORA scents the gale; 
 
 Expands her crowns of sapphire blue, 
 And softly waves her petals pale. 
 
 FLORA, well pleas'd at Art's success, 
 
 Each imitative grace shall see ; 
 And CUPID, with approving smile, 
 
 Shall twine his choicest Wreaths for THEE. 
 
 Dr. SHAW, 
 
 ■ Author of " THE LOVES OF THE PLANTS." b Alluding to the CANNA 1NDICA. ' Alluding lo'the Group of HYACINTHS. 
 
 n 
 
VERSES 
 
 A D DRESS LD TO 
 
 DOCTOR THORNTON, 
 
 OX THE COMPLETION' OF HIS 
 
 TEMPLE OF FLORA. 
 
 Oil ! Bards of Athens! for your classic rage, 
 Or Rubens' fire, to warm the kindling page ; 
 Then like those vivid tints my Song should glow, 
 And THORNTON'S praise in noblest numbers flow ; 
 Fervent as his should roll the breathing line, 
 The radiant colouring, and the rich design. 
 
 From orient regions where the tropic ray 
 Lights beauty's beams, and pours the glowing day, 
 To where th' eternal snows of winter spread, 
 And ice-clad mountains rear their lofty head, 
 Thy daring hand hath cull'd the loveliest flow'rs 
 To deck delighted Albion's happier bow'rs ; 
 On each proud page in varied radiance bl ight, 
 The Muse exulting feasts her raptur'd sight; 
 For ever fresh those flowers; forever fair! 
 The rage of Envy and of Time shall dare. 
 Around thy couch their branching tendrils wave. 
 And cast their fragrant shadows o'er thy grave. 
 
 Beneath the Pleiads, taught by thee to bloom. 
 While fancy fondly drinks their rich perfume, 
 A second PAitADrsE our senses greets, 
 And Asia wafts us all her world of sweets. 
 
 To THORNTON loudly strike th' applausive string, 
 'Mid desert wastes who bids an Eden spring, 
 On canvas bids the glowing landscape rise, 
 Each plant fair blooming 'mid its native skies ; 
 Whether dark clouds the angry heav'ns deform, 
 Where round the Cope loud howls th' incessant storm ; 
 
Or Genius waving high her magic wand, 
 
 Bids all Arabia's purple blooms expand ; 
 
 Or pours the Ganges through the wide spread plain, 
 
 In foaming torrents rushing to the main. 
 
 By thee transported from the farthest pole, 
 Where the slow Bears their frozen circuit roll, 
 We tread the region parch'd by Syrius ray, 
 Where the bright LOTOS basks in floods of day; 
 Or pensive wander by Columbian streams, 
 Where everlasting summer pours its beams ; 
 Along her vast but rich savannahs rove, 
 Or trace the mazes of the boundless grove, 
 Where thousand birds their painted plumes unfold, 
 And crests that blaze with azure and with gold ; 
 Where Nature's pencil lights her brightest dies, 
 And fern' d Brazilia flames before our eyes. 
 
 Though o'er her head the southern whirlwind rave, 
 Secure, behold ! august STRELITZIA wave ! 
 While amidst barren rocks and arctic snows 
 Fair KALMIA in refulgent beauty glows :— 
 Lo ! CEREUS faithful to th' appointed hour, 
 With glory's beams illumes the midnight hour ; 
 Ah fleeting beams ! ere Phabus darts his rays, 
 Wither' d thy beauty and extinct its blaze ! 
 Not so yon ALOE, on whose tow'ring head 
 An hundred years their fost'ring dews have shed ; 
 Not so the Glories that these leaves illume, 
 Whose splendid tints for centuries shall bloom ! 
 
 Fain would the Muse each beauteous Plant rehearse, 
 And sing their glories in immortal verse ; 
 But who shall paint them with a pow'r like thine ? 
 'Tia in thy page those glories brightest shine !— 
 So lovely in their form, so bright their hue, 
 And in such dazzling groups they charm the view ! 
 The Muse astonish'd drops her feeble lyre, 
 And baffled Art gives way to Nature's fire ; 
 That fire is thine— in ev'ry leaf it burns, ' 
 And imitation's noblest effort spurns. 
 The Mighty Work complete, through EUROPE'S bounds 
 Thy name is echoed, and thv fame resounds; 
 Exulting Science weaves the deathless bays, 
 And rival Monarchs swell the note of Praise. 
 
 Rev. Mr. MAURICE, 
 
FLORA JEALOUS. 
 
 TO 
 
 DOCTOR THORNTON, 
 
 RECEIVING A PRESENT OF SOME BEAUTIFULLY PAINTED PLANTS FROM HIS 
 
 TEMPLE OF FLORA, 
 
 TO DECORATE 
 
 "THE POET'S COTTAGE." 
 
 O for some bow'ry nook, 'midst Nature's scenes 
 
 Of purest blossoms and unsullied greens ; 
 
 A still, small, Home, that I may call my own, 
 
 My joy, my pride, my palace, and my throne ; 
 
 With yet a dinner, sav'd by frugal care, 
 
 A social platter for a friend to share ! 
 
 Thus pray'd the Muse, a Poet's wish to crown. — 
 Upon a Poet's wish no Muse can frown ! 
 The pray'r was heard ; and soon, by Fancy's aid, 
 A nook was chosen, and a cot was made. 
 Streams, groves, and gardens, deck'd the smiling bound— 
 A Paradise of sweets— on Fairy ground. 
 
 Quick, Friendship came, with Fortune at his side, 
 To realize the Song and Poet's pride, 
 A bow'ry nook was given* 'midst Nature's scenes 
 Of purest blossoms and unsullied greens. 
 
 * Mr. Pratt, the admired author or tl Sympathy," and other well known poems, excited from his works such lively interest, that, as 
 a Subscription to his last production, " Harvest Hume," a noble-minded stranger sent him the title deeds of a Cottage, with a piece of 
 ground attached to it, near to his own domain. 
 
 ,( Accept," a generous stranger said, — ■ 
 
 Touch'd by the pages he had read, 
 
 « Accept, since you at length have found 
 
 Joy-giving Health on Hampshire ground : 
 
 Hampshire, where Health delights to reign, 
 
 The Goddess of the Wood and Plain : 
 
 Accept a little sylvan spot, 
 
 "Where you may build your Poet's Cot ; 
 
 Nay where, already cut and dried, 
 
 A river running close beside, 
 
 With valley low and mountain high, 
 
 And many a capability, 
 
 A Cot you'll find, which little care, 
 
 And no great cost, may soon repair : 
 
 That Cot is your's, and garden ground; 
 
 And all the pleasant scene around." 
 
 From p. 104 of Harvest Homi*. 
 
 My Subscription was as one author to another, which produced, unsolicited, the present Panegyric on an humble first attempt to raise 
 a TfiMPLE to FLORA; worthy of the Goddess, by placing appropriate scenery behind each Flower. 
 
f 
 
 Compact the spot, it prov'd her happiest pow'r ; 
 She knew 'twas good, and bless'd eacli op'ning flower. 
 
 See ! who that loves from Jealousy is free ? 
 Flora now felt it — tho' a Goddess she. 
 All *' out of doors" she eyed with fond delight ; 
 (For all her fragrant children were in sight :) — 
 Her PINK, her ROSE, her HYACINTHS were there, 
 Shedding delightful odours through the air. 
 
 Touch'd by the sweet enchantment of the scene, 
 She deign'd a visit to the charms within ; 
 The Cot she enter'd ; there beheld her flowers, 
 Tho' cropt, still breathing all her balmy powers: 
 Lovely 'midst thorns her BRIER, and ROSES gay, 
 And many a petal charming in decay. 
 
 Yet as around she cast her raptur'd eye, 
 Bright'ning the walls, she saw afresh supply : 
 These gifts of yesterday began to fade, 
 But sweets new-pluck'd were blooming in their stead. 
 " All these, " she cried, " are mine ! and this fair spot 
 " Shall henceforth boast the name of Flora's Cot. 
 " This RENEALMIA, this lov'd SNOWDROP too, 
 " Display my magic Touch and matchless Hue ; 
 " This tender SENSITIVE, this ALOE, sweet, 
 " CEREUS and CYCLAMEN all Art defeat. 
 " Yes, mine are all the lovely train I see, — 
 " Unrivall'd Flora's beauteous Family." 
 
 Self-charm' d she paus'd, — but soon, advancing near, 
 She saw Art's Magic on the Walls appear ; 
 She saw another Flora breathe, and glow, 
 LOTUS unfold, and love-sick KALMIA blow. 
 The Goddess gaz'd, and madd'ning with the smart. 
 Felt the fierce anguish of a Jealous Heart. 
 
 " And shall a mortal Pencil thus presume," 
 She cried, " to emulate my heav'nly Bloom? 
 " Shall my own offspring thus untimely die, 
 " And Art's frail progeny thus flourish nigh? 
 " Shall these erect a Temple of their own, 
 " And I ascend a poor divided Throne? 
 
 " Forbid it, Nature !" Nature rose to view ; 
 
 To meet whose arms the angry Goddess flew : 
 Then told her tale, then pointed to the flowers, 
 Whereon proud Art had lavish'd all her powers : 
 Till more indignant, as she more survey'd 
 The imitation nice of light and shade, 
 
 c 
 
Th' unfolding leaf, the soft bud newly burst, 
 
 A second Flora vieing with the first ; 
 
 " These!" she exclaim'd, — " these flowers should be mine, 
 
 " Taken, O Nature, from thy holy shrine : 
 
 " I, only I, should such rich tints bestow, 
 
 " I, only I, should give that kindling glow." 
 
 " Hold ! " said the Sister-Goddess, — " the desire 
 " Thus to paint the charms which we inspire, 
 " Demands our praise — 'tis incense at our shrine, 
 " And Art but proves our Empire more divine. 
 " Art's noblest effort but makes known our Fame : 
 " Different our realms, our worship is the same, 
 " To both does lieav'n-bom Genius bend the knee !" 
 Then Flora smil'd, and all was Harmony. 
 
 Pratt. 
 
 VERSES 
 
 IN PRAISE OF THE ARTISTS ENGAGED IN THE 
 
 TJEMPJLK OF FJLOJRA, 
 
 AND OF 
 
 THE AUTHOR OF THE WORK. 
 
 OH ! THOU, whose radiant tints with beauty glow, 
 
 Like those that charm us in th' ethereal bow ; 
 
 Though bright with heavenly fire the picture shine, 
 
 Say, whose bpld genius plann'd the vast design, 
 
 Bade the majestic plant its leaves unfold, 
 
 Its blossoms shoot in vegetable gold ; 
 
 Bade gathering clouds the darken'd sky deform, 
 
 Where round the Cape loud howls th' eternal storm ? 
 
 Or in more genial skies bade eden rise, 
 
 And wak'd the blooms of opening Paradise ? 
 
 Howe'er by thee intmatchless charms array'd, 
 
 "I'was THORNTON, first his daring powers display *d ; 
 
 Thine those bright tints, but his th' inspiring soul, 
 
 That breathes, that burns, throughout the beauteous whole 
 
 Maurice 
 
PROEM. 
 
 THE CARD 
 
 or 
 
 INVITATION. 
 
 Odi profamirn Vulgus, et arceo. 
 
 Horace. 
 
 O, Come not here, ye proud, whose breasts infold 
 Th' insatiate wish of glory or of gold ; 
 O come not, ye, whose wrinkled foreheads wear 
 Th* eternal frown of envy, or of care ; 
 For YOU no Dryad decks her fragrant bowers, 
 For YOU her sparkling urn no Naiad pours ; 
 Unmark'd by YOU lightGitACES skim the green, 
 And hov'ring Cupids aim their shafts unseen. — 
 
 But THOU, whose Mind the well-attemper' d ray 
 Of taste, and virtue, lights with purer day, 
 Whose finer Sense each soft vibration owns, 
 With sweet responsive sympathy of tones ; 
 For THEE sweet CEREUS and RENEALMIAS glow, 
 And other plan ts their curious structure shew ; 
 For THEE my Vallies nurse the varied Wreath ; 
 My Rivers murmur, and my Zephyrs breathe ; 
 My painted Birds their vivid plumes unfold, 
 And Insects wave their little wings of gold. — 
 
 So the fair Flower expands her lucid form 
 To meet the Sun, and shuts it to the Storm. 
 
 Seward. 
 
jfady. ■ ''/,•/// , (,•/,:/, ////// * >.ir// ////////,/ , 
 
 ■ ^,7,;'//////,/ ///' gu ^ //////,/*//,, 
 
 Xatdon Putfjarft !8f2 by-BTTfuimibR . 
 
iESCULAPIUS, CERES, FLORA, AND CUPID, 
 HONOURING THE BUST OF LINNiEUS. 
 
 THE introduction of ^sculap.us, Ceres, and Flora, is emblematic of the advantages 
 derived from the study of the science of Botany, as in the works of Linnaeus, to physic, agri- 
 culture, and as an elegant pursuit for Ladies. Cur.D is represented in allusron to the sexual 
 Svstem invented by LmMl The Zephyr above denotes Sprmg, the season most favourable 
 to the' study of Botany. The fair forms of Flora and of CnP.n, with the bust of L«M£ 
 cannot fail to disclose to the eye of the observer the magic pencl of a Russell ; and the 
 figures of jEsculapius and Ceres, the nervous and masterly strokes of an Opie. 
 
 I. 
 
 SACRED to great LINN^US' honour'd name, 
 A laurel grove perpetuates his fame, 
 Where, deck'd in honest pride by Sculpture's hand, 
 See rival nations * bid his image stand, 
 The foremost of the human race to rise, 
 Nor servile flattery this, or base disguise : 
 Crowds, now retiring, leave the hallow'd place, 
 When Sol's bright car has run its daily race, 
 And gold-fring'd pearly clouds dissolve away, 
 And evening veils the glaring face of day. 
 Then, first, the sprightly, subtle boy, 
 Beauty's offspring, winged LOVE, 
 Bounding on in wanton joy, 
 
 Springs forward to the laurel grove, 
 And grateful traces on the stone 
 
 In golden lilies his tribute gay f, 
 Proud thus indelibly to own 
 
 The triumphs of his tender sway. 
 
 « In allusion to the bust of L.»» mm, which was first raised in the botanic garden of Edinburgh by the botanical Professor. 
 
 LINN^O rOSUIT J. HOPE. 
 
 as was also done in the year 1790, in the botanic garden at Paris, by a decree of the National Assembly. 
 + The lines which Cupid writes on the pedestal arc as follow : 
 
 All animated Nature owns my sway, 
 
 Earth, sea, and air, my potent laws obey, 
 
 And thou, divine Linn.tus, trae'd my reign 
 
 O'er trees, and shrubs, and Flora's beauteous train, 
 
 Prov'd them obedient to my soft controul, 
 
 And gaily breathe an aromatic soul. 
 
 Charlotte Lenox. 
 
 This lady wa, invited by the late illustrious Dr. Samuel Johnson, to meet all his li.erary acquaintances. After dinner, the 
 Doctor gave, « To the Muses," and as one of then,, he publicly crowned .his celebrated authoress with **». Vide L.fc of Johnson, 
 prefixed to his stupendous Dictionary. 
 
 D 
 
II. 
 
 Light, fantastic, and elegantly free, 
 Next FLORA, blue-ey'd goddess, jocund see, 
 In snow-white vesture, half-pellucid, drest, 
 Through whose thin folds, by Zephyrus carest, 
 A form celestial presses to the sight 
 In graceful symmetry. As Venus bright 
 She moves, that lively goddess of desire ! 
 But looks the vestal maid to check the fire, 
 And breathes the rapturous delight of sense, 
 And smiles with beaming grace of innocence. 
 She weaves her varied wreath 
 In artless, sweet simplicity. 
 While every flower her feet beneath 
 
 Springs upward to felicity, 
 Happy if pluck'd by Flora's hand, 
 
 Their several tints, by skill when wrought, 
 Of sweets will form a blooming band ; 
 A garland to the sage she brought. 
 
 III. 
 
 Then nut-brown CERES, as she walks along, 
 Trilling in rustic phrase her ev'ning song, 
 When from the plenteous harvest she returns, 
 Bearing the yellow wealth which labour earn's. 
 Quick from the summit of the hill she spies 
 The honour'd bust, and soon a wreath she ties, 
 A golden chaplet, choice reward of heaven! 
 Unfading crown, to mortals rarely given. 
 And hastes away to join the lovely pair,' 
 And pay with gratitude her homage there. 
 By the sparkling of her eye, 
 Of the darkest hazle hue ; 
 By her forehead arched high, 
 
 And tawny freckles not a few, 
 The village maid is clearly seen, 
 
 Flush'd in ruddy glow of health, 
 Beauteous goddess of the plain, 
 F ruitful source of all our wealth. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Last, reverend age with sober step appears 
 And perfect praise to great LINNAEUS rears • 
 For lo ! where sapient ^SCULAPIUS ni»h ' 
 Lifts with delight the warm enraptur'd eye" 
 
And owns the debt his science owes to thee, 
 Great Northern Genius, Sire of Botany ! 
 The knotty staff, the twining serpent, tell 
 Apollo's favour' d son, denoting well 
 The difficulties, and the cunning art 
 Requir'd to parry Death's envenom'd dart. 
 Thus hoary WISDOM* here combines 
 
 With BEAUTYt, USEFULNESS*, and LOVE§, 
 And each their proper homage joins, 
 
 Unrivall'd SWEDE ! thy worth to prove. 
 Thus manly ADMIRATION stands, 
 
 And CUPID writes immortal fame, 
 While FEMALES use with lavish hands 
 
 Their flowers in honour of thy name. 
 
 Samuel Hull Wilcock. 
 
 • i&cnhphfc t F.ora. J Ceres. , Cu „ id . 
 
CUPID 
 
 INSPIRING PLANTS WITH LOVE. 
 
 THE sexes of Plants had been suggested by Grew and Sir Thomas Millington, and this 
 doctrine was more advanced by Vaillant, but wanted confirmation by experiments, which made 
 the Imperial Academy of Petersburgh offer an handsome premium for proofs of this doctrine 
 and occasioned Linn^us to write a dissertation on this subject, which gained for him the 
 honourable award. 
 
 Teeming with Nature's lively hues, 
 I bid thee welcome, genial spring ! 
 
 While fancy wakes her thousand lyres, 
 And woods and vales responsive sing. 
 
 She comes ; lo! winter scowls away ; 
 
 Harmonious forms start forth to view, 
 Nymphs tripping light in circles gay, 
 
 Deck'd in their robes of virgin hue. 
 
 Then I, on am'rous sportings bent, 
 
 Like a sly archer take my stand ; 
 Wide through the world my shafts are sent; 
 
 And ev'ry creature owns my hand. 
 
 First, man, the lord of all below, 
 
 A captive sinks beneath my dart ; 
 And lovely woman, made to glow, 
 
 Yields the dominion of her heart. 
 
 Through sea and earth and boundless sky, 
 The fond subjection all must prove, 
 
 Whether they swim the stream, or fly, 
 Mountain or vale or forest rove. 
 
 Nor less the Garden's sweet domain, 
 The mossy heath and verdant mead, 
 
 The tow'ring hill, the level plain, 
 
 And fields with blooming life o'erspread. 
 
 George Dyeh. 
 
 E 
 
t 
 
THE SNOW-DROP AND CROCUS. 
 
 In viewing with attention the works of Nature, we cannot fail to notice the highest degree of 
 perfection, and harmony of parts. In the animal creation, when morning is but dawning, 
 we have first the plaintive matin of the robin ; as the sun becomes nearer the horizon, the wake- 
 ful lark, on vibrating wing, gives his cheerful song; the sun once fully risen, and all the warblers 
 of the forest unite in the vocal concert; after a pause, the sun declining, the nightingale joins 
 the robin, but with a song in a much more plaintive strain, and she finally ends in a solo ;» and 
 when utter darkness closes the scene, the frog croaks, the owl screeches, and all partake of 
 the solemnity of night. An African scene at this late hour is dreadful indeed! Besides the 
 hissing of serpents, there are the continual barkings of the wolf and jackall, the yell of the 
 tyger, hyaena, and panther, and the roaring of the lion, appalling every heart with fear. With 
 the same judicious harmonizing of parts, the first flower that appears on the verge of winter is 
 the Snow-Drop, of a pale white, with a little green in the three central petals, whose form the 
 poetess thus elegantly depicts. 
 
 Poets still in graceful numbers, 
 
 May the glowing Roses choose : 
 But the SNOW-DROP's simple beauty 
 
 Better suits an humble muse. 
 
 Earliest bud that decks the garden, 
 
 Fairest of the fragrant race, 
 First-born child of vernal Flora, 
 
 Seeking mild thy lowly place. 
 
 Though no warm, or murmuring zephyr, 
 
 Fan thy leaves with balmy wing ; 
 Pleas'd, we hail thee, spotless blossom, 
 
 Herald of the infant spring. 
 
 Through the cold and cheerless season, 
 
 Soft thy tender form expands. 
 Safe in unaspiring graces, 
 
 Foremost of the bloomy bands. 
 
 1 The plaintive song of Philomela is thus beautifully described by Virgil. OitrliEus laments the loss of Eurydice for seven whole 
 months. 
 
 The rocks were mor'd with pity to his moans, 
 
 Trees bent their heads to hear him sing his wrongs, 
 
 Fierce tygers couch'd around, and loll'd their faw ning tongues. 
 
 So, close in poplar shades, her children gone, 
 
 The mother Nightingale laments alone ; 
 
 Whose nest some prying boy had found, and thence 
 
 By stealth convey'd th' unfeather'd innocence. 
 
 Thus she supplies the night with mournful strains, 
 
 And melancholy music fills the plains. 
 
White-rob'd flow'r, in lonely beauty, 
 
 Rising from a wint'ry bed ; 
 Chilling winds, and blasts ungenial, 
 
 Rudely threat'ning round thy head. 
 
 Silv'ry bud, thy pensile foliage, 
 Seems the angry blasts to fear ; 
 
 Yet secure, thy tender texture 
 Ornaments the rising year. 
 
 No warm tints, or vivid colouring, 
 Paints thy bells with gaudy pride; 
 
 Mildly charm'd we seek thy fragrance, 
 Where no thorns insiduous hide. 
 
 "Tis not thine, with flaunting beauty, 
 
 To attract the roving sight ; 
 Nature, from her varied wardrobe, 
 
 Chose thy vest of purest white. 
 
 White, as falls the fleecy show'r, 
 Thy soft form in sweetness grows ; 
 
 Not more fair, the valley's treasure, 
 Nor more sweet her LILY blows. 
 
 Drooping harbinger of Flora, 
 
 Simply are thy blossoms dress'd ; 
 
 Artless, as the gentle virtues, 
 
 Mansion'd in the blameless breast. 
 
 Cordelia Skeeles. 
 
 Say, what impels, amidst surrounding snow 
 Congeal'd, the CROCUS' yellow bud to blow ? 
 Say, what retards, amidst the summer blaze, 
 Th' autumnal bulb, till pale, declining days' 
 The God of S E AsoN S -whose pervading power 
 Controls the sun, or sheds the fleecy shower- 
 He bids each Flower his quick'ning word obey, 
 Or to each lingering bloom enjoins delay. 
 
 White. 
 
>///'. J f. 
 
GROUP OF ROSES. 
 
 As Spring advances, the flower of the greatest beauty appears, the Rose, equally prized in every 
 quarter of the globe, which in its wild state has five heart-shaped petals of a delicate blush, and 
 beautifully veined, a calyx of singular construction, being urn-shaped, and the upper part 
 shooting out into five rays, or segments, whereof three of them are beautifully fringed. The sta- 
 mina are numerous, and inserted into the calyx, and the pistilla are also several, inserted into the 
 calyx ; hence it comes under Class XII. Icosandria, Order V. Polygynia, of Linnasus. 
 
 Roses are white, red, and yellow, and have pinnated leaves, ending in an odd one, and owe much 
 to cultivation, losing thereby their stamina and pistilla, and multiplying in an infinite degree the 
 petals ; hence they become ?nonsters (beautiful ones) ; and we have here represented the white, the 
 damask, and the moss-rose, and variegated, and added the Dog-rose, to shew the primitive state of 
 this lovely flower. 
 
 In the East, where every thing is, from the fervor of a lively imagination, painted in hierogly- 
 phic characters, the return of the Nightingale from Egypt to Persia, and the flowering of the 
 Rose, at precisely the same period, gave rise, most probably, to the hybrid, so frequently described 
 in Oriental poetry. 
 
 Thus the sweet 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 blushing Fair; — 
 
 To the soft Zephyrs, sweet-warbling as they move, 
 
 In songs of love he thrills the vocal grove. 
 
 Departing Evening stays her beamy star, 
 
 And still Night lingers in his ebon car: 
 
 While on white wings descending Houries throng, 
 
 And drink the floods of odour and of song, 
 
 Darwin. 
 
 Both the Swallow and Nightingale in the winter months retire to Egypt. Anacreon thus ad- 
 dresses the Swallow : 
 
 ODE TO THE SWALLOW. 
 
 Once in each revolving year, 
 Gentle bird ! we find thee here ; 
 When Nature wears her summer vest, 
 Thou com'st to weave thy simple nest ; 
 But when the chilling winter lowers, 
 Again thou seek'st the genial bowers 
 Of Memphis, or the shores of Nile, 
 Where constant hours of verdure smile. 
 
 That the Nightingale retires to Egypt is confirmed by Sonnini in his Travels into Upper and 
 Lower Egypt. " I met," says this traveller, " with several Nightingales, who frequent the most 
 shady thickets in the vicinity of the water. They are silent in Egypt, which they leave in Spring, 
 to warble out their songs of love, and hail her arrival in other countries." — They reach Italy usualfy 
 
 * E 
 
on the twenty-fourth of March, and visit our isle by the second of April. The Cuckoo is another 
 bird of passage, which comes to us in Spring with the other birds, and these may be justly 
 styled the harbingers of that season: 
 
 Hail ! beauteous stranger of the wood ! 
 
 Attendant on the Spring ; 
 Now Heav'n repairs thy rural seat, 
 
 And woods thy welcome sing. 
 
 Soon as the Cowslip decks the green, 
 
 Thy certain voice we hear ; 
 Hast thou a star to guide thy path, 
 
 Or mark the rolling year ? 
 
 Delightful visitant ! with thee 
 
 I hail the time of flow'rs, 
 When Heaven is fill'd with music sweet 
 
 Of birds among the bow'rs. 
 
 The schoolboy, wand'ring in the wood 
 
 To pull the flow'rs so gay, 
 Starts, thy curious voice to hear, 
 
 And imitates thy lay. 
 
 Logan. 
 
 The Yellow Rose either was confounded with the White, or unknown to the Poets, some of 
 whom represent the White Rose as first in birth, and differ with Anacreon, as to the origin of 
 the red, making it to proceed from the blood of Venus dropping on it. 
 
 While the enamour'd queen of joy 
 Flies to protect her lovely boy, 
 
 On whom the jealous war-god rushes ; 
 She treads upon a thorned rose, 
 And while the wound with crimson flows, 
 
 The snowy flow'ret feels her blood, and blushes ! 
 
 Catullus. 
 
 But Anacreon's origin of the Red-Rose surpasses every thing that has appeared in any language 
 either ancient and modern. 
 
 See the young, the timid spring, 
 Gives to the breeze her spangled wing ; 
 While virgin graces, warm with May, 
 Fling roses o'er her dewy way. 
 The murmuring billows of the deep 
 Have languish'd into silent sleep ; 
 And mark ! the flitting sea-birds lave 
 Their plumes in yon reflecting wave ! 
 And Cranes from hoary Winter fly 
 To flutter in a kinder sky ; 
 Now the genial Star of Day 
 Dissolves the murky clouds away, 
 
And cultur'd field, and winding stream, 
 Are sweetly tissued by his beam. 
 When spring bedecks the dewy scene, 
 How sweet to walk the velvet green, 
 And hear the zephyr's languid sighs, 
 As o'er the scented mead he flies ! 
 How sweet to mark the pouting Vine, 
 Ready to fall in tears of wine ! 
 How sweet the voice of love to hear, 
 And softly whisper in the ear, 
 Where the embowering doses meet, 
 Oh, is not this divinely sweet I — 
 While thus we chaunt the wreathed spring 
 Resplendent rose ! to thee we'll sing ; 
 Resplendent rose ! the flower uf flowers ! 
 Whose breath perfumes Olympus' bowers ; 
 Whose virgin blush, or chasten'd dye, 
 Enchants so much our mortal eye. — 
 When pleasure's bloomy season glows, 
 The graces love to twine the rose ; 
 The rose is warm dione's bliss, 
 And flushes like dione's kiss : 
 Oft has the poet's magic tongue 
 The rose's fair luxuriance sung ; 
 And long the muses, heav'nly maids ! 
 Have rear'd it in their tuneful shades, 
 When, at the early glance of morn, 
 It sleeps upon the glittering thorn. 
 'Tis sweet to dare the tangled fence, 
 To cull the timid flow' ret thence, 
 And wipe with tender hand away 
 The tear that on its blushes lay. 
 'Tis sweet to hold the infant stems, 
 Yet dropping with Aurora's gems, 
 And fresh inhale the spicy sighs 
 That from the weeping buds arise. 
 When revel reigns, when mirth is high, 
 And Bacchus beams in every eye, 
 Our rosy fillets scent exhale, 
 And fill with balm the fainting gale. 
 Oh, there is nought in nature bright. 
 Where roses do not shed their light. 
 When Morning paints the orient skies, 
 Her fingers burn with roseate dyes : 
 The Nymphs display the rose's charms, 
 It mantles o'er their graceful arms ; 
 Through Cytherea's form it glows, 
 And mingles with the living snows. — 
 Oh ! whence could such a plant have sprung 
 Attend, for thus the tale is sung: 
 
When, humid, from the silv'ry stream, 
 Effusing beauty's warmest beam, 
 Venus appear'd, in flushing hues, 
 Mellow'd by ocean's briny dews ; 
 When in the starry courts above, 
 The pregnant brain of mighty Jove 
 Disclos'd the nymph of azure glance, 
 The nymph who shakes the martial lance 
 Then, then, in strange, eventful hour, 
 The earth produc'd an infant flower, 
 Which sprung, with blushing tinctures drest 
 And wanton'd o'er its parent's breast. 
 The gods beheld this brilliant birth, 
 And hail'd the Rose, the boon of earth ! 
 With nectar drops, a ruby tide, 
 The sweetly orient buds they dy'd, 
 And bade them bloom, the flowers divine 
 Of him who sheds the teeming vine ; 
 And bade them on the spangled thorn 
 Expand their bosoms to the morn . 
 
 Moor e . 
 
A GROUP OF HYACINTHS. 
 
 This plant, like most of the others of Spring extraction, in its wild state, hangs down its 
 azure bells, and having a delightful scent, is one of the most agreeable gifts that Providence has 
 bestowed upon mortals. 
 
 From its plaintive air, arose to the imagination of the poet the fancy of a Youth converted 
 into this flower. 
 
 I die, I die, young Hyacinthus said, 8 
 
 Sunk on the earth and droop'd his lovely head. 
 
 Quick to his aid distress'd Apollo flew, 
 
 And round the hero's neck his arms he threw. 
 
 But whilst he held him to his throbbing breast, 
 
 And all the anguish of his soul exprest, 
 
 His polish'd limbs, by strange enchantment's pow'r, 
 
 Shoot into buds and blossom into flow'r, 
 
 His auburn locks in verdant foliage flow, 
 
 And wreaths of azure florets shade his brow. 
 
 Ovid. 
 
 Although the Hyacinth cannot boast of broad petals, and a variety of stripes, yet is this 
 flower from its early appearance, and the effect that cultivation produces on it, made one of 
 the most pleasing gifts proceeding from the Deity. Botanists have usually affected to desp.se 
 double flowers, forgetful that the benevolence of the Almighty is best displayed in such produc- 
 tions and have branded them by the appellation of Monsters. They are, however, useful, not 
 only as agreeable objects, but scientifically, proving most satisfactorily the doctrine of the sexes 
 of plants - for the Hyacinth in its natural state has six Stamina and one Pistillum, and is pro- 
 ductive ; the petals are likewise six ; but in a cultivated state the flowers usually cease to be pen- 
 dulous, and the petals are so considerably multiplied, as to constitute the whole of the flower, and 
 there is neither Stamina nor Pistillum, and consequently no propagation by seeds, but merely 
 bv offsets from the bulbs.-The double White Hyacinth has been denominated La Heroine ; 
 that which is double and all of a light blue, Globe Terrestre. The Diana Van Epheson 
 is a double White Hyacinth with small red spots; and Velour Purpre is the dark double 
 Blue Hyacinth with green at the edges of the petals; and the single dark Blue is named Don 
 Gratuit. 
 
 Hminthu. ™ accidental .truck by a ouoit fl.ng by Apollo, and killed on the .pot. Ho was converted into the flower that 
 bears hi, na,ne, and Apollo's grief wa S allayed by viewing ,he beauties of this charging flower. Vrde Ov.n's 
 
 F 
 
A GROUP OF TULIPS. 
 
 As each individual Tulip shews a marked variety, so when grouped together, you have a striking 
 display of the wonderful power of the beneficent Creator, who has placed these beautiful 
 objects before us, for our recreation, and admiration! Enveloped between two transparent 
 skins are found the colouring ingredients, so admirably disposed in a pulpy body, constituting 
 the interior structure of each petal ! How much does the imitative power of painting fall short 
 in trying to represent these ravishing beauties of the vegetable world ! 
 
 — Who can paint 
 
 Like Nature? Can Imagination boast, 
 
 Amid his gay creation, hues like these? 
 
 And can he mix them with that matchless skill, 
 
 And lay them on so delicately fine, 
 
 And make these varied marks so just and true. 
 
 That each shall tell the name denoting 
 
 Its peculiar birth? 
 
 The most cursory glance may indeed shew us that diversity which Tulips exhibit ; but it will 
 require our nearer approaches to discover the distinctions in the habits, attitude, and lineaments of 
 the several species which have given occasion to the appellations invented by florists. 
 
 Most prominent in our group, you see a Tulip, named after that unfortunate French monarch 
 Louis XVI, then in the meridian of his glory ; and it rises above the rest with princely 
 majesty, the edges of whose petals are stained with black, which is the true emblem of sorrow 
 It finely displays the six Stamina placed around the Pistillum in the centre, and its three interior 
 and three exterior petals.*-The next Tulip in dignity has its six petals of a firmer structure, and is 
 bordered with dark purple, so that the most rigid critic might excuse the fancy of the florist who 
 has named this flower after the manf ' Justum et tenacem propositi.'-Beneath these is La 
 Majestieuse, whose edges are clear, but it possesses an extensive blue purple stripe in the centre 
 of each petal.-The Carnation Tulip is called by Botanists La Triomphe Royale, which for 
 beauty of its pencilled stripes certainly triumphs over all the rest-Beneath this is the Gloria 
 Mltndi, whose yellow ground is an emblem of sublunary perfection. Its decisive dark purple lines 
 at the edges, or in the centre of the petals at their top, together with its stately position 
 sufficiently characterize this individual.-The two remaining Tulips have been newly raised by 
 Davey and Mason, and were named by me after two very distinguished patrons of this work 
 Her Grace the Duchess op Devonshire,* „ 0 less eminent for her fine sense and expressive' 
 beauty -than Larl Spencer,§ for his memorable conduct of our navy, which has eclipsed 
 under Ins administration, even the glory of our ancestors, which was previously imagined to ex- 
 ceed almost the bounds of human credibility. 
 
 P.s. 
 
 » Hence it comes under the Class IIexandhia, OrJer Mokootkia ; six males and one female 
 t GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 J The Tulip on the top is the DUCHESS or- DEVONSHIRE, and has fine dashes of a red purple on a pale straw ground. 
 i IBl fiUip, the EARL SPENCER, is characterized by Us numerous &m pencilled purple Uripe, throughout the petal.. 
 
 Tulips »ith a Mile ground florists designate by the title of B t bhevum, and vrilh a geUm ground by the name of Bi-urre «o 
 great once .a. the rage in Holland for Tulips, that the Burgomasters found it necessary ,o enact a la„, that no one should „|„ 
 more than Torty pounds for a Tulip! Even in England, at this time, the LOUIS sells for forty guineas, and the WASHINGTON 
 for ten ! 
 
TULIP ROOT. 
 
 As the juices of the Turnip are wholly exhausted in the formation of the leaves, stem, and 
 flowers, of the plant, so annually does the tunicated bulb of the TULIP expend itself ill the 
 production of its flower, and the formation of other bulbs, which contain the Tulips for the 
 succeeding years in Embryo. Only open one of these young bulbs in any month of Winter, 
 and you will see in Miniature the perfect flower destined in future to charm the admiring eye. 
 This curious fact has afforded scope to a great poet for one of the most brilliant compositions 
 in the English language. 
 
 When o'er the cultur'd lawns and dreary wastes 
 
 Retiring Autumn flings her howling blasts, 
 
 Bends in tumultuous waves the struggling woods, 
 
 And show'rs their leafy honours on the floods, 
 
 In with' ring heaps collects the flowery spoil, 
 
 And each chill insect sinks beneath the soil ; 
 
 Quick hears fair Tulipa the loud alarms, 
 
 And folds her infant closer in her arms ; 
 
 Soft plays affection round her bosom's throne, 
 
 And guards its life, forgetful of her own. — 
 
 So wings the wounded deer her headlong flight, 
 
 Pierc'd by some ambush'd archer of the night, 
 
 Shoots to the woodlands with her bounding fawn, 
 
 And drops of blood bedew the conscious lawn ; 
 
 There, hid in shades, she shuns the cheerful day, 
 
 Hangs o'er her young, and weeps her life away. — 
 
 So stood Eliza on the wood-crown'd height, 
 
 O'er Minden's plain, spectatress of the fight ; 
 
 Sought with bold eye, amid the bloody strife, 
 Her dearer self, the partner of her life ; 
 From hill to hill the rushing host pursu'd, 
 And view'd his banner, or believ'd she view'd. 
 Pleas'd with the distant roar, with quicker tread, 
 Fast by her hand one lisping boy she led ; 
 And one fair girl, amid the loud alarm, 
 Slept on her kerchief, cradled by her arm ; 
 While round her brows bright beams of honour dart, 
 And love's warm eddies circle round her heart. 
 Near and more near th' intrepid beauty press'd, 
 Saw through the driving smoke his dancing crest ; 
 Heard the exulting shout, " they run ! they run !" 
 " Great God !" she cried, " he's safe ! the battle's won !" 
 A ball now hisses through the airy tides, 
 (Some fury wing'd it, and some da;mon guides,) 
 Parts the fine locks her graceful head that deck, 
 Wounds her fair ear, and sinks into her neck : 
 
The red stream, issuing from her azure veins, 
 
 Dyes her white veil, her iv'ry bosom stains. 
 
 " Ah me !" she cried, and, sinking on the ground, 
 
 Kiss'd her dear babes, regardless of the wound : 
 
 " O cease not yet to beat, thou vital urn ; 
 
 " Wait, gushing life, oh ! wait my Love's return : 
 
 " Oh ! spare, ye war-hounds, spare their tender a"e ; 
 
 " On me, on me," she cried, " exhaust your rage." 
 
 Hoarse barks the wolf, the vulture screams from far, 
 
 The angel Pity shuns the walks of war. 
 
 Then with weak arms her weeping babes caress'd, 
 
 And, sighing, hid them in her blood-stain' d vest. 
 
 Darwin. 
 
A GROUP OF AURICULAS. 
 
 Linnaeus makes the Auricula a species of Primula (Primula Auricula). Tournefort con- 
 stitutes it into a separate genus. Being a native of the Alps, hence, in our Picture, it is seated 
 near a chain of tremendous mountains. It is called by old Parkinson the Mountain Cowslip a l so 
 the Bears-ear; the latter name from its leaves, which are fleshy, and round at top, being thought 
 to resemble the ear of that animal. Its flowers arc in an umbel, placed upon a fleshy upright 
 scape; and Nature, in her bounty, has provided here a general involucre, which is a stron* ser- 
 rated leaf, often raised aloft like a banner, at the back of the flowers, so as to receive the shocks 
 from the winds, which otherwise would dash them against the mountain's side. The proper calvx 
 is tubular, and five-toothed, shorter than the corolla, which is also a tube gradually widening 
 upwards, spreading out into an extensive border. This border has a round white circle 
 surrounding the neck of the tube. In this circumstance all Auriculas agree. It is the other 
 half of the border that constitutes the varieties in this flower. In some this is of an uniform 
 purple, or yellow, the most common kind, and of little value ; these sorts are by florists called 
 selfs; the common purple Auricula is called Redman's Metropolitan, the yellow the Egyptian ■ 
 sometimes this is not of one uniform colour, being found of a bright purple', with lighter dashes 
 intermixed, and the edge of an apple green, when it has the appellation of CockupS Eclipse 
 from the florist who first raised it; and when this strikes into a deeper ground colour, almost 
 inclining to black, with more of the green, and the edges more emarginate, the former being 
 more completely circular, and this less so, it is called Grimes's Privateer* In its wild state 
 these flowers are much smaller, and have five stamina. The Auricula was cultivated in our 
 gardens so early as 1597- It comes under Class V. Pentandiua, Five Males Order I 
 Monogynia, One Female, ' 
 
 Queen of the snowy Alps, in glittering pride 
 She rears her palace on the mountain's side; 
 There, as bright sun-beams light her spangled throne, 
 Attendant sylphs the aerial Empress own, 
 Expand their purple plumes, and rais'd in air. 
 Wave their green banners to protect the fair. 
 Imperial beauty, with resistless sway, 
 Tames the rude bears, and bids their tribes obey, 
 Roar round each crystall'd cliff and moss-girt plain, 
 And guard in shaggy troops her bright domain. 
 Delighted Boreas views her from afar, 
 And drives in stormy state his ebon car; 
 Low at her feet the boist'rous Monarch bows, 
 And breathes his passion 'mid descending snows, 
 While timid Zephyr flies through fields of air, 
 Scarce daring to approach the hill-encircled fair. 
 
 Shaw. 
 
 f :x — ;:z,„:^:r - - - - - * - «— ■ 
 
 regular, forming together a kind of ball, and, though cl. 
 other. With respect to the flowers themselves, the tube 
 
 properly spread the flowers ; the cluster, or trm. of flower,, should be close and 
 osc and compacted, each flower should, as near as possible, be distinct from each 
 
 . ■ cup, should be lemon-coloured; Hie stamina, or thrum! strong n„,l „,. m 
 — emarginate: which^art is called EtT^rSr-T^^jSi-tSr ^ 
 
THE SUPERB LILY; 
 
 Oft j 
 
 LILIUM SUPERBUM. 
 
 The Superb Lily is a native of North America, and was first introduced into England in 1730, 
 by Peter Collinson, Esq. It was then called the great yellow-flowering Martagon, and dis- 
 tinguished from the purple, or common Turkscap, by having its upper leaves scattered, instead of 
 being placed in a whorl. Its flowers rise in the form of a stately pyramid, by very long pedun- 
 culi or footstalks, each issuing from an axilla of the stem-leaf. In common with the liliaceous 
 tribe, it has no calyx, a fleshy corolla, consisting of six petals, which, like lire other Martagons, at 
 first beautifully involve the organs for reproduction, and then become reflected, and curl more 
 and more back, as the six stamina and pistillum advance towards perfection. At this period 
 the anthers, like a double folding door, roll back their partitions, to disperse the fecundating 
 pollen for the impregnation of the pistillum. We then behold these parts decay in progression, 
 the grand purpose of Nature being fulfilled, and the peduncles, or flower-stalks, which were 
 before elegantly pendent, become rigidly erect. As the pericarp, or seed-vessel, ripens, its 
 three valves gradually separate, finely exhibiting that interlacement of fibres, which sowed 
 these parts together before maturity. In our picturesque plate the reader will find the northern 
 sky and shade which this plant requires, a circumstance happily caught at by the poet in making 
 his allegorical allusion to our flower. It is of Class VI. Hexandkia, of Linnaeus, Order I. 
 
 MONOGYNIA. 
 
 Fann'd by the summer gale, a Poplar stood 
 
 Beside the margin of the silver flood ; 
 
 Beneath its playful gently-wav'ring shade, 
 
 A Lily proud her dazzling bloom display 'd ! 
 
 The flower complain'd, that, stretching o'er her head, 
 
 The dark'ning tree her broadest umbrage spread. 
 
 Not unattentive to the mournful strain, 
 
 The Master heard his fav'rite flower complain : 
 
 The steady axe soon urg'd the fatal wound, 
 
 And bow'd the stately Poplar to the ground ! 
 
 The Lily, boastful now, in full display 
 
 Gave all her beauty to the garish day. 
 
 But soon, her triumph ceas'd— the mid-day beam 
 
 Pour'd on her tender frame a scorching stream. 
 
 The plant then sick'ning, drooping, languid, pale, 
 
 Call'd the soft show'r, and call'd the cooling gale; 
 
 But no soft show'r, nor gale with cooling breath, 
 
 Approach'd to save her from untimely death. 
 
 Jerningham. 
 
 H 
 
■ 
 
 i 
 
A GROUP OF CARNATIONS. 
 
 The Carnatioji, so deservedly esteemed both for its superior beauty, and rich spicy odour/ must 
 certainly have been unknown to the ancients, or it would have been described by naturalists as 
 the rival of the Rose, and as such sung by poets. In its wild state it has five small red petals, 
 and attracts no notice from its beauty, nor has it in that state any scent. So the Eastern Tulip' 
 in its wild state, is of one uniform red. Art accomplishes all the rest. Then it is this Flower 
 deserves the appellation given it by botanists, Diantiius, the Timer of Jove. t Some have 
 affected to despise the Florist's care, and hence these beautiful nurselings are denominated 
 by them Monsters s % because the petals are augmented, as in the double Rose, at the expense 
 
 * The modern Italians, from whatever cause, are said to hold all perfumes, even thoso of Floors, in aversion ; perhaps from a dread 
 of some subtle poison being thus administered, of which numerous ((hough not very credible) instances occur in the tales of other 
 times:— 10,000 persons, in the period of the Roman republic, are recorded in one year as having perished by poison. Vide my Philo- 
 sophy of Politics, vol. i. p. 274. 
 
 In fair ItaliiCs bosom born, 
 
 Diantuus spreads his fringed ray ; 
 And glowing 'mid [he purpled morn, 
 
 Adds fragrance to the new-born day. 
 
 Oft by some mould'ring time-worn lower, 
 
 Or classic stream, he loves to rove, 
 Where dancing nymphs, and satyrs blithe, 
 
 Once listcii'd to the notes of love. 
 
 Sweet flower, beneath thy natal sky 
 
 No fav'ring smiles thy scents invite ; 
 To Britain's worthier region fly, 
 
 And " paint her meadows with delight." 
 
 ' * ' SuAW. 
 
 + From Amf, of Jove, a ( 0or, the flower. 
 
 X Linnsus, who terms such flowers Monsters, thus deridingly describes the Florist. « Such, by an over-great study and assiduous 
 inspection, have discovered such amazing wonders in flowers, as no man, the most clear-sighted in the world, could ever discern but those 
 who are versed in this study. The grand objects of their attention are the most beautiful flowers, such as Tulips, Hyacinths Anemonies 
 Ranunculuses, Pinks, Carnations, Auriculas, and Polyanthuses. To the hidden varieties of these flowers they have given such pompous 
 names as excite wonder and astonishment, and are really ridiculous. These men cultivate a science peculiar to themselves, the mysteries 
 of which are only known to the adepts ; nor can such knowledge be worth the attention of the botanist ; therefore let no sound botanist 
 tver enter into their Societies." 
 
 Some apology, however, may be made for the Florist. « Not he alone is to be esteemed a benefactor to mankind who makes a useful 
 discovery, but he also who can point out and recommend an innocent pleasure. Of this kind are the pleasures arising from the observa- 
 tion of Nature, highly agreeable to every taste uncorrupted by vicious indulgence. 
 
 « There will always be many in a rich and civilized country, who, as they are born to the enjoyment of competent estates, engage not 
 in business, civil or professional ; but the restless mind must either find or make an object ; pleasure, therefore, becomes to the unem- 
 ployed a serious pursuit. Whatever is its essence, and whatever the declaimcr may urge against it, pleasure will be sought by all who 
 possess the liberly of election. It becomes then incumbent on the moralist, not only to urge the performance of duty, but to exhibit 
 objects that please, without enervating the mind, and gratify without corrupting the principles. 
 
 " Rural scenes, of almost every kind, are delightful to the mind of man. The verdant plain, the flowery mead, the meandering stream 
 the playful lamb, the warbling of birds, arc all capable of exciting emotions gently agreeable. But the misfortune is, that the greater 
 part arc hurried on in the career of life, with too great rapidity to be able to give attention to that which solicits no passion. The 
 darkest habitation in the dirtiest street of the metropolis, where money can be earned, has greater charms with many than the groves of 
 Hagley. 
 
 " Yet the patron of refined pleasure, the elegant Epicurus, fixed the seat of his enjoyment in a garden. He thought a tranquil spot, 
 furnished with the united sweets of Art and Nature, the best adapted to elegant repose. And even the severer philosophers of antiquity 
 were wont to discourse under the shade of a spreading tree, in some cultivated plantation. 
 
 " It is obvious, on intuition, that Nature often intended solely to please the eye in her vegetable productions. She decorates the 
 floweret that springs beneath our feet in all the perfection of external beauty. She lias cloathed the garden wilh a constant succession 
 of various hues ; even the leaves of the tree undergo a pleasing vicissitude. The fresh verdure they exhibit in the spring, the various 
 shades they assume in summer, the yellow and russet tinge of autumn, and the nakedness of winter, afford a constant pleasure to a fine 
 imagination. From the snowdrop to the moss-rose, the flower-garden displays an infinite variety of shape and colour. The taste of the 
 
of the Stamina, and often of the Pi.* Shakspeare notices this strange effect produced 
 
 by art ' Per. Sir, the year is growing ancient, 
 
 Not yet on summer's death, nor on the birth 
 Of trembling winter ; the fairest flowers o th' season 
 Are our Carnations, and streak' d Gilly-flvwers, 
 
 florist has been ridiculed as trifling, yetsurcly without reason. Did Nature bring forth tho Tulip and the Jlyacinth, the Rose and the 
 
 Carnation to be neglected by the haughty pretender to superior reason ? To omit a single social duty, for the cultivation of a Polyanthus, 
 
 ,« „i, ,. ..riminal ■ but to pass by tho beauties lavished before us, without observing them, is no less ingratitude than 
 were ridiculous as wen as cmmim. , y j _ 
 
 t dity A bad heart Suds little amusement but in a communication with the active world, where scope is given for the indulgence of 
 
 LXnan't passions ■ but an amiable disposition is commonly known by a taste for the beauties of the vegetable creation." Knox. 
 
 Herbs and Bower* may be regarded by some persons as objects of inferior consideration in philosophy ; but every thing must be great 
 
 which hath God for its author. To him all the parts of Nature are equally related. The flowers of the earth can raise our thoughts up 
 
 t the Creator of the world as effectually as the stars ofheaven ; and till we make this use of both, we cannot be said to think properly of 
 
 "tl er The contemplation of Nature should always be seasoned with a mixture of devotion, the highest faculty of the human mind, by 
 
 '. „' a , onc c „„tcmplation is improved, and dignified, and directed to its proper objcct.-WM. this devotion, the study of Jlouers seems 
 
 to restore man in his fallen state to a participation of that felicity which he enjoyed while innocent in Paradise.-Notlnng indeed proves 
 
 more satisfactorily a benevolent Duty than the variety BE hath established in flowers, even amongst the same species. What a blaze 
 
 of li„ht bursts in upon the enquiring mind respecting the Mentions of this Diurv ! A full proof of the existence, wisdom, and never. 
 
 ccasbig agency of a presiding Power-*.»d and ffooi-an Aimer Power ! Our inimitable HiBTEY bursts out into these rapturous 
 
 ""TlT^U-V 'that iL'rmlng'colours,' are here! these, so nobly bold ; and those so delicately languid. What a glow is enkindled 
 e 1 what a gloss shines upon others! In one, mctliinks, I see the ruby with her bleeding radiance ; in another, the sapphire, with 
 in some . w ^ M mA an ^^ite richness of dyes, as no other set of paintings in the universe can boast.— With what a 
 
 I Cskiliis every one of 'the varying lints disposed ! Here, they seem to be thrown on with an easy dash of security and freedom; 
 T the are adjusted by the nicest touches of art and accuracy. Those which form the ground arc always so judiciously chosen as to 
 ' '"7 thcTustrc of the superadded figures, while the verdure of the impalement, or the shadings of the foliage, impart new liveliness to 
 heig iten ic usrej ^ ^ b i cn ded or arranged, softened or contrasted, they arc manifestly under the conduct of a taste that 
 
 the WHO . ^ (hat never falls short of the very perfection of elegance.— Fine, inimitably fine, is the texture of the web on 
 
 .hicn tee shbiin. treasures are displayed. What are the labours of the Persian looms, of the boasted commodities of Brussels, com- 
 ared with these curious manufactures of Nature > Compared with these, the most admired chintzes lose their reputation : even superfine 
 cambrics appear coarse as canvas in their presence. 
 
 <■ What an enchanting situation is this ! One can scarce be melancholy within the atmosphere of dowers. Such lively hues, and delicious 
 odours not only addrcsl themselves agreeably to the sense,, but touch, with a surprizing delicacy, thesweetest movements of the mind. 
 « How often have I felt them dissipate the gloom of thought, and transfuse a sudden gaiety through the dejected spirit ! I cannot wonder 
 kiTs "descend from their thrones, to walk amidst blooming ivory and gold ; or retire from the most sumptuous feast, to be recreated 
 ,a * . ..„„!, of the garden. T cannot wonder that queens forego, for a while, the compliments of a nation, to receive the 
 
 with the more refined sweets oi ura b« t c ^ 
 
 ributc of the arterrc ; or withdraw from all the glitter of a court, to be attended w ith the more splendid equipage of a bed of flowers, 
 '"""what apprizing' rnraty is observable among the flowery tribes! how has the bountiful hand of Providence diversified these nicest 
 ' ccs of his workmanship ! added the charms of an endless novelty to all their other perfections ! — A constant uniformity would soon render 
 the entertainment tiresome, or insipid ; therefore every species is formed on a separate plan, and exhibits something entirely new. The 
 fashion spreads not from family to family ; but every one has a mode of its own, which is truly original. The most cursory glance perceives 
 an apparent difference, as well as a peculiar delicacy, in the airs and habits, the attitude and lineaments, of every distinct class. 
 
 " Some rear their heads with amajestic mien, and overlook, I ike sovereigns and nobles, the whole parterre. Others seem more moderate 
 in their aims, and advance only to the middle stations; a genius turned for heraldry might term them the gentry of the border. While 
 others, free from all aspiring views, creep unambitiously on the ground, and look like the commonalty of the kind — Some arc intersected 
 with elegant stripes, or studded with radiant spots. Some affect to be genteely powdered, or neatly fringed ; while others are plain in their 
 aspect, unaffected in their dress, and content to please with a naked simplicity. Some assume the monarch's purple, some look most 
 becoming in the virgin's white ; but black, doleful black, has no admittance into the wardrobe of Natnrc. Tho weeds of mourning would 
 be a manifest indecorum, when Summer holds an universal festival. She would now inspire none but delightful ideas ; and therefore 
 always makes her appearance in some amiable suit. Here stands a warrior, clad with crimson ; there sits a magistrate robed in scarlet ; 
 and yonder struts a pretty fellow, that seems to have dipped his plumes in tho rainbow, and glitters in all the gay colours of that rcsplen. 
 dent arch. Some rise into a curious cup, or fall into a set of beautiful bells ; some spread themselves into a swelling tuft, or crowd into 
 a delicious cluster. In some, tho predominant stain softens, by the gentlest diminutions, till it has even stole away from itself. The rye is 
 amused at the agreeable delusion, and we wonder to find ourselves insensibly decoyed into a quite different lustre. In others, you would 
 think the fine tinges were emulous of pre-eminence. Disdaining to mingle, they confront one another, with the resolution of rivals, de- 
 termined to dispute the prize of beauty ; w hile each is improved, by the opposition, into the highest vivacity of complexion. 
 
 " How I admire the vastness of the contrivance, and the exactness of the execution, of trees and llowers! Man, feeble man, with diffi- 
 culty accomplishes a single work. Hardly, and after many efforts, does he arrive at a tolerable imitation of some one production of 
 Nature. But the Almighty Artist spoke millions of substances into instantaneous being ; the whole collection w onderfully various, and 
 each individual completely perfect." « How manifold arc thy works, O Lono 1" multiplied even to a prodigy : yet " in wisdom," con- 
 summate wisdom, H bast thou made them all." 
 
Which some call Nature's Bastards : — of that kind 
 
 Our rustic garden's barren, and I care not 
 
 To get slips of them. 
 Pol. Wherefore, gentle maiden, 
 
 Do you neglect them ? 
 Per. For I have heard it said, 
 
 There is an art, which in their piedness shares 
 With great creating Nature. 
 Pol. Say, there be : 
 
 Yet Nature is perverted by no mean, 
 
 For Nature makes that mean : so, over that Art, 
 
 Which Nature makes; you see, sweet maid, we marry 
 
 A gentle scyon to the wildest stock, 
 
 And make conceive a bark of baser kind, 
 
 A bud of nobler race. 77* w is an Art 
 
 Which does mend Nature, change it rather, but 
 
 The Art itself is Nature.* 
 
 The florist, in fact, raises this fine assemblage of plants from seed, and the botanist should 
 excuse him his care, when he can draw from his labours the strongest arguments in favour of the 
 sexes of plants. 
 
 " This admirable flower is of all others the most delightful, as well for its agreeable scent as for 
 its beautiful colours. The varieties of it are hardly to be numbered, every year producing new 
 sorts raised from seed. Some of the choicest kinds are kept up by slips, layers, or cuttings, but 
 no seeds are to be obtained from these, for, after a few years propagation in this way, they indeed 
 flower, yet, even if a pistillum be formed, and any seeds are produced, these are always found to 
 be abortive, f Most of the other double flowers, such as have increased corollas, are also barren, 
 
 K " I am persuaded," says LlNNJECB, in Iiis Sponsalia Plantamm, " from many considerations, that those numerous anil most valuable 
 varieties of plants, which are daily seen adorning our gardens, or arc used for culinary purposes, have been produced by the intermixture 
 of species ; for I cannot give my assent to the opinion of those who imagine all varieties to have been occasioned by a change of soil. IE 
 this were the case, the plants would return to their original form, provided they were removed to their original situation." The follow, 
 ing is a curious anecdote, recorded by Ray, which confirms this doctrine. 
 
 " Baal, a gardener at Brentford, having cultivated a remarkably fine cabbage, sold a large quantity of the seeds to several gardeners about 
 the suburbs of London. They committed these to the ground after the usual manner, but instead of the sort Baal had made them believe 
 would spring up, they proved to be chiefly the Brassiea Longifotia, instead of the Florida. His incensed customers in a body instantly 
 commenced, in Westminster-hall, a prosecution against him. The unfortunate man being unable to prove his innocence before the judges* 
 the court found him guilty of fraud, and he was condemned not only to restore the price given for the seeds, but was likewise obliged to 
 pay each gardener for his loss of time, and for the ground that had been uselessly occupied. His character and circumstances were in con- 
 sequence ruined ; the robust health of the innocent man becoming gradually impaired, he paid an untimely debt to Nature. Had (lie 
 judges been at all apprized of the sexual hypothesis, or had (his honest man known, from careful observation, the use of the farina in ren- 
 dering the pistillum productive, Baai, would not have been found guilty of a crime, but the accident would have been attributed to the 
 true cause, the fortuitous impregnation of the Brassiea Florida by the farina of the Brassiea Longifolia growing in its neighbourhood." 
 
 This fact is proved by Mellf.r, the illustrious author of the Gardener's Dictionary, now rendered a work of the very first eminence by 
 the learned and very valuable additions of Professor Martys, in the last edition, which, to use the panegyric of Linna;us, " merits rather 
 the appellation of a philosophic and botanical Dictionary for Botanists." 
 
 Miller planted out three distinct rows of cabbages. In the first row he put a dozen of red cabbages ; in the second a dozen of white' 
 and in the third a dozen of savoys. As soon as these had done (lowering, he cut them all down, save one savoy, the seeds of which he 
 carefully preserved. These seeds produced him red cabbages, tzhite cabbages, savoys, some savoys xsith red ribs, and in some a mixture 
 of all the three sorts in the same plant. This is a curious botanical fact, which the truly ingenious Mr. Knight is now farming to a va- 
 luable account for the improvement of our apples and other fruits. 
 
 + This doctrine is thus expressed by Dr. Darwin : 
 
 So grafted trees with shadowy summits rise, 
 Spread their fair blossoms, and perfume the skies : 
 Till canker taints the vegetable blood, 
 Mines round the bark, and feeds upon the wood. 
 I 
 
for the organs for reproduction are lost in the multiplication of the petals. You must, therefore, 
 select seed from a carnation raised itself from seeds, not from layers, and from such also whose 
 flowers shew a perfect pistilluin. And as the dust of one flower will impregnate and enliven that 
 of another, and from such couplings the seeds are so changed as to produce plants changing from 
 the mother plant (as I have proved in my chapter on the Generation of Plants). This considera- 
 tion leads me to advise the curious florist to plant of every sort of his best carnations in beds, on a 
 line in the middle, and on each side of them to set at least two rows of single ones of choice colours, 
 and among them also some plants of Pinks and Sweet-williams, which are of the same genus." 
 Vide Bradley, Professor of Botany, on Gardening, p. 122, published in 1727- 
 
 By this latter part of the experiment, Fairchild produced his Mule Pink, which the eye at 
 once discovers to be betwixt a Sweet-william and a Pink. 
 
 Caryo's sweet smile Dianthus proud admires, 
 
 And gazing burns with unallow'd desires ; 
 
 With sighs and sorrows her compassion moves, 
 
 And wins the damsel to illicit loves. 
 
 So, in her wane of beauty, Ninon won, 
 
 With fatal smiles, her gay unconscious son — 
 
 Clasp'd in his arms, she own'd a mother's name, — 
 
 " Desist, rash youth ; restrain your impious flame ; 
 
 " First on that bed your infant-form was press'd, 
 
 " Born by my throes, and nurtur'd at my breast." — 
 
 Back as from death lie sprung, with wild amaze 
 
 Fierce on the fair he fix'd his ardent gaze ; 
 
 Dropp'd on one knee, his frantic arms outspread, 
 
 And stole a guilty glance towards the bed ; 
 
 Then breath' d from quivering lips a whisper' d vow ; 
 
 And bent on heaven his pale repentant brow ; 
 
 " Thus, thus !" he cried, and plung'd the furious dart, 
 
 And life and love gush'd mingled from his heart. 
 
 Darwin. 
 
 The " sound" botanist will also find no plant that can better illustrate the calyx. 
 
 He should indeed suffer each person to enjoy his own peculiar pleasure. There are some 
 rigid men who even condemn this pursuit altogether, having not taste enough to relish the 
 beauties of the creation. The poet thus reproves them: 
 
 Why brand these pleasures with the name 
 Of soft unsocial toils, of indolence and shame? 
 Search but the garden, or the wood ; 
 
 Let yon admir'd Carnation own, 
 Not all was meant for raiment or iovfood, 
 Not all for needful use alone : 
 There, w hile the seeds of future blossoms dwell, 
 'Tis colour' d for the sight, perfum'd to please the smell. 
 
 So, years successive, from perennial roots 
 The wire or bulb with lesseu'd vigonr shouts, 
 Till curled lanes or barrcnJUnceri betray 
 
 A waning lineage, verging to decay : 
 
 Or till, amended by connubial pov:en t 
 
 Ptisc teedliitg progenies from iixtjak ki.owf.hs. 
 
Why knows the Nightingale to sing ? 
 
 Why flows the Vine's nectarcous juice? 
 Why shines with paint the Linnet's wing ? 
 
 For sustenance alone ? for use ? 
 For preservation ? Every sphere 
 Shall bid fair Pleasure's rightful claim appear. 
 And sure there seem of human kind 
 
 Some born to shun the solemn strife ; 
 Some for amusive tasks design'd, 
 To soothe the certain ills of life ; 
 Grace its lone vales with many a budding rose, 
 
 Nero founts of bliss disclose, 
 Call forth refreshing shades, and decorate repose. 
 
 Shenstone. 
 
 Florists distinguish Carnations into four divisions : 
 
 1. Flakes, of two colours only, and their stripes large, going quite through the petals. 
 
 2. Painted Ladies, having the petals of a red, or purple, on the upper part only, ami the under 
 
 side of clear white. 
 
 3. Bizarres, flowers striped or variegated with three or four different shades of colour. 
 
 4. Piquettcs, a white or yellow ground, edges toothed and spotted, or, to use the florist's ex- 
 
 pression, pounced, with scarlet, red, or purple. 
 In our Plate of these Carnations,* there are two purple Flakes; the upper is Palmer's 
 Duchess op Dorset, and the lowest one Palmer's Defiance :— there are two scarlet Bizarres ; 
 that on the right is Caustin's British Monarch, and the centre one, a paler red, is Midwin- 
 ter's Duchess of Wurtemberg :— likewise there are two Piquettcs; the red Piquette is 
 Davey's Defiance, and the purple one the Princess of Wales. 
 
 • These Carnations were all of Ihem copied, of (he exact size of Nature, from o,,t of the choice collection or Mr. Dtvrv of the 
 K.ng>, Road, Chelsea ; a, were (he Tulip, from .hat of Mr. .Masov; certainly the first florists in the world, and gentlemen eitrcmolr 
 (Jcstrmis of giving every inlornialion ami encouragement to the ISotunnt. 
 
MIMOSA GRANDIFLORA; 
 
 OR, 
 
 LARGE-FLOWERING SENSITIVE PLANT. 
 
 Phis most elegant shrub is native of the East Indies. It was first introduced into our 
 gardens in 1769, by Mr. Norman. It is found frequent in mountainous districts: hence one 
 of the natives gazing at, and admiring its flowers. It sleeps at regular periods, by closing its 
 two corresponding leaflets together ; and the flowers are so rapid in their growth, as to give to 
 them also the appearance of spontaneous motion, Nature having well dissembled in this tribe 
 of vegetables the high attributes of sensation, and of action. Growing to the size of a mode- 
 rate tree, it is not armed with spines as many of its congeners, nor does it possess like the 
 Mtmosa Pudica (the common Sensitive Plant), the power of retracting its branches, so as 
 to set the whole plant into general motion upon the rude approach of an invader. Secreting 
 honey, it gives a delightful food to the humming bird, and Nature has been so anxious for the 
 preservation of this tribe, that besides multiplying the number of males (stamina) to one pistillum 
 or female, there are also several of its flowers which possess only a cluster of males Hence it 
 arranges in the Class XXIII. Polygamia, Order I. Mon<ecia, of Linnaeus. It is thus per- 
 sonified by the late Dr. Darwin. 
 
 Fill'd with nice sense the chaste Mimosa stands, 
 From each rude touch withdraws her timid hands : 
 Oft, as light clouds o'erpass the summer glade, 
 Alarm'd she trembles at the moving shade ;* 
 And feels, alive through all her tender form, 
 The whisper'd murmurs of the gathering storm ; 
 Shuts her sweet eyelids to approaching night, 
 And hails with freshen'd charms the rising light. 
 Now many a suitor woos the blushing maid, 
 Each swears by him she ne'er will be betray'd. 
 At last, she melts, and sighs, in verdant bow'rs, 
 And yields to Cupid's all-triumphant pow'rs — 
 So hapless Desdemona, fair and young, 
 Won by Othello's captivating tongue, 
 Hung o'er each strange and piteous tale, distrest, 
 Then sunk enamour'd on his sooty breast. 
 
 Darwin. 
 
 « Desdemona is represented by Shakspcarc, as one so chaste, '• as to tremble eien at the sight of her own shadow." 
 
 K 
 
NIGHT-BLOWING CEREUS; 
 
 OK, 
 
 CACTUS GRANDIFLORUS. 
 
 This plant i S called by Lin™ large-Jhwering Cactus, on account of the comparative largeness 
 of its flower, which, in its native country, Jamaica, is often more than a foot in diameter It ha 
 the appellation also of XjWM, Cereus, from its opening its beautiful flowers after' sun-set 
 Others have styled ,t the Torch Tlustle, from the armature about its pentangular, articulated and 
 
 chn^bing stem which is leafless, succulent, and exhibits to the observer a figure equally grotesque 
 as terrific, with flowers possessing actually the blazing appearance of a torch I have 
 sometimes seen in our hot-houses twenty or thirty of these flowers expanded in the same even!,,. 
 
 „ , .. „ , . . - m - ^ouucu in me same evemnc 
 
 emitting al the wh, e a fine balsamic odour. The calyx is monophyllous, that is, consisting of one 
 piece, which is deeply cleft into segments, called by botanists lacinia; which are of a bright oranae 
 and gradually dimmish in size, becoming real squama; or scales, before they reach the germen or* 
 seed-vessel, which is villous, or covered with numerous hairs. The petals, or flower-leaves of the 
 corolla, are twenty in number, of a snowy whiteness, and arranged in'tiers, are less pointed 
 and concave than the hernia, having each apex armed with a hook. These two expansion, 
 LinnjEus figuratively calls the nuptial bed. From the germen at the bottom of the cup arises I 
 long tube, named by botanists the style, which terminates in a many-cleft stigma. These 3 Dart ! 
 form what is termed the putillum, or female ; around whom, in clusters, are the stamina or male* 
 composed of curvilinear ^laments crowned by their anthers. These take their origin from the 
 hence this plant comes under the Class XII. Icosandiua, and Order I. Monooyxi i of 
 7F.IIS. It. is t ins nersniiifipr! Im r>,. n._ • L; t A . 01 
 
 Refulgent Cerea !— at the dusky hour, 
 She seeks with pensive step the mountain-bower, 
 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, 
 Opes her fair lips, and breathes her virgin vows' ; 
 Eyes the white zenith ; 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. 
 —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 
 Wows thy warm cheek, thy polish'd bosom gleams.- 
 In crowds around thee gaze the admiring swains, 
 Who keep in silence agonizing pains ; 
 Drop the still tear, or breathe the iinpassion'd sigh, 
 And drink inebriate, rapture from thine eye. 
 
mm? 
 
STRELITZIA REGIN^E; 
 
 OUEEN PLANT. 
 
 This is one of the many lovely productions imported from the Cape of Good Hope, introduced 
 into our gardens by Sir Joseph Banks, Bart. K. B. the illustrious and most indefatigable pro- 
 moter of the science of Natural History. Its leaves are coriaceous and spoon-shaped, often undu- 
 lated at the base, inwardly of a deep green, and outwardly beautifully glaucous. The flowersare 
 of a bright orange, tripetalled, inclosed at first by two long membranous calyx leaves, which drop 
 as the flower rises from the common spatha, and these appear in succession, each retiring back- 
 ward, to give place to other flowers. These three petals of the corolla encompass the beautiful 
 nectarium, which is diphyllous, that is, composed of two leaves, one shaped like an anchor ex- 
 teriorly, and hollowed interiorly, inclosing in a groove the five stamina, remarkable for long 
 anthers, through which duplicature also passes the style, whose triangular and pointed stigma, 
 finally reaching beyond the bifid end of this part of the nectary, makes the anchor resemblance 
 perfect. The other petal of the nectary is smaller, shaped like a cowl, and hooked. Nature 
 here seems to aim at deception, the beaked spatha, upon its long and round stalk, or scape, 
 gives the similitude of the head of some species of crane, and the flowers above feign its top- 
 knot ; and even the expert botanist at first sight might imagine that the purple nectary on one 
 side was a stamen, with its barbed anther, and on the other the stigma, as in the orchis tribe : but 
 upon dissection all this confusion vanishes, and it easily arranges under Class V. Pentandria, 
 Order I. Monogvnia, of Linnams, each flower possessing five stamina, and one pistillum. We 
 have been so fortunate as to be favoured with the following Verses on this Plant by the present 
 Poet Laureat. 
 
 On Afric's southern steep, where Gama's sail 
 
 To the tempestuous clime was first unfurl'd, 
 Courting with ample sweet the dangerous gale, 
 
 And op'd to Europe's sons the Eastern World, 
 
 Heroes, beyond the Demi-Gods of Greece, 
 
 By Jason led, and urg'd by Orpheus' lyre, 
 Seeking, through wilder seas a richer fleece, 
 
 While warlike Camoens* wak'd the epic wire. 
 
 Oft as the Genius of the stormy main 
 
 From the high promontory view'd the wave, 
 He saw with daring prow Britannia's train, 
 
 The angry winds and mountain surges brave, 
 
 George's parental sway, and Albion's laws, 
 
 Spreading where Amnion's empire never spread, 
 To Thames' blest stream her stores while Commerce draws 
 
 From Ganges' Bcamin groves and Indus' bed : 
 
 * A famous Portuguese Poet, Author of the Liuiad. 
 I, 
 
Sudden, a buoyant Vessel meets his eyes, 
 
 Not launch* d by thirst of wealth, or hope of fame, 
 
 Science alone directs the bold emprise, 
 
 Her eye their cynosure, her smile their aim. 
 
 Her favourite Votary from the lap of ease, 
 From Pleasure's siren voice, and Fortune's store, 
 
 Steers by unpeopled coasts, through pathless seas, 
 TV expanded Scenes of Nature to explore. 
 
 Amid her shapes minute while others pry, 
 
 Scanning the myriads on the herbs' green top, 
 
 Or mark intent, with microscopic eye, 
 
 The monsters writhing in the liquid drop ; 
 
 Advent' rous Banks !* her bolder march pursues, 
 Through the rude desert, and the billowy storm, 
 
 And 'mid the elemental conflict views 
 The mighty wonders of her awful form. 
 
 Now 'mid the rigour of antarctic frost, 
 
 Where the chill stream of life scarce keeps its way ; 
 Now where the day-star on the sultry coast 
 
 At noon-tide sheds th' insufferable ray ; 
 
 * The Royal Society, established in the last century, gave the Grst impulse in this island to literary exertions, and by the encourage, 
 ment then held out to reflecting minds, a Grew, an Evelyn, and a Ray, in Botany ; an Hook, in the Mechanic Arts and the Micros, 
 cope; and lastly, the highest honour of human nature, Sir Isaac Newton, arose, became the President of that Society, and proved to 
 an astonished world, that the English can be no less great as merchants, as warriors, than in literary competition. 
 
 Sir Joseph Banks, the present illustrious President, when in the prime or life, quitted (although possessing every means for enjoying 
 the same) the pleasures of a gay metropolis, the seductive paths of politics, the soft blandishments of polite intercourse; not to visit 
 the sumptuous palaces of continental courts ; not to see the finished labours of human skill ; not to compare the manners of this country 
 with those of others ; — but to view the stupendous scenes of uncultivated climates ; to behold nations never before gazed on by European 
 eye, and birds, and animals, and plants, unknown to former naturalists ; to bring home with the rich discoveries of Captain Cook, the 
 rich treasures for a cabinet of natural productions, which he alone possesses, excelling beyond comparison those of all the potentates in 
 the European world ; and by daily opening these treasures to the curious, and allowing to the cultivators of science the free use of a 
 library on Natural History, equally extraordinary and magnificent, he shines as the present Ma-cenas of Natural History ; to which he 
 has given that spring and energy which cannot fail to be advantageous to posterity : for Botany may be compared to a very tender plant, 
 requiring the fostering aid of rich individuals, who employ their substance, not in pomp and vain amusements, but in the better pursuit 
 of knowledge and an eternal fame. " I have often," says the elegant St. Pierre, " been astonished at our indifference respecting the 
 applause of those who have introduced useful plants into their country, the sight or fruit of which are to this day so delightful. The 
 names of these public benefactors arc chiefly unknown, whilst their benefits pass from generation to generation: whereas those of the 
 destroyers of the human race are handed down (o us in every page, as if we took more account of our enemies than of our friends. 
 The ancients did not, however, act in this way. Plutarch observes that Ceres and Bacchus, who were mortals, attained to the rank 
 of Gods, from the universal and lasting blessings which they procured to mankind : whereas Heiicules, Theseus, and other Heroes, 
 rose only to the rank of demi-gods, their good achievements being but of a temporary and partial nature. Pliny, the great Roman 
 naturalist, informs us with no small degree of exultation, that of the eight species of cherries known in Italy in his time, one was styled 
 Plinian, after the name of one of his relations, who had introduced it. The other species of this very fruit bore the names of the most 
 illustrious families, being denominated the Julian, Apronian, Actian, and Cscillan. He informs us that it was LilCUllus, who, after the 
 defeat of Mithri dates, transported from the kingdom of Pontus the first Cherry Trees into Italy, from whence they were propagated in 
 less than an hundred and twenty years over all Europe, England not excepted, then peopled by Barbarians. He also mentions Pompej 
 and Vespasian as bearing in their triumphs the trees of the conquered countries, producing a remembrance of their victories more useful 
 and durable than columns of bras? or marble. 
 
Uncheck'd by danger, unsubdu'd by toil, 
 
 He climbs where mountains rise on mountains roll'd, 
 
 Nor seeks the ores that glow beneath the soil. 
 But '■' views the mine without a wish for gold." 
 
 His pride, on every land, in every clime, 
 From the low shrub that clothes the arid plain, 
 
 To where the cedar waves her boughs sublime, 
 Careful to trace the vegetable reign. 
 
 Crown of his labours ! this imperial flower, 
 
 Wafted from burning Afric's rugged scene, 
 'Neath Britain's better skies, in happier hour, 
 
 Enjoys the patronage of Britain's Queen ! 
 
 Grac'd by her Name,^ its shining petals boast 
 Above the rest to charm her favouring eyes, 
 
 Though Flora brings from every clime her host 
 Of various odours and of varied dyes.J 
 
 While Royal Nymphs, § fair as the Oreade race 
 Who trod Eurota's brink, or Cynthus' brow, 
 
 Snatch from the wreck of time each fleeting grace, 
 And bid its leaves with bloom perennial glow ! 
 
 James Henry Pye. 
 
 + Tins plant was named by Sir Joseph Kanks in honour of her present Majesly; who, together with the Princesses, cultivate the 
 Science ot Botany, and hate attained a proficiency in this science, such as none that I know of in the inferior ranks have equalled. 
 X Virgins attendant on Diana. 
 
 % There is not a plant in the Gardens of Kew (which contain all the choicest productions of the habitable globe) but has been cither 
 drawn by her gracious Majesty, or some of the Princesses, with a grace and skill which reflect on these personages the highest honour. 
 
LI MO DO RON TANKERVILLiE; 
 
 OR, 
 
 CHINESE LIMODORON. 
 
 This beautiful plant was introduced into our gardens in 1778 by Dr. Fothergill, who obtained the 
 seeds from China. Its Latin specific name was given it in honour of the Countess of Tankerville, a 
 cultivator of flowers, the elegant and refined pleasure of virtuous and noble minds. Its leaves are 
 ensate, plaited, and often somewhat revolute. The flowers are elegantly disposed upon the scape, 
 three together at the base, then opposite, and clustered above. In their infant state these are 
 protected by a green spatha, which drops as the flowers advance ; these then beautifully unfold 
 their five brooding petals, which are white above, but of a brown reel beneath, elegantly contrast- 
 ing with a bell-shape nectary, exteriorly white at its base, but marked with a dark purple 
 at its mouth, and of a lighter tinge. The inside of the tube itself is of a dark purple, but a 
 pale line runs along its centre towards the horn : this conceals the organs of generation, winch are 
 curiously fashioned ; for, as in the orchis tribe, the anthers are twin, depending, and lodged within 
 cells, closely connected with the stigma, which is supported by a fleshy style, but the germen is 
 exterior. It comes under the Class XX. Gynandria, Order I. Dianduia, of Linnjeus. 
 
 Sweet Flower, whose modest beauties blow 
 
 Deep in the green and silent vale, 
 Where willows, bending o'er the stream, 
 
 Wave gently to the passing gale ! 
 
 So, in thy native Sina's shades, 
 
 Like thee, sequester d and serene, 
 Soft smiling sit her pensive maids, 
 
 Pleas'd with the solitary scene. 
 
 There, list'ning to some magic tale, 
 
 Of fabled bliss, or fancied woe, 
 They deck with art the silken veil, 
 
 Or tend the flowers that round them blow. 
 
 From moss-clad rocks, and tangled shades, 
 
 The murmuring waters roll around ; 
 Sweep through the garden's green arcades, 
 
 And shine along the varied ground. 
 
 On waving boughs the plumy race 
 
 Sweet carol from the blossom'd spray ; 
 While, glittering in each pictur'd vase, 
 
 The golden-scaled beauties play. 
 
 Domestic cares and duteous love 
 
 In turn their tender thoughts employ ; 
 And form within their green alcove, 
 
 A happiness that cannot cloy. 
 
 Shaw. 
 
 M 
 
■ 
 
ARUM DRACUNCULUS; 
 
 OR, 
 
 DRAGON ARUM. 
 
 This extremely foetid poisonous * plant will not admit of sober description. Let us therefore 
 personify it. 
 
 She f comes peeping from her purple crest with mischief fraught : from her green covert 
 projects a horrid spear of darkest jet, which she brandishes aloft : issuing from her nostrils 
 flies a noisome vapour, infecting the ambient air : her hundred arms are interspersed with white, 
 as in the garments of the inquisition ; and on her swollen trunk are observed the speckles of a 
 mighty dragon ; her sex is strangely intermingled with the opposite ! confusion dire ! — all framed 
 for horror ; or kind to warn the traveller that her fruits are poison-berries, grateful to the sight but 
 fatal to the taste ; such is the plan of Providence, and such her wise resolves. It arranges 
 under Class XX. Gynandria, Order V. Polyandria, of Linn^us.J 
 
 " Thy soul's first hope ! thy mother's sweetest joy !" 
 
 Cried tender Laura, as she kiss'd her boy. 
 " Oh ! wander not where Dragon Arum show'rs 
 " Her baleful dews, and twines her purple flowers, 
 " Lest round thy neck she throw her snaring arms, 
 " Sap thy life's blood, and riot on thy charms. 
 " Her shining berry, as the ruby bright, 
 " Might please thy taste, and tempt thy eager sight : 
 " Trust not this specious veil ; beneath its guise, 
 " In honey'd streams, afatal poison lies." 
 
 So Vice allures with Virtue's pleasing song, 
 And charms her victims with a Siren's tongue. 
 
 Frances Arabella Rowden. 
 
 • From the root, however, of this plant, a powerful and useful sternutatory may be made. 
 
 t In this description the author has had in view the fancy of the ancients respecting that being whom they represented as hostile to man. 
 'Hgfi Si xai voXvnm 
 KfUvlo/AiW Aovoir 
 
 Lo ! with unnumbcr'd hands, and countless feet, 
 The Fury comes, her destin'd prey to meet; 
 Deep in the covert hid. — 
 
 Sohiocles. 
 
 t Linnasus places this plant in the Class Gynaxrrta, other authors refer it to MoHSClA, and in our reformed system it comes under 
 the Class Many Males, Order, Flowers Spathvij. 
 
A GROUP OF STAPELIAS. 
 
 Dispersed over the arid* wilds of Africa, in pyramidal forms, issue the fleshy stems, desti- 
 tute of leaves, of the several Stapelias. These stems are on every side armed with hooks like 
 claws. The juices of the Hirsute are so acrid, that the smart these occasion on the tongue will be 
 sensible a long while, and even fatal, if tasted beyond a certain proportion. Nature has well 
 marked it of the natural order, the Lurid, or poisonous, for the corolla, which is deeply cleft into 
 five segments, is of a dusky purple, and dingy yellow, and speckled like the belly of a serpent, 
 besides being fringed with hairs, which gives to this flower something of an animal appearance. 
 It has likewise so strong a scent, resembling carrion, that blow-flies in abundance hover round it ; 
 and mistaking the corolla for flesh, deposit there their eggs, which are soon converted into real 
 maggots, adding to the horror of the scene, some being seen writhing among the purple hairs 
 of the flower, and others already dead for want of food, the vegetable in this rare instance de- 
 ceiving and overcoming the animal creation. The starlike appearance in the centre is the Nec- 
 tary, mingled with the five Stamina, and two Pistilla. Hence it arranges under the Class V. 
 Pentandiua, Order II. Digynia, of Linnteus. We have beenfavoured with the following fine 
 poetic effusion, from the masterly pen of Dr. Shaw, on this plant. 
 
 'Mid the wild heights of Afric's stormy cape, 
 
 The fell Stapelia rears her Gorgon shape ; 
 
 Spreads her rough arms, and turns, with scowling eye, 
 
 Her bearded visage to the thund'ring sky. 
 
 To magic rites she bends her wayward care, 
 
 And with unholy vapours taints the air. 
 
 Distils with fatal art each secret bane, 
 
 And gathers all the poisons of the plain. 
 
 By native instinct, round her drear abode, 
 
 Glides the green snake, or crawls the shapeless toad. 
 
 Lur'd to the hag, by horrid spells subdu'd, 
 
 The care-craz'd mother brings her numerous brood ; 
 
 Hears the smooth tale, and trusts in evil hour, 
 
 The tender offspring to her guardian pow'r. 
 
 The subtle fiend assumes a softer air, 
 
 And falsely smiles, and feigns a mother's care : 
 
 But gone the parent, 'mid the cavern's gloom 
 
 The dire Enchantress drags them to their doom ; 
 
 In pining atrophy to yield their breath, 
 
 And slowly languish in the arms of death ; 
 
 Till, dried each wasted limb, each haggard eye, 
 
 Their shrivell'd forms her hideous rites supply. 
 
 No soft remorse her fell resolves can stay, 
 
 Born of the rocks, as pitiless as they ! 
 
 So foul Caniiia,\ with malignant joy, 
 
 Watch'd the slow progress of the buried boy ; 
 
 * The Stapelias in our hot houses never require to be watered. 
 
 N 
 
 T Hon Enod. 5. 
 
AMERICAN ALOE; 
 
 on, 
 
 AGAVE AMERICANA. 
 
 Parkinson, who lived in 1640, mentions the Aloe as being brought from South America into 
 Spain. In 1690, the Aloe is represented to have flowered at Lambeth, and two other plants in 1714, 
 at Hampton Court Palace. The Aloe from which our representation was taken, flowered in the 
 month of September, 1790, at Smith's nursery, at Dalston, near Hackney. It was supposed to 
 be about 70 years old, at which time it displayed its scape, or trunk, arising from the centre of 
 the leaves, increasing with astonishing rapidity, until it reached nearly the height of 30 feet, re- 
 sembling the mast of a ship, and there projected from its summit, at proportionate distances, 
 13 great branches, at eacli of whose extremities were found from 80 to 100 flowers, on proper pedun- 
 cles, or flower-stalks, of different lengths, that each flower might have its due position as to light 
 and heat, exciting in each beholder the idea of a vast chandelier. Had these flowers possessed 
 the brilliancy of the Cereus, or Torch-Thistle, the resemblance indeed had been exact ; although 
 in themselves these have but little claim to beauty, yet they exhibit remarkably well the Pistillum 
 ill the centre of the flower, with the Germen inferior, that is, beneath the Corolla, which is mono- 
 petalous, and sexfid, or divided into six segments, which are united at their base, and are of a 
 greenish-yellow colour. Perhaps in warmer climates, where they are natives, these flowers might 
 possess greater splendour, for lilies are styled by Linnaeus the beaux and belles of the vegetable 
 world : or has Nature rather chosen to give them the character of funereal pomp, and therefore, 
 rightly avoided all flippancy of colouring ? for the Agave, or American Aloe, when arrived at 
 maturity, the scape, or stem, supporting the flowers, with the flowers themselves, derive their 
 nourishment from the succulent leaves beneath, and as these advance those decay; and finally, the 
 seeds being perfected, the stigma, style, corolla, and anthers, with their filaments, even tlie' pe- 
 duncles, and the scape, with its branches, perish. In the whole vegetable creation, there is not, 
 perhaps, a plant more useful than the one we have described. As a defence, it bids defiance to' 
 all intruders. Its leaves are employed as a thatch for houses; and, properly managed, they will 
 separate into fibres, which, manufactured, can supply the place of hemp, flax, and cotton. 
 The thorns, with which it is armed, serve for awls, or are made into nails, or pins, or needles. 
 When lightly tapped, from three to four hundred gallons of sap may be extracted, which may 
 be fermented into wine, or by simply boiling, reduced to pulp, which serves all the purposes of 
 soap. The ligneous stem is made use of by the carpenter, or for fuel; and the honey, which 
 copiously distils from the flowers, when collected, is a most efficacious remedy in Asthma, and 
 other disorders of the chest. 
 
 Having been favoured with the following complimentary lines on the representation given of the 
 Agave, I am happy in having permission to lay them before my readers, who are the best judges 
 how far my humble endeavours may merit the Poet's commendation. 
 
 Nurs'd by a length of rolling years, 
 Her stately form the Aloe rears. 
 Protracting still, with wise delay, 
 The glory follow'd by decay ; 
 
Till, urg'd by time's resistless date, 
 Nobly She braves her destin'd fate, 
 And, conscious of the approaching doom. 
 Bursts forth impatient into bloom; 
 While, rich from all their curving stems, 
 Profusely shoot the golden gems ; 
 Then fading 'midst admiring eyes, 
 The vegetable Martyr dies — 
 But, flow'ring thus at THY command, 
 Unchang'd her finished form shall stand ; 
 And glorying in perennial bloom, 
 Shall smile through ages yet to come. 
 
 Dr. Shaw, 
 
KALMIA ANGUSTIFOLIA; 
 
 OR, 
 
 NARROW-LEAVED KALMIA. 
 
 This beautiful shrub was introduced into our gardens from North America by Peter Collinson, 
 Esq. in 1736. It grows two feet in height, and sends out several upright branches, which 
 are beset with flowers like a cluster of bees. Each flower is rotate, and possesses a pistillum in 
 the centre, surrounded by ten males, or stamina. The filaments are like the radii of a wheel, 
 and the anthers are each inclosed in niches of the corolla. As these filaments increase, they 
 forma bow; and when the elasticity is superior to the resistance of the niches inclosing the 
 anthers, each in turn springs forth, ejaculating the pollen over the pistillum in the centre. The 
 contrivance of Nature, in this instance, to continue on the species, is worthy our thought and 
 admiration. It comes under Class X. Decandria, ten males, Order I.Monogynia, one female, 
 of Linnaeus. We have been so fortunate as to be favoured by the following lines on this plant, 
 which afforded to the poet an opportunity of a very grand comparison. 
 
 High rise the cloud-capp'd hills where Kalmia glows, 
 
 With dazzling beauty, 'mid a waste of snows, 
 
 O'er the wild scene she casts a smiling eye, 
 
 The earth her bed, the skies her canopy. — 
 
 Thus from the north in undulating streams, 
 
 Glance after glance, the polar radiance* gleams, 
 
 Or in expanding glare, at noon of night, 
 
 Fills the red zenith with unbounded light. 
 
 Quick fly the timid herds in wild amaze, 
 
 While arms unseen clash dreadful 'mid the blaze. 
 
 Th' affrighted shepherd to his cot retires, 
 
 Nor dares to gaze upon the quiv'ring fires : 
 
 The crouching dogs their master's feet surround, 
 
 And, fix'd by fear, lie torpid on the ground : 
 
 Loud shrieks the screaming owl, and flits away, 
 
 Scar'd by the lustre of unlook'd-for day : 
 
 E'en the grim wolf his nightly prey forsakes, 
 
 And silent in his gloomy cavern quakes ; 
 
 Till skies serene their starry groups display, 
 
 And each terrific phantom dies away. 
 
 Shaw. 
 
 * 'J'lie Aurora Boiir.,\j.r>. 
 
 0 
 
RHODODENDRON PONTICUM; 
 
 on, 
 
 PONTIC RHODODENDRON. 
 
 In the dreary season of winter, Nature has partially indulged the eye with ever-greens, the 
 presage of the resurrection of animated beings, and of the returning zephyr ; and none of this 
 class claims our attention, for the beauty of its flowers, and wisdom of its contrivance, more 
 than the Pontic Rhododendron, which was introduced into our gardens from the Levant 
 in 1763. The flower is funnel-shaped beneath, and then expands into the resemblance of five 
 Petals, which, in fact, are only five Lacinia-, or Segments, of a monopetalous Corolla. The upper 
 Segment perforins the office of Nectary, is grooved in the middle, and so fertile is this part in 
 the formation of honey, that you may observe a sweet globule in almost every expanded 
 flower. There are in this part spots of a dingy purple, as also in the Kalmia, indications of 
 poison ; and, in fact, the honey formed from this bog-plant, as well as from the other, is found to 
 be poisonous. From the cup of the corolla issue ten Stamina, the Filaments of each are beset with 
 fine hairs, and are curvilinear, in order better to perform the useful office of dispersing the 
 Farina on the Fislillum, which is contained in two Cells, each of which opeli at top. The 
 Pishllum takes the same elegant curve as the Stamina ; but when impregnation has been accom- 
 plished, what appeared before a cluster of flowers, the stamina and corollas having withered, 
 now is seen entirely to consist of pistilla, each one displaying its pentagonal germcn, the style, 
 and stigma, and assuming its distinguished rank ; and Nature now delights us with the art shewn 
 in adjusting their respective places around the stem. Nor was the kind intention of provident 
 Nature less conspicuous in the infant state of the flower, when each bud was protected by 
 a corresponding Stipule, which, as it ceased its utility, fell from off the stem, gradually unfolding 
 to the admiring eye of the spectator, a superb group of purple crowning flowers, which, as 
 being hardy natives of wild situations, cast an air of dignity over such solitary scenes. It comes 
 under Class X. Decandria, Order I. Monogynia, of Linn.eus. 
 
 O'er pine-clad hills, and dusky plains, 
 In silent state Rhodonia reigns, 
 And spreads, in beauty's softest bloom, 
 Her purple glories through the gloom. 
 
 There, by the solemn scene enchanted, 
 
 The melancholy maiden strays ; 
 And by dark streams and fountains haunted, 
 
 Well pleas'd each rocky wild surveys : 
 To her more fair those shadowy bowers 
 Than glittering halls and castled towers. 
 
 Nor, happy less, who thus unknown, 
 Can call the woods and shades his own ! 
 And wand'ring o'er the moss-clad plain. 
 At will indulge the pensive strain ! 
 Array'd in smiles, array'd in terrors, 
 
 Great Nature's awful form admire, 
 And from the world, and all its errors, 
 
 In silent dignity retire ! 
 
 Shaw. 
 
SARRACENIA FLAVA; 
 
 OR, 
 
 YELLOW PITCHER-PLANT. 
 
 This plant, so singular for its leaves and flowers, is native of Virginia, and grows in bogs, or 
 shallow water. It was introduced into our gardens in the year 1752. The leaves in their 
 infant state are flat, tapering, and of one compact substance ; but at a certain age, at the top 
 the appearance of a lid is seen, bent down, or rather then resembling the upper bill of a bird ; 
 afterwards the leaf opens from within, until it enlarges itself into a triangular hollow vase, when 
 the lid turns back, taking the form of a friar's cowl. This contains water, and in droughts, it is 
 said, that the lid falls down over the mouth of the tube, serving as a covering to it, to prevent 
 the exhalation. It is called the Pitcher Plant, because small birds repair to it, and drink out of 
 the hollow leaf. It is also named the Side-Saddle flower, from its flower being supposed to 
 resemble a woman's pillion. The leaves, as well as flowers, are radical. Each flower is elevated 
 on a long scape. It is defended by a double calyx. The outer consists of three small leaves : 
 the inner of five orbicular green leaves. The petals of the corolla are five, more oblong, of a 
 pale yellow. The stamina are numerous, and lie concealed under the target-formed stigma of the 
 pistillum, which perishing, with the stamina, leaves the swollen germen on the elevated scape. 
 It arranges under Class XIII. Polyandhia, Order I. Monogynia, of Linnaeus. The con- 
 cealment of courtship here has furnished the poet with the following beautiful lines. 
 
 In vain a num'rous tribe of gentle swains 
 
 To Sarracenia pour'd their tender strains : 
 
 In vain their ardent pray'r, their artless lay ; 
 
 Of tyrant vice she fell the hapless prey. — 
 
 A libertine, bred in the school of lies, 
 
 With lawless passion to the beauty flies ; 
 
 Gain'd her weak heart, and soon he tura'd from thence, 
 
 Scarce having yet indulged his eager sense ; 
 
 Then the fell Furies sailing through the air, 
 
 Aim their keen weapons at the tortur'd fair ; 
 
 Scorn in her bleeding bosom strikes his dart, 
 
 And sad Repentance writhes around her heart; 
 
 Remorse her stinging snakes in fury throws, 
 
 And Madness heightens her exalted woes. — 
 
 Poor injur' d sujf 'rer .' bid adieu to peace ; 
 
 Not in this world of sin thy pangs will cease : 
 
 Not till kind Mercy takes thee to her breast, 
 
 Then bears thy spirit to the realms of rest. 
 
 Frances Arabella Rowden. 
 
 p 
 
RENEALMIA NUTANS; 
 
 OH, 
 
 NODDING RENEALMIA. 
 
 This lovely Tree rises by the banks of rivers to the height of near twenty feet. Its leaves are 
 alternate, strongly veined in the midrib exteriorly, but channelled in the inside. Like the 
 Indian Canna they constitute a part of the stalk. In its firststage the buds are enveloped within 
 a leafy sheath, in the centre, supporting at its top a small leaf. The inside is of a beautiful 
 crimson. The flower then shoots out a real spatha consisting of two leaves of a light green, 
 elegantly running into crimson. These drop, when the buds all appear regularly disposed like 
 the tiles of a house, of a beautiful white, tipt with crimson. They then appear glossy, and as if 
 formed of the most perfect wax. From an absolute depending position, the flower-stalk gra- 
 dually becomes nodding, the protecting leaf in the centre of the plant withers, and from the 
 bottom upwards the flowers take a contrary direction, the buds each turning back as they open, 
 displaying a lovely assemblage of the most captivating flowers. To understand this flower well, 
 we must have recourse to the dissection. The Jioxeers are not single but in pairs. The Jirst 
 envelope drops, when the advancing flower with a bud by its side appears. The second envelope 
 is permanent, and wrinkled at the edges, half the length of the calyx, of a single piece with 
 a division through its whole length, throughout of a bright crimson. This is seen along with 
 the Pistillum, and is seated above the germen. The Corolla consists of a single fleshy petal divided 
 into three segments, whereof the upper segment resembles a hood, is twice the size of the two 
 under, strongly emarg'mate, and deeply marked with crimson ; whereas the two under ones are only 
 half the size, less decidedly emarginate, with only a blush of red near their summits, divided by 
 a line of white in the centre. Under the upper segment, and attached to its base, is the filament, 
 ending in a twin or double anther. Here we remark a singular contrivance of Nature not to fail 
 of her purpose ; the filament is not only grooved, but there is an hollow in the centre of the 
 anther, through which the pistillum passes, and growing longer than the stamen, the flower there- 
 fore depends. The germen beneath is slightly covered with down, and becomes an oblong berry 
 filled with seeds, which is preserved by the natives of Surinam, and is accounted a great deli- 
 cacy. The Pistillum is also further fixed within the tube of the Nectary, resembling in form 
 somewhat that of the Limodoron, or the petal of our Digitalis, but this is of a beautiful 
 yellow, exquisitely streaked with red, and deeply tinged at its base, and this is continually distilling 
 honey into the water, which creates a plaintive sound. It comes under the Class I. Monan- 
 dria, and Order I. Monogynia, of LinNjEUs. We were favoured on this plant with the 
 following exquisite lines, by a lady, whose fine poetry, I am happy to announce, will again 
 appear in the course of this work. 
 
 Bright Renealmia ! why, in pensive grace, 
 
 Bend o'er th' enamour'd stream thy lovely face? 
 
 Still to the wave thus bow thy glowing head, 
 
 And give thy image to its liquid bed. — 
 
 Less beauteous forms might view, with conscious pride, 
 
 Their hues reflected in the glassy tide ; 
 
 Whilst thou, fair plant ! but think'st thy fading near, 
 
 Droop'st in thy bloom, and shedd'st a spicy tear. 
 
 Cordelia Skeeles. 
 
London riibli/htd tf SJbMBHbJIafife 
 
j, fl!: 
 
 AMERICAN COWSLIP; 
 
 MEADIA. 
 
 It has its present appellation from its native country, and from the resemblance its growth bears 
 to the ordinary Cowslip, possessing, like it, leaves radical, and an erect scape, or Jlower stem.* From the 
 summit of the scape, which is fringed round with numerous small and regular leaves, the peduncles 
 ot flower-stalks, as in umbelliferous plants, issue in every direction, each bearing a very beautiful 
 flower. These consist of a Calyx composed of one leaf, divided into five regular green segments, 
 which at first embrace the young flower, and afterwards expand ; a Corolla consisting also of five 
 delicate segments, which, like those of the Calyx, first enclose the more essential parts, the organs 
 for reproduction, which having acquired a due perfection, then beautifully reflect themselves, in order 
 that these may have a due quantity of light and heat. The organs for reproduction are the Jive 
 Stamina, which issue through the mouth or tube of the Corolla ; each filament being firmly pressed by as 
 many ncctaria, leaving, however, free the barb-like Anthers, which curiously clasp each other, the 
 two opposite hollows on the sides firmly fitting together, for the protection of the fecundating/ar(««, 
 which, when these separate, is thrown forth with a spring upon the Pistil/um, proceeding from the 
 centre of the flower. When these are longer than the Stamina, Nature usually adopts the device 
 of forming, as we see here, pendulous flowers. We have yet further to remark the unceasing care 
 of Providence, whilst Nature appeared to be only industrious to make the habitation of man gay 
 and delightful, she was carrying on her principal design, being intent upon the continuance, and 
 preservation, of the species. The story of the American Cowslip fully explains this. For the seeds 
 becoming impregnated, those segments, which looked the other day so charming, separate in disor- 
 der, shrink, and wither ; the Stamina seceding from each other, with their empty Anthers, perish ; 
 even the Stigma and Style become dry ; crowning the fruitful Germcn, which increases day by day ; 
 now we may observe the reflected segments of the Calyx to assume their first form closing round 
 each prolific Germen ; and the Peduncles which were before bent downwards, moving with every 
 Zephyr, gradually become rigid and erect, giving to the plant in this stage as much of form and 
 stiffness, as it had before of lightness and elegance. t In its perfect state it might easily raise to 
 our fancy the image of a vegetable sky-rocket in different periods of explosion, or some might conceive 
 it to resemble a number of light shuttlecocks, fluttering in the air. This plant Mr. Catesby in his 
 natural history of Carolina called Meadia, after the famous Dr. Mead, which appellation Lin- 
 naeus has rejected, styling it in his works, Dodecatheon (the twelve Heathen Gods), on account of 
 the singular beauty, and number of its flowers. It comes under his Class V. Pentandria, five 
 males, Order I. Monogynia, one female. It is thus elegantly personified by Dr. Darwin. 
 
 Meadia's soft chains five suppliant beaux confess, 
 And hand in hand the laughing belle address ; 
 Alike to all, she bows with wanton air, 
 Rolls her dark eye, and waves her golden hair. 
 
 Darwin. 
 
 * What a difference in this scape compared with that of the American Aloe ! 
 The instinct-like actions of the Meadia have a great resemblance to those.of the Superb Lihj before described. 
 
 the Persian Cyclamen, which, on the contrary, buries its seeds in the ground. 
 
 Compare these ivith 
 
'an /;'■■. 
 
INDIAN REED; 
 
 OR, 
 
 CANNA INDICA. 
 
 This beautiful plant is native of warm climates, and was early introduced into our gardens, 
 even as far back as the time of Gerard, who mentions it as growing in his garden in 1596. 
 From a tuberous, horizontal, knotty root, proceed several stalks, which in their early state, are 
 protected by the young leaves, which are beautifully convoluted, and open at top, but as the stem 
 rises, these take their position around it, alternate, spreading out to the extent of a foot in 
 length, and half a foot in breadth, channelled, undulated, with parallel nerves running to the 
 membranous edges; the leaves at their bases encompass the stem. The flowers at first are all 
 covered by a common green Spatha, this afterwards embraces the upper part of the flower-stalk; 
 the flowers are in Spikes, often two together, first protected by a small oblong Involucre, and 
 another, by its side, resembling a small leaf ; the Perianth consists of three small, concave, spear- 
 like, coloured leaves ; the Corolla is sexpartite, the three outer lacinire, or segments, are concave, 
 spear-like, thrice the length of the leaves of the perianth ; and the three inner lacinia; are twice 
 the length of these, two of them ascending, one turned to the side, often bifid, forming a kind of 
 upper lip, or helmet, protecting the Nectary, which is also deeply bipartite, the upper lacinia 
 of which contains both the sessile Anther, ami the spatulate Pistil ; its extreme part is first 
 ascending, then rather revolute, but the under lacinia is revolute in a contrary direction to the 
 other, and forms, as it were, the under lip of this pseudo-ringent Flower. Impregnation being 
 performed, the flower (as it is called) being gone by, the swollen Germen next appears beset with 
 points, crowned with the three-leaved perianth above, and the two scaly leaves below, or invo- 
 lucre, and it afterwards becomes a rough Capsule, three-sided, three-celled, containing a triple 
 row of seeds, the size of a large pea, black, shining, so hard as to be used as shot by the Indians, 
 and by the Roman Catholics as beads, for making their Rosaries. It comes under Class I. of 
 LinnjEus, Monandkia, one husband, and Order I. Monogynia, one wife. We have been 
 so fortunate as to be favoured with the following most elegant and appropriate lines on this 
 beautiful flower by a poet, who has often before very kindly obliged us. 
 
 Where sacred Ganges proudly rolls 
 O'er Indian plains his winding way, 
 By rubied rocks and arching shades, 
 Impervious to the glare of day, 
 
 Bright Canna, veil'd in Tyrian robe, 
 Views her lov'd lord with duteous eye ; 
 Together both united bloom, 
 And both together fade and die. — 
 
 Thus, where Benares' lofty towers 
 Frown on her Ganges' subject wave, 
 Some faithful widow'd bride repairs, 
 Resolv'd the raging fire to brave. 
 
. True to her plighted virgin vow 
 She seeks the altar's radiant blaze, 
 Her ardent prayers to Brahma pours, 
 And calm approaching death surveys. 
 
 With India's gorgeous gems adorn'd, 
 And all her flowers, which loveliest blow : 
 
 " Begin," she cries, " the solemn rites, 
 
 " And bid the fires around me glow. 
 
 " A cheerful victim at that shrine 
 " Where nuptial truth can conquer pain, 
 " Around my brows rich garlands twine, 
 " With roses strew the hallow'd plain. 
 
 " Near yon deep grove the pyre ascends, 
 " Where, pale in death, Calindus lies ; 
 " Soon shall these arms, no more withheld, 
 " Embrace him in his kindred skies. 
 
 " Friends of my youth, your plaints forbear, 
 et Nor with a tear these rites profane ; 
 " Ere long, the sun, that now declines, 
 " Shall see me 'midst the sainted train. 
 
 " Mother, my last embrace receive; 
 " Take, sisters, take this parting kiss : 
 " A glorious martyr decks your race, 
 " And leaves you for the realms of bliss. 
 
 " Hark ! from the clouds his voice I hear ; 
 " Celestial visions round me fly ! 
 " I see the radiant shape appear, 
 " His image beckons from the sky. 
 
 " Haste, holy Bramins ! light the blaze 
 " That bears me to my parted love ; 
 " 1 fly, his seiaph form to meet, 
 " And join him in the realms above." 
 
 Shaw. 
 
PASSIFLORA CERULEA; 
 
 OR, 
 
 COMMON BLUE PASSION-FLOWER. 
 
 All the Passiftoras claim the admiring eye, nor is this, though the most common, as thriving 
 well out of doors, the least attractive. It was discovered in the Brazils, and its wonders were 
 soon proclaimed to Christian kingdoms as representing the Passion of our Lord, whence its pre- 
 sent appellation. The leaves were said exactly to resemble the spear that pierced our Saviour's 
 side ; the tendrils, the cords that bound his hands, or the whips that scourged him • the ten 
 petals, the apostles, Judas having betrayed, and Peter deserted ; the pillar in the centre was the 
 cross or tree; the stamina, the hammers; the styles, the mils; the inner circle about the central 
 pillar, the crown of thorns ; the radiance, the glory ; the 'white in the flower the emblem of 
 purity ; and the blue, the type of heaven. On one of the species, the Passiflora alata even drops 
 of blood are to be seen upon the cross or tree. The flower keeps open three days and then 
 disappears, denoting the resurrection. At last this sacred flower was brought from the Brazil, 
 to Europe, and became a demzon of our gardens in the year 1699. We shall now examine 
 tins plant botamcally. It is a climbing shrub, remarkable for the growth of its shoots risins in 
 a few months above fifteen feet. The stem is round and fluted. At distinct distances proceed 
 two stipules half-moon-shaped, on each side the leaf, which is palmate, that is, divided into five 
 pointed lobes, and the lesser lobe is often sublobed. From the axilla of the petiolus of the 
 leaf proceeds first the^W, and next a tendril. The first stage of the flower is protected b v a 
 calyx, which, as afterwards appearing somewhat remote from the flower, is called an involucre- 
 this is composed of three mtire orbicular leaves, paler than the common leaves and half the 
 size of the true calyx, which opens by degrees, displaying the organs for reproduction which 
 are curiously enwrapped within its corolla. The calyx leaves are exteriorly green and terminate 
 with a hook, but as these leaves are united at their base, it is in fact monophyllous (a sin-de 
 leaf), divided into five segments. The corolla consists of five distinct fleshy petals The Nee 
 tan, beautifully radiates over these, and consists of two rows of threads, arising purple then 
 they possess a circular band of white, and terminate in blue interspersed with spots. There is 
 next a ditch or hollow, in the middle of which arises an upright row of short purple threads ■ then 
 appears a mound of coalesced white threads, which detach into short purple threads converging 
 around the column. At the basis of this column, so protected, lies the cell, in which the ho~ney 
 is deposited, and a gland may be found in the centre of this cell for the purpose of secretin., 
 the honey. There is also a lid affixed to the column, which covers the honey-cell. At a short 
 distance up this column proceed the five f laments. These are broad, and become arched ■ and 
 at each end is a hook to which are attached the back of the oblong anthers, which occasions 
 them very readily to vibrate at every breath of wind. The anthers on their under sides have 
 two bags filled with farina, each of which opens in the centre like a portmanteau. At the 
 place of insertion of the five stamina is the germen, whence proceed the three styles, upright 
 as may be seen at the first opening of the flower, and then gradually depending more and more 
 for the purpose of impregnation. The styles, which are three are dotted, and each terminate 
 in a club-shaped yellow stigma. As soon as the intention of Nature is accomplished, all this 
 clock-work of the flower ceases, and withers, except the gcrmcn, which increases, and forms 
 into an oblong egg-shaped fruit, at first protected by the involucre, full of seeds inclosed 
 in a subacid refreshing pulp. It comes under the Class XX. Gynandria, and Order I. 
 Pentandhia, of LlNNAJUS. 
 
The following fine lines are from the pen of an amiable and most accomplished young Lady. 
 
 By Faith sublim'd, fair Passiflora steers 
 
 Her pilgrimage along this Vale of Tears, 
 
 The hopes of Heaven alone her thoughts employ, 
 
 Christ is her glory, and the Cross her joy. — 
 
 As the deep organ sounds the hallow'd strain, 
 
 With solemn step proceeds the pious train, 
 
 In polish'd censers, wrought with wondrous care, 
 
 Five cherub boys the holy incense bear ; 
 
 Three pious virgins form her holy train ; 
 
 Join in her pray'rs, and weep the "Lamb that's slain." 
 
 With solemn step they tread the cloister's gloom, 
 
 Seek its deep shade, and commune with the tomb. 
 
 Hark ! from the walls what sacred anthem sounds ! 
 
 With hymns of praise the vaulted roof resounds ! 
 
 ANTHEM. 
 
 " He died ! he died '. — The Saviour of mankind, 
 
 " To save our souls, his spotless life resign'd ; 
 
 " Yes ! low with humble grace, th' Almighty's Son 
 
 " Bow'd to the cross, and cried, ' Thy will be done.* 
 
 " Astonish'd Nature trembled at the sight, 
 
 " And veil'd the guilty land in shades of night. 
 
 " In lofty mountains roll'd the mighty flood, 
 
 " Earth op'd her jaws, and drank his precious blood. 
 
 ' Redemption's ours,' re-echoed through her caves; 
 
 " The dead are rous'd, and burst their silent graves ; 
 
 " In hollow tones each from his vault replies, 
 
 1 We slept in peace secure with God to rise.' 
 
 " Death vanrjuish'd fled, and sought his fell abode ; 
 
 " Sin blush'd with shame, and hid his face from God, 
 
 " While Mercy, rising from the throne of grace, 
 
 " Pronounc'd free pardon to a sinful race." — 
 
 Oh ! may that cross on which our Saviour died 
 Subdue our passions, and our guilty pride! 
 That we, amidst the general wreck, shall rise 
 Preserv'd for purer worlds, and brighter skies, 
 Mount the bless'd seats of Harmony and Love, 
 Be crown'd with bliss, and live with GOD above. 
 
 Frances Arabella Rowden. 
 
THE WINGED PASSION-FLOWER; 
 
 OR, 
 
 PASSIFLORA ALATA. 
 
 'Puis beautiful tribe of plants we owe to the discovery of a new world. They grow luxuriant 
 in various parts of that continent, but are chiefly to be met with in South America. Murucuia 
 is the ancient American name ; and this is retained by Tournefort, but is dropped by Linnajus. 
 Elegantly hanging on the peduncle, or footstalk, the Alata Passion-flower far surpasses all its 
 kindred both as to the elegance and brilliancy of its appearance. It exhibits much more of 
 majesty than the rest, and discloses a trait in Nature which has often puzzled shallow philoso- 
 phers. In the quadrangular and blue passion-flowers you saw an involucrum, consisting of three 
 large concave orbicular leaves, protecting the flower in the early stage ; here we possess only 
 three small serrated spear-shaped leaves, which afford abundant proof, that use is not always 
 the plan of Nature, but that she indulges sometimes in ornament. Thus we have nipples which 
 answer no other end but as a correspondence with our better halves. So also the stipules on 
 the stalk are equally small, and, consequently, cannot serve the purpose of protection ; but in 
 such instances, we may remark, that Nature is ceconomic. As another essential difference we 
 cannot fail to notice the double radiance, serving as a most elegant Indian Parasol to ward off 
 the piercing rays of an ardent sun from the organs destined to reproduce the species. Here 
 the Filaments, Anthers, and Pistillum are compressed into a smaller space ; and the Nectarium 
 is first defended by small teeth placed in several rows, and as if this was not a sufficient guard, 
 Nature has also formed a complete barrier, by a thick membraneous expansion closely locking 
 up this reservoir of nectar. The Alata Passion-flower was first introduced into the English gar- 
 den by Mr. Malcolm, in 1773- It, of course, arranges under the same class and order as the 
 other Passion-flowers, and exhibits to a fervent imagination the same fancy of a crucifix ■ 
 and here we might add, that the column in the centre is spotted, as if stained with blood. 
 
 Beneath the covert of o'erarching trees, 
 
 Bright Murucuia woos the cooling breeze. 
 
 The passing Indian turns the admiring eye, 
 
 Smit by the glories of her crimson dye, 
 
 And stops, in pleas'd attention, to survey 
 
 Her vivid leaves and variegated ray. — 
 
 But loftier thoughts the rising mind inspire, 
 
 When warm devotion lends her holy fire. 
 
 Haply amid the convent's virgin train, 
 
 Bosom'd in shades beyond the western main, 
 
 At rosy morn, or evening's silent hour, 
 
 Some fair Enthusiast views the sainted flower : 
 
 When lo ! to rapt imagination's eye, 
 
 Springs the sad scene of darken'd Calvary ! 
 
 The thorny crown the heavenly brows around, ~i 
 
 The scourging thorns, the galling cords that bound, > 
 
 And nails that piere'd with agonizing wound. 3 
 
 Sudden she lifts to heaven her ardent eye 
 
 In silent gaze and solemn ecstacy ; 
 
 Then, fill'd with timid hope and holy fear, 
 
 Drops on the flower a consecrated tear. 
 
 Shaw. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 ... . ■ V-+' - — . - . 
 
 
 
 
 
PASSIFLORA QUADRANGULARIS; 
 
 on, 
 
 QUADRANGULAR PASSION-FLOWER. 
 
 This climbing plant, introduced from Jamaica into our gardens in 1768, by Philip Miller, is 
 supposed to be a variety of the Alata, or winged Passion-flower. Like it, the stem is quadrangular, 
 and winged as the shaft of an arrow ; and if it be allowed to use the same fancy as Linnaeus 
 sometimes indulged, we should conjecture it to be an hybrid, betwixt the common Passion- 
 flower, and the Alata, or winged. The involucre most resembles the blue Passion-flower ; the 
 proper calyx, and petals of the corolla, the alata ; the radiance lies flat on the corolla, as with the 
 common; but in size, and configuration, resembles most the alata ; whilst the inner part of the nec- 
 tary, and stamina, bear an higher affinity to the alata. The leaf also most resembles the alata, with 
 the tendril. As with the other Passion-flowers, it brings to mind the mysteries of our religion. 
 
 At length the fated term of many years 
 
 The world's desire have brought, and lo ! a God appears — 
 
 The Heav'nly babe the Virgin mother bears, 
 
 And her fond looks confess the parent's cares ; 
 
 The pleasing burden on her breast she lays, 
 
 Hangs o'er his charms, and with a tear surveys ; 
 
 The infant smiles, to her fond bosom prest, 
 
 And wantons, sportive, on the mother's breast ; 
 
 A radiant glory speaks him all divine, 
 
 And in the child the beams of Godhead shine. 
 
 Now time, alas ! far other views disclose — 
 
 The blackest comprehensive scene of woes. 
 
 See where man's voluntary sacrifice ; 
 
 He bows his head, and God, the Saviour, dies ! 
 
 Fixt to the cross his healing arms are bound. 
 While copious mercy streams from every wound : 
 Mark the blood-drops that life exhausted roll, 
 And the strong pang, that rends the yielding soul I 
 As all death's tortures, with severe delay, 
 Exult and riot in the noblest prey : — 
 Lo .' the bright Sun, his chariot backward driv'n, 
 Blots out the day and perishes from Heav'n : 
 Earth, trembling from her entrails, bears a part, 
 And the rent Rock upbraids man's stubborn heart. 
 The yawning Grave reveals his gloomy reign, 
 And the cold clay-clad Dead start into life again .' 
 
 Lowth. 
 
 s 
 
OBLIQUE-LEAVED BEGONIA; 
 
 BEGONIA OBLIQUA. 
 
 The oblique-leaved Begonia is native of America, and was introduced into our hot houses in the 
 year 1777, by Dr. William Brown. This ornamental shrub, which rises from three to five feet, 
 has numerous leaves, oblique, very smooth, laterally heart-shaped, waved, terminating acute. Its 
 flowers afford a beautiful example of the Sexes of Plants being male and female. The male-flowers 
 are discriminated by having only four petals, the upper and under are large, and the side petals 
 small, all inversely cordate. In the centre of the flower are the numerous stamina. The female 
 flowers are readily distinguished by having five, equal, lanceolate, petals, and a tricuspidatc pistil/um 
 in the centre, with the germen, or seed-vessel, three-winged, inferior. Nature, as if extremely 
 solicitous for this enchanting work of her hand, has with tender care involved the embryo-flowers 
 within a fine membranaceous film, or bractea, whose office of protection being served, drops, 
 leaving the central parts of the flowers (or organs for reproduction) protected by their petals. 
 The male flowers are in clusters, and occupy the superior part of the plant, for the more favourable 
 dispersion of the fructificating pollen ; while the female flowers are found beneath on dichotomous, or 
 forked, peduncles, or stalks. The Begonia comes under the Class XXI. Moncecia of Linmcus, 
 Order VII. Polyandria. 
 
 Where, mid Columbia's gaily-tinctur'd skies, 
 Her mountains blue in distant ranges rise, 
 As o'er the deep'ning shades and crystal springs, 
 Triumphant Cupid waves his purple wings, 
 The fair Begonia, in her verdant bower, 
 With conscious blushes owns his sovereign power : 
 Conceals her secret wish by coy disdain ; 
 Yet eyes with look oblique some fav'rite swain. 
 Around her soft retreat, with joy elate, 
 Her numerous Lovers urge the gay debate, 
 Besiege the smiling Fair with honey'd tales, 
 And tell their passion to the laughing gales, 
 In frolic mirth their hopes and fears impart, 
 And win by turns her easy yielding heart.* — 
 So Galatea from her shepherd swain 
 Tripp'd archly wanton o'er the flowery plain, 
 And laughing, soft, with well-dissembled mein, 
 Flew to the shades, yet wishing to be seen. 
 
 Dr. Shaw, 
 
 i characterizes the Begonia thus, Folia cordala, altero latere oblitcrato. Having Leaves heart-shaped, one Lotc nearly obliterated. 
 
NYMPH^A NELUMBO; 
 
 OK, 
 
 SACRED EGYPTIAN BEAN. 
 
 In hot climates, where water is the best boon of Heaven, flourish the several kinds of Nym- 
 phieas. These present the purest colours, and are of an azure blue, or blushing red, or pale 
 yellow, the three primary colours, and also of a dazzling white, all which majestically (different 
 from our humble aquatics), rise with their foliage above the surface of the flood, and present 
 their luxuriant leaves to the vaulted heavens. Nature, as if designing these plants to be the 
 masterpiece of her creative power, besides superior grace and beauty, has also added utility ; 
 for the seed-vessels contain nourishing food for man, as also the roots, which produce, as will be' 
 hereafter shewn, the profitable potatoe. As the Egyptians worshipped whatever was useful 
 they accounted these plants sacred ; in their feasts they crowned themselves with the flowers' 
 and their altars were decorated with the same. The Egyptian Ceres has the seed-vessel of the 
 Blue Lotos in her hand, which the Romans corrupted into the poppy ; and sometimes also that 
 of the Nelumbo, which the Greeks mistook for the horn of Amalthea. The subject of this 
 narrative, however, relates wholly to the Ny.mphaea Nelumbo, which some modern naturalists, 
 instead of reckoning as a Nymphasa, have formed it into a distinct genus ; for its calyx, instead 
 of being large, consists of four narrow leaves, and the corolla is more multiplied than in the 
 other water-lilies, and, wholly unlike other Nymphaeas, it has stamina with anthers on long and 
 slender filaments, and its seed-vessel, like an inverted cone, is flat at the top, and pierced "with 
 hollows, like an honey-comb, for the reception of its beans, or seeds. 
 
 The following Eastern Hymn, transfused into the English tongue by Sir William Jones, gives 
 us the antiquity of the flower of the Nelumbium, as received among the Asiatics : 
 
 AN HINDOO HYMN. 
 
 Spirit of spirits, who through every part 
 Of space expanded and of endless time, 
 Beyond the stretch of lab'ring thought sublime, 
 Bade uproar into beauteous order start, 
 Before heaven was, thou art : 
 Ere spheres beneath us roli'd, or spheres above, 
 Ere earth in firniamental ether hung, 
 Thou sat'st alone ; till, through thy mystic love, 
 Things unexisting to existence sprung,* 
 And grateful descant sung. 
 
 * The mythology of the Hindoos referred all to tine primitive Goo. 
 
What first impell'd thee to exert thy might ? 
 Goodness* unlimited. — What glorious light 
 Thy power directed? Wisdom without bound. — 
 What prov'd it first ? Oh ! guide my fancy right ; 
 
 Oh ! raise from cumbrous ground, 
 
 My soul in rapture drown'd, 
 That fearless it may soar on wings of fire ; 
 For thou, who only know'st, thou only canst inspire. 
 
 First an all-potent, all-pervading sound 
 Bade flow the waters t — and the waters flow 'd, 
 Exulting in their measureless abode, 
 Diffusive, multitudinous, profound, 
 Above, beneath, around. 
 
 Then o'er the vast expanse, primordial mad J 
 Breath'd gently, till a lucid bubble rose, 
 Which grew in perfect shape an Egg § refin'd ; 
 Created substance no such lustre shews, 
 
 Earth no such beauty knows. 
 Above the warring waves it danc'd elate, 
 Till from its bursting shell, with lovely state, 
 Aform cerulean flutter'd o'er the deep, 
 Brightest of beings, greatest of the great, 
 
 Who not as mortals steep 
 
 Their eyes in dewy sleep, 
 
 * They rose to that sublinie conception, Gon is Lovk. 
 
 + From chaos the Jlux of water is the first action of energy. 
 
 + The next creation by the Deity is the mini. " And the Spirit of God moved on the face of the deep." Moses. 
 
 § Thus the Greeks, but with less grandeur, represent their Cupid as coining out of the great Egg of Night, which floated in 
 Chaos, and was broken by the horns of the celestial Bull. He is represented winged, and, by his arms and torch, pierced and vivified 
 all things, producing everywhere life and joy. This Cupid is called Em or divine Love. « At this time," says Aristophanes, 
 " sable-winged Night produced an Egg, from whence sprung up, like a blossom, Eros, the lovely, the desirable, with his glossy 
 golden wings." 
 
 Thus when the Egg of Night on Chews hurl'd, 
 liursl, and disclos'd the cradle of the world ; 
 First from the gaping shell refulgent sprung 
 Immortal Love, his bow celestial strung ; — 
 O'er the wide waste his gaudy wings unfold. 
 Boom his soft smiles, and mice his curls of gold ; — 
 With silver darts ue piere'd the kindling frame, 
 And lit with torch divine the ever-living flame." 
 
 Darwin. 
 
But, pensive, on the Lotos-leaf* he lay, 
 Which blossom* d at his touch, and shed a golden ray.f 
 Hail, primal blossom! hail, empyreal gem ! — 
 Kemel or Pedma, or whatever high name 
 Delight thee, say, what powerful Godhead came, 
 With graceful stole, and beamy diadem, 
 Forth from thy verdant stem ? 
 
 Full-gifted Brahma. — Rapt in solemn thought, 
 He stood, and round his eyes fire darting threw : 
 But, whilst his viewless origin he sought, 
 One plain he saw of living waters blue. 
 Their spring, nor sum he knew. 
 
 Then, in th* expanded leaf again retir'd, 
 With restless thought ; for hours he inquired 
 What were his powers, by whom, and why conferr'd : 
 With doubts perplex'tl, with keen impatience fir'd, 
 He rose, — and rising, heard 
 Th* unknown, all-knowing word — 
 " Brahma ! no more in vain research persist ; 
 " My veil thou canst not move. Go, bid all forms exist." % 
 
 • Did the appearance of water naturally suggest without creation a Nelumbium, or Lotos, in it ? The leaf is large and hollow, in shape 
 like an umbrella inverted by the wind, and as if fashioned for the reception of a God. 
 
 + The first action of Brahma, was the creation of the flower of the Nelumbium. Sir William Jones uses, perhaps, the word golden 
 for beautiful. Is the yellow Nelumbium a native of any other climate than America? With a painter's licence, I have introduced the 
 white, red, and yellow together, and placed them all in Egypt, which occasioned the following beautiful impromptu lines to be returned 
 me upon presenting the first impression from the above plate to a charming poet. 
 
 ON DR. THORNTON'S BEAUTIFUL PLATE OF THE SEVERAL NYMPHiEAS. 
 
 Fair offspring of benignant Nile, 
 
 Watering old Egypt's fertile plains, 
 Where cloudless skies diffuse their smile 
 
 O'er long-lost glory's rude remains ; 
 
 Here, nurs'd amid fictitious waves, 
 
 Its head thy sacred blossom rears ; 
 While smiling by thy kindred side, 
 
 NELUMBIA'a rosy form appears. 
 
 And, wafted o'er th* Atlantic main, 
 
 From far Columbia's purling streams, 
 Thy younger Bister joins the train, 
 
 And bright in golden beauty, gleams, 
 
 But say; could painting's magic power f 
 
 Catch these bright tints of nature's loom ? 
 Did Nile or Ganges rear the flower, — 
 
 Or Thornton bid its beauties bloom ? 
 
 SlIAW. 
 
 + By his own energies, and the creation of things, he would rise to comprehend somewhat of the King of Kings, the GodofGods, 
 the Invisible Being, by, and in whom, are all things. 
 
Then Brahma his own mind survey 'd, 
 Kre spirits were infus'd, or forms display'd, 
 As mortal eyes, if finite we compare 
 With infinite, in brightest mirrors gaze, 
 Swift as is thought*, a shape supremely fair 
 Hose into being, with a boundless blaze 
 
 That fifty suns might daze. 
 Primeval Maya was the Goddess naro'd, 
 Who to her lord with love divine, inflam'd, 
 Her thoughts divulg'd, with richest wisdom fill'd. 
 From which this gorgeous universe he fram'd ; 
 
 For when great BitAHMEt will'd 
 
 Unnumber'd worlds to build 
 From unity, diversified% he sprang, 
 Then gay Creation laugh'd, and procreant Nature rang. 
 
 Omniscient spirit ! whose all-ruling power 
 Bids from each sense bright emanations§ beam ; 
 Glows in the rainbow ; sparkles in the stream|| ; 
 Smiles in the bud* ; and glistens in the flower 
 
 That crowns each vernal bower ; 
 Sighsm the gale ; and warbles in the throat 
 Of every bird that hails the blooming spring, 
 Or tells his loves in many a liquid note, 
 Whilst envious artists touch the rival string, 
 
 Till rocks and forests ring ; 
 Breathes in rich fragrance from the sandal grove, 
 Or where the precious musk-deer, playful, rove.; 
 In dulcet juice from clustering fruit distils; 
 And bums salubrious ill the tasteful clove ; 
 
 Soft banks and verdurous hills 
 
 Thy present influence fills ; 
 In air, in floods, in caverns, woods and plains, 
 Thy will inspirits all, thy sovereign Maya f reigns. 
 
 Jones. 
 
 * A fine conception of the first operation of the heavenly tnind. 
 
 t BRAHME is believed by the Hindoos to be neuter, Beahma ant! Maia are masculine and feminine. 
 i Still all is referred to God, or BltAHKE. 
 | In Sluggish mutter there is no thought. 
 || Not properties existent in matter, 
 
 * Smiles in the bud ! how enchanting the whole account ! 
 
 + Maya (the Miner™ of the Greets, who is said by them to have been born from the head or Jupiter) means sovereign goodnsss and 
 wisdom, 1 he Hindoos believe also in an evil spirit, which wars against the innocent joys of life, and produces the miseries incident to 
 humanity, and all the convulsions of nature ; and Brahma is employed, sometimes appearing upon earth, to counteract this etil. There 
 IS a fine Hindoo Avatar, or descent of Brahma, representing the deluge, when Brahms appears in the shape of a fish, and having procured 
 from the body of Tj/phon, the holy books, presents them to Bbaiimc. 
 
On the Nelumbium, as related to Egypt, I have been favoured with the following lines from a 
 well-known poet, almost equally distinguished as the last for his deep mythological acquaintance 
 with the ancient and modern Eastern world. 
 
 Emblem sublime of that primordial pow'r,* 
 That on the vast abyss of chaos mov'd, 
 
 What pen shall paint thy charms, majestic flow'r ? 
 By mortals honour* d and by gods belov'd ! 
 
 Frpm Ethiopia's lofty mountains roll'd, 
 Where Nile's proud stream through gladden* d Egypt pours, f 
 
 * The Spirit of God brooding oTer the chaos, and animating matter, is mentioned by Moses ; and in the Egyptian and Hindoo cosmo- 
 gony the Lotos is an emblem of that circumstance, 
 
 + The Nelumbium, Faba iEgyptica, or Sacred Egyptian Bean, is not to be met with at present in Egypt. That it was an inhabitant 
 there we learn from the following particular : " Alexander, when he reached," says his historian Arrian, " the river Indus, believed he had 
 discovered a branch of the Nile. This mighty stream was called Indus, from the country it passes through, as the Nile is called yEgyptus 
 by Homer, and both originated from the same source ; and he was confirmed in this from finding crocodiles in the stream of the Indus, 
 and beans growing on its banks similar to those which grew on the Shores of the Nile." Arrian, lib. 6. cap. 1. We have also other proofs- 
 Parkinson, who published in 1640, gives us the following account, p. 375. "The Beam of Egypt, which some call the Beanc of Pontus, 
 saith Dioscorides(butThcophrastus mcntioneth neither Egypt nor Pontus, but only calleth it abeane) groweth in lakes and standing waters 
 {plentifully in Egypt saith Dioscorides, which Theophrastus speakcth not of) in Asia, that is in Syria and Cilicia, but there, saith '1 iicophras- 
 tus it doth hardly perfect its fruite, but about Torona, in the lake, in the country of Calcidicum, it comcth to perfection, and bearcth very- 
 large leaves (like those of the butter-burre, saith Dioscorides) ; the stalke, saith Dioscorides, is acubite long ; Theophrastus saith the longest 
 is fourc cubits high, of the bigness of ones finger, like unto a soft rccde, but without joints : it bearcth a flower twice as large as that of the 
 poppy (with double flowers, for so I interpret in plenum caput, the words of Theophrastus^), of the colour of the rose; after which is past 
 comcth a round head called ciborion, or cibottion, that is, a small caske (yet Athenauis saith that a kindc ofdrinking cup was so called also, 
 whose form peradventure was like this fruite here expressed), not unlike to the comb which waspes do make, wherein is contained thirty cells 
 at the most, and in every cell or division thereof groweth a beane, whose toppe riscth higher than the cell wherein it is enclosed, w hose 
 kernell is bitter ; which, say they, the inhabitants thereabouts put into clay, and thrust down to the bottome of the water, with long poles, 
 that it may abide therein and thereby make their increase : the rootc is very thick and great, like unto that of the reede, but Theophrastus 
 addcth which Dioscorides hath not) full of cruell prickes or thorns, and therefore saith he, the crocodile refuses to come near it, least ho 
 should runne against the prickes thereof with his eyes, wherewith he cannot see well, and is called cotocasia, as Dioscorides makcth mention 
 but not Theophrastus, which is used to be eaten cither raw or otherwise dressed, that is, sodden or roasted. The beancs, saith Dioscorides, 
 arc eaten while they are fresh and green, but grow hard and blacke when they are old, being somewhat bigger than an ordinary beane, 
 ■which saith Dioscorides (Theophrastus making no mention of any qualities or virtues of them), have an astringent or binding faculty, and 
 thereby profitable to the stomackc and helpeth those that have the fluxe of the stomackc and the belly, and the bloody fluxe, the mcale or 
 flower of them strawed upon meatc, Sec. or taken in broth : the husks whereof, saith he, doth more good, being boyled in sweete wine, 
 the middle part of the beane, which is greene and bitter, being bruised and boyled in rose-water, and dropped into the earcs, easeth the 
 paincs of them. Thus farre Theophrastus and Dioscorides. Now the description of Clusius his strange fruite is thus as he setteth it downe : 
 This fruite did resemble a very large poppy head, cut off at the toppe, and consisted of a rough or wrinkled skinny substance, of a brownish 
 colour somewhat light, whose circumference at the top was nine inches, and growing lesser and lesser by degrees unto the stalkes, which 
 as it seemed did sustane the (lower, after which came this fruite, for there appeared certaine markes of the flower, where it did abide ; the 
 upper part hereof was smooth and plaine, having twenty-four holes or cells therein, placed in a certaine order, like unto the combe of 
 waspes ; in every one whereof was one nut, like unto a small akorne, almost an inch long, and an inch thickcin compasse, whose toppe was 
 browne endin^ in a point, like as an akorne doth, the lower part having an hole or hollow place, where it should seeme the footstalkc 
 upheld it, while it was in its place, whose kernell was rancid or mouldy ; thus farre Clusius. Let me here also bring in an eye witness or 
 two of this plant's growing in the ile of Java. Dr. Justus Heurnius, both divine and physition for the Dutch factory in the kingdom or ile 
 of Java sent into Holland a small bookc or collection of certain hcrbes, &c. growing in that country, with the virtues and uses, whercunto 
 the naturals did apply them (which bookc, as I understand by my good friends, Dr. Daniel Heringhooke, and Dr. "William Parkins, both 
 English, is kept in the university library at Leydcn, in a close cupbord, having a glass window before it, through which any one may 
 readeso much thereof as lycth open), at the end whereof is one by him satdownc, under the name of Nymphcea glandifera, thus described : 
 the huskc or cup (saith he) is rugged or full of wrinkles, yet soft, loose and spungye, like a musroome, and of a greene colour, divided 
 into twelve or fourteen cells (Clusius his figure hath twenty-four) or places, in every one whereof is contained one fruite like unto an akorne, 
 of a blackish purple colour on the outside, and very white within, the taste whereof is astringent, and somewhat bitter withal, like 
 akornes, but rough and spungie ; it groweth in moorish places, and by river's b.mckcs : the leaves are wondrous great, and like nnto those 
 of the water lilly, and so is the flower also of a very strong smell, like unto the oyle of aniseedes : thus farre Dr. Heurnius, whose des- 
 cription in my judgment is so punctual to those of Dioscorides and Theophrastus aforesiid, the description of the roote only wanting, that 
 I shall not ncede further to comment upon it, every ones judgment, though meane, I suppose being able by comparing to agree in the parts. 
 It is probable that Clusius, having seene this booko and the figure hereof annexed to the description, might soone pronounce it (as I doe 
 here) to be the true Faba JEgyptica of the ancients : there is no mention made in that bookc of Heurnius by what name the Javaneses or 
 
 r 
 
In raptur'd strains thy praise was hymn'd of old,* 
 And still resounds on Ganges' faithful shores, f 
 
 Within thy fair corolla's full-blown bell £ 
 Long since th' immortals fix'd their fond abode ; 
 
 There day's bright source, Osiris,§ lov'd to dwell, 
 While by his side enamour'd Isis glow'd. 
 
 Malaycs doc call it. The other eye witness hereof is Mr. William Fincham, an English merchant, as he is recorded in Mr. Purchase his 
 fourth booke of Pilgrimcs, chap. iv. sect. v. p. 429, that saith he often did eatc of the fruitc of a certain hcrbc growing in a gre.it brooke 
 or lake two or three cources or miles long, on the north-west side of Fetlipore, which is about twelve courses from Agra in the dominions of 
 the great Mogoll, called Surra t or Guznrrat, in I he East Indies, which the people call Cam olacha che rry , describing it to be like a goblet, Hat 
 at the head, containing divers nuts or akornes within it. I have here set downe these things, as well to show you mine ownc observations 
 after Clnshis and others, that assuredly this is the true Fab a JEgypt/ca of the ancients, as to provoke some of our nation to be as industrious 
 as the Hollanders, by whose care in their travels this was first made known to us, to search out such rare fruites as grow in the parts of their 
 abode, and cither communicate them to such as are experienced, or having penned them to publish their labours in print, if it may be, 
 which I hold to be better, according to Mr. Fincham's example, whose observations have given so great an illustration in this matter, as 
 well as in other things, by roe also remembered elsewhere in this worke. " 
 
 * Paganism at first arose from gratitude, and the adoration of this flower, as will be presently shown, proceeded chiefly from this cause. 
 Among the Egyptians, animals as well as (lowers, which were useful, were among the objects of worship. Cicero judiciously remarks, " that 
 no animals were held sacred by the Egyptians, but such as merited regard from their extraordinary utility." The same sentiment holds 
 exactly with regard to their sacred plants. 
 
 ** Mgyptii nullam belluam, nisi ob aliquant utilitatem quam ex ea eapcrent, consccrarunt velut Ibcs, maximam vim serpentium confici- 
 unt, cum siiit aves cxcelsa;, cruribus rigidis, corneo proccroquc rostro ; avcrtnnt pestem ab yEgypto, cum volucres angues, ex vastitate 
 Lybia;, yen to Africo invectas, intcrliciunt atque consumunt, ex quo fit ut ilia; nec morsu viva; noccant nec odore mortua^ ; cam ob rem 
 invocantur ap .Egyptiis Ibis." Cic. de Nat. Deor, lib. 1. 
 
 The Idols belonging to the aborigines Egyptians were birds, and beasts, and plants, which the Phirnicians altered, by adding a man's head 
 or body, and ihence formed those motley deities, commonly considered as the Egyptian deifies. Vide Origin of Hieroglyphics and the 
 Mythology of the Ancients- by the Bishop of Cloghcr, p. 14. 
 
 The only objection urged against this opinion, so favourable to the ancient Egyptian superstition, is the worsliip of the crocodile. " The 
 inhabitants of Thebes consider the crocodile as a sacred animal. One of these creatures is rendered tame, and attended with the greatest c.iro 
 and veneration. His food is prescribed and regulated according to the directions in their sacred books. He is adorned with ear.riiu;s made of 
 gold, and precious stones, as well as a sort of bracelet upon bis fore feet," &c. Herodotus. But it is probable he was worshipped as the 
 great Typhon, or emblem of destructive power ; and it is to be observed, that this superstition was peculiar to Thebes; whorcas the 
 Lotos, the Ibis, the Ichneumon, the Cow, &c. were held in superstitious veneration in every part of Egypt. 
 
 ■f When Sir William Jones was at dinner on the borders of the Ganges, some of his people, at his desire, brought him the Nelumbium 
 when all his Indian attendants immediately fell upon their faces, and paid adoration to (his plant. 
 
 + The flower of the Nelumbium is bell-shaped, somewhat resembling our Water Lily, and its petals are in circles, w hich as these ex- 
 pandemit a most agreeable odour. 
 
 § The ancient Egyptians, like the primitive Persians, worshipped the run and moon, or rather their deities, whence so many benefits 
 issued to mankind. We arc almost tempted to forgive that superstition which could believe these planets (he abodes of a god-, and a 
 goddess, whom they denominated by the names of Osiris and Isix. They sometimes quitted their supreme abodes, and came down upon 
 earth and enjoyed themselves, by riding on a stately flower above the waters, blown about by the zephyrs ; nor Can we much wonder at 
 such superstition, since we have had our fairies, and Anacreon the Greek poet describes Cupid alike diminutive. 
 
 As late I sought the spangled bowers, 
 To cull a wreath of matin flowers. 
 Where many an early rose was weeping, 
 In one I found the urchin sleeping : 
 I caught the boy, a goblet's tide 
 Was richly mantling by my side; 
 I caught him by his downy wing, 
 And whelm'd him in the racy spring. 
 Oh ! then I drank the poison'd bowl, 
 And love now nestles in my sou! ; 
 Yes, yes, my soul is Cupid's nest, 
 I feel him fluttering in my breast. 
 
 Mo our. 
 
 Thus the Roman port Virgil invokes the sun and moon as deities : 
 
 Vos, O clarissima mtindi 
 
 J.mninn, labentem ca-Io qui ducitis annum, 
 I.ibrr, et alma Ceres. 
 
Hence, not unconscious to his orient beam, 
 At dawn's first blush thy shining petals spread ; 
 
 Drink deep th' effulgence of the solar stream, 
 And, as he mounts, still brighter glories shed.* 
 
 Lycaon, whose wickedness was fabled to have hastened the destruction of the old world, was the father of Callisto Her char 
 engaged the affections of Jupiter, but his jealous consort having discovered the amour, changed her into a bear, in which shape shTb 
 placed by Jupiter in the sphere. J"™ remaining implacable, pre 
 
 constellation the privilege of setting beneath the waters of the sea. Hyg. Poet, Astron. lib, ii. 
 
 Homer paints the assembly of the gods retiring each to his respective star at the fall of day. 
 
 Thus the blest Gods the genial day prolong 
 
 In feasts ambrosial and celestial song. 
 
 Apollo tun'd the lyre, the Muses round 
 
 With voice alternate aid the silver sound. 
 Meantime the radiant sun, to mortal aight 
 Descending swift, roll'd down the rapid light. 
 Then to their starry domes (he Gods depart, 
 The shining documents of Vulcan's art: 
 Jove on his couch reclin'd his awful head, 
 And Juno slumber'd on the golden bed. 
 
 Iliad, I. 
 
 Thus Auguslus Ca;sar is invoked by Virgil, as one who will become a new constellation. 
 
 And, chieily thou, whose undetcrmin'd state 
 
 Is yet the business of the Gods' debate ; 
 
 Whether in after times to be dcclar'd 
 
 The patron of the world, and Rome's peculiar guard, 
 
 Or o'er the fruits and seasons to preside, 
 
 And the round circuit of the year to guide. 
 
 Pow'rful of blessings, which tliou strew'st around, 
 
 And with thy Goddess Mother's myrtle crown'd. 
 
 Or wilt thou, CXSAB, choose the wat'ry reign, 
 
 To smooth the surges, and correct the main ? 
 
 Then mariners in storms to thee shall pray, 
 
 E'en utmost Thulc shall thy puw'r obey ; 
 
 And Neptune shall resign the trident of the sea. 
 
 The wat'ry virgins for thy bed shall strive, 
 
 And Tclhys all her waves in dow'ry give; 
 
 Or icilt thou bless our summers zsith thy rays, 
 
 And sealed near the balance, poise the days, 
 
 Where in the void of heav'n a space is free, 
 
 Betwixt the Scorpion and the Maid fur thee? 
 
 The Scorpion ready to ?-eceive thy lazes, 
 
 1 iclds half his region and contracts his claws. 
 
 Georg, Book I, 
 
 Each separate planet and star had its deity ; hence the ancient doctrines of Astrology, or predicting the future fortunes of each as in- 
 fluenced by the star under which each person was born. Instead of supposing such influence to arise from the God or Goddess (a better 
 notion) presiding over each star, the supcrst ilious mind imagined the influence to come from inert masses of matter. Thus Milton, in com- 
 pliunce with the doctrines of the times, describes the Almiguty, after the fall of man, commissioning his Angels to produce several 
 changes in nature, and to sully the beauty and perfection of this nether world. 
 
 To the blank moon 
 
 Her office they prescribed, lo th' other Jive 
 
 Their planetary motions and aspecls 
 
 In scxtile, square, and trine and opposite, 
 
 Of noxious rj/icacy, and when to join 
 
 In synod unbenign ; and taught the fix'd 
 
 Their injluence malignant when to shower. 
 
 * Thcophrasttis gives the fallowing account of the Nelumbium in his history of plants. u It withdraws its flowers in the evening into the 
 
When, at their noontide height, bis fervid rays, 
 In a bright deluge burst on Cairo's spires, 
 
 With what new lustre then thy beauties blaze, 
 Full of the god, and radiant with his fires ! 
 
 Brilliant thyself, in stole of dazzling white* 
 Thy sister plants more gaudy robes infold ; 
 
 This flames in red. and that, intensely bright, 
 Amid th' illumid waters burns in gold.-\ 
 
 To brave the tropic's fiery beam is thine, 
 Till in the distant west his splendors fade ; 
 
 Then, too, thy beauty and thy fire decline, 
 With morn to rise, in lovelier charms array'd. 
 
 What mystic treasures, in thy form conceal'd, 
 Perpetual transport to the sage supply ; 
 
 Where nature, in her deep designs reveal'd, 
 Awes wondering man, and charms th' exploring eye ! 
 
 In thy prolific vase, and fertile seeds, 
 
 Are trac'd her grand regenerative pow'rs \% 
 
 Life, springing warm, from loath'd putrescence, breeds, 
 And lovelier germs shoot forth, and blighter flow'rs. 
 
 Thus, from Arabia borne, on golden wings, 
 The Phoenix on the Sun's bright altar dies ;§ 
 
 But from his flaming bed, refulgent, springs, 
 
 And cleaves, with bolder plume, the sapphire skies. 
 
 Euphrates, which continue to descend till midnight, to so great a depth, that atdaybrcak they are out of the reach of the hand ; after which 
 time it ascends gradually again, and in the course of the morning appears above water, and expands its flowers, rising higher and higher till 
 it gets several feet in height above the surface." Book iv. chap 10. This descent and subsequent ascent of the Nelumbium is fully credited 
 by Linnams, and is even applied by him to our common Water Lily ; but it probably arose from mistaking the dipping under water which 
 takes place after impregnation of the gcrmcn, and the ascent of the virgin flowers the following morning, which was mistook for the closed 
 ones descended yesterday.— But the flower opens and expands just as the day advances, and shuts up about four in the evening. 
 
 » The subject of this poem is the white Nelumbium, which I saw in line flower in the Royal Gardens at Kew last August. The same 
 Cowley says of the white Lily, it seemed clothed in light. 
 
 + There are three varieties of this plant ; or if we constitute it, with Jussiou, into a genus separate from the Nymphajas, by the term 
 Xelumbium, or if we make it with Linnaius, of the genus Nymplnca, we shall then have three distinct species of this beautiful aquatic, the 
 red white, and yellow. The leaves are in the shape, and of the size of an inverted umbrella, and majestically expand above the surface of 
 the'stream. The flowers rise gracefully among the foliage, and altogether constitute one of the grandest and most lovely objects in the 
 creation. The white is darling, the red and yellow, pure and unmixed. 
 
 J This plant, says a great mythologist, grows in the water ; and, amongst its broad leaves, puts forth a flower, in the centre of which is 
 formed the seed-vessel, shaped like a bell or inverted cone, and punctuated on the top with little cavilia or ceBr, in which the seeds grow to 
 maturity, decay, and again shoot forth ; for, the orifices of these cells being too small to let the seeds drop out, when ripe, new plants germinate 
 in the places where they are formed, the bulb of the vessel serving as a matrix to nourish them, until they acquire such a degree of magni- 
 tude as to burst it open and release themselves ; after which, like other aquatic weeds, they take root wherever the current deposits them. 
 This plant, therefore, being thus productive oj itself , and vegetating from its own matrix, without being fostered in the earth, was naturally 
 adopted as the symbol of the productive power of the Deity upon the waters. Sec Mr. Knight's Work. p. 85. The fact, however, is that, as 
 w ith some few other seeds, the cotyledons, or seminal leaves, early manifest themselves, as in the radish, where the rudiments of the young 
 plant may at any time be seen, and in that 6tate are deposited into the soft prolific bosom of the earth, where they readily take instant root. 
 
 § Dr. Darwin, in his Temple of Nature, says, p. 162, « that the Phunix rising from his own ashes is an hieroglyphic emblem of the 
 destruction and 'resuscitation of all things. It is represented with the Dog-star over ils head. 
 
 " So when Arabia's bird, with age oppress'd, 
 Consumes delighted on his spicy nest, 
 A filial Phcenix from his ashes springs, 
 Crown'd with a star, on renovated wings ; 
 Ascends exulting from his funeral flame, 
 And soars, and shines, another and the same.' - 
 
Nor food to the enlighten'd mind alone, — 
 Substantial nutriment thy root* bestow'd, 
 
 In famine's fangs did Egypt groan, 
 From thy rich bounteous horn f abundance flovv'd. 
 
 * We learn from Herodotus, « (hat the Egyptians were fed by the root of the different Nymphsjas which flourish in the waters of (he 
 Nile." He distinctly points out the two kinds. The one he describes " as producing a root of the size and shape of an apple, which kind 
 had a seed vessel of the form and shape of a poppy, containing seeds as small as millet, of which bread was made." This Lotos he discrimi- 
 nates « as resembling most a lily." He next speaks of " the other Lotos, whose dower is also of the lily kind, but more resembling the full, 
 blown rose, the fruit of which imitates the nest of a wasp, and contains seeds of the size of an olive, and good to eat." Euterpe, ch. 39. 
 
 Theophraetxs equally well describes both sorts. Speaking of the common Nymphaias he says, » The fruit is equal in size to a large 
 poppy, and contains a great number of seeds similar to grains of millet. The Egyptians deposit the fruit in heaps, and suffer the vessels to 
 putrefy : they then separate the seeds by washing them in the Nile, dry them, and make them into bread. The root, which is called torsion, 
 is round and of a moderate size. Its rind is black, and like that of a chesnut. It is of a fine white in the inside, and is eaten either raw 
 or boiled." HisU of Plants, Book iv. Chap. 10. 
 
 Sonnini, a most intelligent traveller and learned naturalist, mentions, " that at the present day, the roots of the Lotos furnish the 
 common people with their chief sustenance. The large tubers arc gathered as the waters subside, and dried, and then eaten, boiled or 
 roasted, like our potatoes, which they resemble in taste, but are more mealy." Travels into Egypt. 
 
 The roots of all the sorts are admitted by the Chinese to their tables, and the ponds and lakes arc cultivated with the Nelumbium, which 
 is one principal cause of the abundant population of that country. « In whatever way prepared it is equally pleasant and wholesome. 
 Great quantities arc pickled with salt and vinegar, which is then oaten with rice. Reduced to powder by grating, like our potatoc, it makes 
 a most excellent flour." Embassy to China by Lord Macartney. 
 
 t The horn-like appearance of the seed-vessel of the Nelumbium so exactly resembles the Cornucopia of the ancients, that the Grecian 
 Horn of Plenty seems to have been derived from this source. Their tradition states, that the nurse of Jupiter was the goat Amalthea, (a 
 name derived from wlU, to nourish), who for her services was afterwards turned into a star, and presented with the Cornucopia. The 
 first food of man being bread and milk, gave origin to this Grecian fable, for their Ceres was nothing more than a corruption of the Egyptian 
 Lis, who is represented in the temples of Egypt with the seed.-oessel of the Nelumbium in her hand. Sometimes in Egyptian sculpture their 
 Iris, or Ceres, is seen with the seed-vessel of the Nelumbium in the left arm, and some ears of corn intermixed with the seed-vessel of either 
 the Nymphaia curulca, or Nymphtea Lotos, in the right. The Greeks and Romans, who borrowed their religion chiefly from the Egyp- 
 tians, not only mistook the Cornucopia for a real horn, but also the seed-vessel of the Lotos for that of the Poppy, to which it bears 
 much resemblance. 
 
 The Egyptian his holds in her right hand a sphere, for (he Egyptian priests taught that the earth was round (such was the doctrine of 
 Pythagoras), this the more refined Greeks converted into a sickle, when she became their Ceres; and to represent the earth, they some, 
 times adorned her head with a turret, v. hen she became Magna Dca, or Cybele ; and instead of the cornucopia they increased the num. 
 ber of her breasts, when she was made to represent abundant Nature. 
 
 That the Greeks derived their deities from the Egyptians we have not only the probability from the resemblance, but the direct con- 
 fession of Herodotus, who visited the priests of both Ilcliopolis and Thebes ; and he declares, " that the Grecian Theology is derived from 
 the Egyptian." ilerod. Lib. \\. p. 80. 
 
 As his was supposed by the Egyptians to inhabit the moon, as Osiris did the sun (the Apollo and Bacchus of the Greeks), hence they 
 placed a crescent on her head, when she became (heir Diana. Her chastity they fancied from the pale brightness or chill of the Moon for 
 as the Egyplian gods had each (heir wives and concubines, according (o Eastern manners, (he produce of Osiris and his was Orus the 
 Mercury of the Greeks. 
 
 Sometimes Orus is represented in Egyptian sculpture as a simple boy ; sometimes, however, he is Anubis, or the Barking Dog, with a 
 Caducous in his hand, and wings to his feet. 
 
 The Egyptians, a race dealing in symbols, designed by Anubis vigilance, and at the commencement of the overflow of the Nile their priests 
 presented this figure to them as a warning ; the wings on the feet denoted the rapidity of the flood ; the caduceus, the generation of serpents 
 by the waters; and iis two wings, the Etesian, or west wind which sets in at that time. 
 
 The more refined Greeks did not at all relish such a figure of a god, and for the head of a dog they substituted a cap, and for the two 
 ears placed two wings on the cap, covering a human head, hut the other parts resemble the Egyptian figure. 
 
 The seed-vessel of the Nelumbium will furnish us also with another key to unlock the stores of ancient knowledge. Pythagoras the 
 introducer amongst his countrymen of the Metempsychosis, and who taught in symbols, has prohibited his disciples from eating beans; they 
 might cat peas, but not beans ,- and in order to reconcile this seeming strange interdiction, " abstain from beans, " has been interpreted 
 to keep from political disputes, which were decided by lot ; but Doctor Priestley says it is meant in the obvious sense of the words, as being 
 very fattening food, and is a caution against corpulency. But as his golden rules were symbols, I am inclined to think that he alluded to 
 the Egyptian bean. " Abstain from beans," meant against the indulging in any luxury to the detriment of the people; for by eating only 
 thirty beans, thirty plants were destroyed, which would have furnished tubers (potatoes) for as many families ; and this plant was dispersed 
 by the bounty of Providence on the shores of the Nile, as food for the common people, and not sown by mortal hands. Hence it was, 
 Egypt, abounding also in corn, became the granary of the world, and its store-houses furnished the neighbouring nations ; and hence it 
 was, that the Romans represented on the medals Ceres, with a ship by her side, as denoting the transport of corn from Egypt. 
 
 To prove the rarity of the Nelumbium even in the time of Adrian, Athenasus relates (Deipnosoph. lib. iii. p. 73.) that it changed its 
 appellation into the Antinoian Jbmr. " A poet," says this historian, « presented the emperor Adrian with the eose Lotos (Nelum. 
 
Did raging pestilence her shores invade, 
 Wafted from burning Lybia's sultry plains, 
 
 Thy cooling seeds the ardent thirst allay'd, 
 And check'd the fervor of the throbbing veins.* 
 
 Arm'd with thy foliage, in the cool of day, 
 Safe down the Nile the happy Memphians glide ; 
 
 The charm'd Leviathanf forgets his prey, 
 And sports innoxious, on the sacred tide.:}: 
 
 Hence the immortal race § in Thebesjl rever'd, 
 Thy praise the theme of endless rapture made ; 
 
 Thy image on an hundred columns rear'd, 
 And veil'd their altars with thine hallow'd shade. 
 
 Hum) as a rarity, and accounts for its produce from the blood of that terrible lion called Antinoian, which had committed great devasta- 
 tion in Lybia, and was finally killed in Egypt by Adrian in hunting." 
 
 Strabo relates, that the Nelumbium was once very common in Egypt, and that during festivals on the water, the barges rowed under 
 the shade of its immense leaves, which greatly resemble a Thcssalian cap. (Lib. xvii.) 
 
 " The roots and seeds of the Nelumbium," says Loureiro, " are both sapid and wholesome. These are accounted cooliDg and strength, 
 cning, and are found a specific against cxtcmo thirst, diarrhoea, tenesmus, vomiting, and too great internal heat." 
 
 t The Leviathan of Job is the crocodile. « Canst thou draw out Leviathan with a hook 1" is the question proposed, to show the supe. 
 rior power of the Deity. His worship in Egypt is accounted for by some as representing Typhon, the sea, of which the Egyptians appear 
 to have had a great dread, for by ships their enemies invaded their country. Another reason for this worship is given in note § below. 
 
 J All the Nymphajas have smooth stalks, except the Nelumbium, which is armed with short yet strong prickles, which piercing the 
 eyes of the crocodile, is by them remembered, and on this account that animals shuns the appearance of the Nelumbium. That the cro. 
 codile avoids the Nelumbium is noticed by Herodotus. 
 
 i The origin of all religion, as I observed before, originated in gratitude. " On this score," says Cicero, " the Ibis was esteemed sacred 
 as a bird which destroyed serpents, and the Ichneumon as the devouror of the eggs of the crocodile, and the crocodile itself, as protecting the 
 Nile from the invasion of the Arabs," (Vide Cicero de Natura Deorum); but this homage to the crocodile was given only in some parts of 
 Egypt; and lastly, I might mention the onion, a bulb which vegetated out of its own matrix, like the Nelumbium ; and as containing spheres 
 within spheres, the true system of the world, so little did the Egyptians merit to be satyrized by Juvenal, 
 
 Porrum et Cepc nefas violare et frangere morsu. 
 O Sanctasgentes, quibus ha;c nascuntur in hortis 
 Numina ! 
 
 || Thevenot, a modern French Traveller, thus describes ancient Thebes. '< The works of the Egyptians," says this admired writer, 
 "were calculated to withstand the corroding tooth of time: their statues were colossal, their columns immense. Egypt aimed at gran- 
 deur, and sought to strike the eye at a distance, but never also failed to gratify it by correctness of proportion. In the Said, (which was 
 anciently called Thebais,) have been discovered temples and palaces, at this day almost entire, where these columns and statues are innumera- 
 ble. The admiration of the traveller is particularly excited by a palace, the remains of which seem to have subsisted only to eclipse the 
 glory of all the noblest modern works of art. Four alleys, extending farther than (he eye can reach, and bounded, on each side, by sphinxes 
 of a substance as rare as their size is remarkable, serve as avenues to four porticoes of most astonishing height. How magnificent ! how 
 stupendous ! Indeed, those who have described to us this prodigious edifice, have not had time to examine its whole extent, nor are they 
 even certain of having seen the half of its beauties ; but all they did see was truly wonderful. 
 
 " A saloon, which apparently formed the middle of this superb palace, was supported by more than an hundred columns, the circum- 
 ference of each of which could not be spanned by six men with extended arms. These columns were lofty in proportion, and interspersed 
 •with obelisks, which so many revolving ages have not been able to overthrow. Even the colours, which, from their nature, soonest expe- 
 rience the power of time, are still unfaclcd among the ruins of this admirable edifice, and display all their original brilliancy ; so well did 
 Egypt know how to impress the stamp of immortality on all her productions." 
 
 " The city which the Greeks call Thebes, the Egyptians Diospolis, (says Diodorus, lib. i. par. 2.) was in circuit an hundred and forty 
 stadia, adorned with stately buildings, magnificent temples, and rich donations. It was not only the most beautiful and noble city of 
 Egypt, but of the whole world. The fame of its wealth and grandeur was so celebrated in all parts, that Homer has taken notice of it in 
 these words : 
 
 AiS' hutH/AWto! im, SiuxoVioi 5' a, 
 'JUJfU Ijw^ettVff) "tTWOKTI X«i 0X13^11, 
 
But far beyond the bounds of Afric borne, 
 Tliy honours flourished 'mid Thibetian snows, 
 
 Thy flowers the Lama's* gilded shrine adorn, 
 And Brahm f and Buddha% on thy flower repose. 
 
 What h.story records of the buildings of the Egyptians would surpass credibility, were it not attested by their monuments which 
 remain to this day. Egypt is a scene of antiquities ; walking among ruins, the traveller forgets the present to contemplate the past and 
 am,d the traces of a degenerate race, marks the remains of a mighty nation. Their buildings are still sublime. The Pyramid, of EW 
 hare always ranked among the wonders of the world. Three of them still remain, at the distance of some leagues from Crand Cairo w here 
 Memphis formerly stood. The largest of the three, ealled the Great Pyramid, forms a square, each side of whose base is 060 feet The 
 conference is 2040 feet. The basis cover, eleven acres of ground. The perpendicular height is about 460 feet; if measured obliquely 
 700. The summit, which viewed from below appcrs a point, is a platform, each side of which is 18 feet long. The stones with which 
 th,s enormous edifice was built were 30 feet in length. A hundred thousand workmen were constantly employed in carrying on this 
 amazing structure. 
 
 The Obelisk, are in the same grand style, but of a singular composition. The first models were erected by Sesostris, a, monuments 
 or h.s victories : they consisted of one piece of granite, and were 180 feet high. The Romans, in the era of their grandeur, transported 
 some of these monuments to their city ; two of them still remain, and, for their antiquity and grandeur, rank among thegreatest curiosities 
 in Rome, 
 
 Stupendous as these buildings must appear, even these appear comparatively small, when we consider what is related in Pliny, con. 
 corning the wonderful Sphyhi ; for that writer affirms, that the head was no less than one hundred and two feet in circumference; that 
 the figure itself was sixty-two feet high from the belly to the crown of the head ; and that its entire length was 143 feet. This figure also 
 had its meaning. It related to the inundation or overflowing of the Nile, which happened in the middle of the month Leo (thu Lion), 
 and reached to the month Vi.ce f the Virgin). He who could discover the enigma was honoured by the priests, and this produced the 
 fabulous story among the Greeks, of (Edipus. 
 
 If we look for the origin of our Architecture, we shall also find it to proceed from the Egyptian. Their pillars are our columns, taken 
 from their palms; and our orders (the capitals) are its branches, which arise from the top ; sometimes the Lotos, informing even the 
 column, appears ; and in ornamenting their walls and ceiling the Lotos has the principal share. However staggering, what is with us 
 called the Rose, is the Lotos ; and our IhneysucUe is the infant plantulc of the Lotos arising from its matrix, or seed-vessel. Sonnini, 
 p. 592 of his Travels, mistook this representation in the temple of Dcndcra, <> for that of a proliferous Sower, which he could not account 
 for." « The Egyptians," says Delile, Member of the Egyptian Institute, « not unfrequently represent the leaves of the Lotos of the 
 same size as the flowers, although they are much larger, and omit the marks of indentation ; but I once saw at Latopolis the Lotos re- 
 presented with indented leaves. The seed-vessel of the white and blue Lotos may be also distinguished in some of the Egyptian sculp- 
 tures." 
 
 In the ' Memoirs de l'Academie des Inscriptions, et Belles Lettres, anno 1790,' he also mentions, « that Barthelemy describes a very 
 ancient Egyptian mosaic, representing the flowers, seed-vessel, and leaves of the Nclumbium, very correctly performed, of which a paint- 
 ing has been made by Bartholi in exactly the same colours, as may be seen in the library of the Pantheon, where it is deposited." 
 
 In the sculptures of the representations of religious ceremonies, the priests are seen holding in their hands the Nclumbium when approach, 
 ing the Idol, as do their servants, who arc usually represented behind, having the tail of a monkey, to shew, I suspect, degradation. All 
 the Nymphseas, as furnishing food, were equally held sacred. Vide our notes on the Nymphaja Ccerulea. 
 
 * Lama is the sovereign pontiff, or rather God, of the Asiatic Tartars, inhabiting the country of Barantola. The lama is not only 
 adored by the inhabitants of the country, but also by the kings of Tartar/, who send him rich presents, and go in pilgrimage to pay him 
 adoration, calling him lama congiu, i. e. « God, the everlasting father of heaven." Ho is never to bo seen but in a secret place of his 
 palace amidst a great number of lamps, sitting cross-legged upon a cushion, and adorned all over with gold and precious stones ; where at a 
 a distance they prostrate themselves before him, it not being lawful for any to kiss even his feet. He is called the great lama, or lama of 
 lamas ; that is, " God of Gods." The orthodox opinion is, that when the grand lama seems to die either of old age or infirmity, his soul in 
 fact only quits a crazy habitation to look for another younger or better ; and it is discovered again in the body of some child, by cer- 
 tain tokens known only to the lamas or priests, in which order he always appears. 
 
 A long account of the ceremonies attending the inauguration of the infant lama in Thibet, may be seen in the first volume of the 
 Asiatic Researches. 
 
 + An account of Brahma is given in a note to the Canna Indica, and of his marriage with Mala in our history of the Blue Lotos. This 
 god is seated on the flat surface of the seed-vessel of the Nelumbium, in the same manner as Osiris is represented in Egyptian sculpture, 
 holding a whip in his hand, which denoted his driving the chariot of the sun. In other sculptures, where he is represented as the god of 
 the sun, he drives twelve horses in hand, which are certainly meant for the twelve signs of the zodiac, which symbols Ihe more refined 
 Greeks have lost in their more elegant representation of Phcebus. 
 
 t Ono of lhc mnst remarkable innovators in the religion of the Bramins was Buddha, who is generally supposed to be the Fo of the 
 Chinese, the Xuca of Japan, and the Odin of the North of Europe. His worship prevails in India beyond the Ganges. He is the ninth 
 avatar, or appearance of Vishnoo upon earth, and this is supposed to have happened in 1027 before Christ. A religion very similar to 
 this is that of the Lamas of Thibet. 
 
 In the " Asiatic Researches" is a translation or a Sanscrit inscription on a stone at the entrance of a temple at Boodha Gaya, by Mr. 
 Wilkins, as follows. " In the midst of a wild and dreadful forest, flourishing with trees of sweet-scented flowers, and abounding in fruits 
 and roots, infested with lions and tigers, destitute of human society, and frequented by the Moonees, resided Booddha, the Author of 
 
Where'er fair Science dawn'd on Asia's shore, 
 Where'er her hallow'd voice Devotion rais'd, 
 
 We see thee graven on the shining ore, 
 And on a thousand sparkling gems emblaz'd. 
 
 Maurice. 
 
 Happiness, the Eternal One, (lie Divinity worthy to be adored by the most praiseworthy of mankind, and who appeared here with a 
 portion of his divine nature. 
 
 " For once upon a time the illustrious Amura, renowned amongst men, coming here, discovered the place of the Supreme Being, Bood-dha 
 in the great forest. The wise Amara endeavoured to render the God Bood-dha propitious by superior service ; and he remained in the forest 
 for the space of twelve years, feeding upon roots and fruits, and sleeping upon the bare earth ; and he performed the vow of a Moonee and 
 was without transgression. He performed acts of severe mortification, for he was a man of infinite resolution, with a compassionate heart 
 One night he had a vision, and heard a voice saying, 'Name whatever boon thou wantest.' Amura having heard this, was astonished and 
 with due reverence, he replied,' ' First, give mc a visitation, and then grant me such a boon.' He had another dream in the same ni^ht and the 
 voice said, ' How can there be any apparition in the Kalee Yoog? The same reward may be obtained from the sight of an image or from 
 the worship of an image, as may be derived from the immediate visitation of a deity.' Having heard this, he caused an image of the Supreme 
 Spirit Bood-dha to be made, and he worshipped it, according to the law, with perfumes, incenses, and the like ; and he thus "lorified the 
 name of that Supreme Being, the incarnation of a portion of Veshnoo : <■ Reverence be unto thee in the form of Bood-dha ! Reverence be 
 unto the Lord of the Earth ? Reverence be unto thee, an incarnation of the Deity, and the Eternal One ! Reverence be unto thee O God in 
 the form of the God of Mercy : the dispcller of pain and trouble, the Lord of all things, the Deity who overcomcth the sins of the Kalee 
 
 Yoog, the Guard i. iii of the Universe, the Emblem of mercy toward those who serve thee CJ^ in ' the possessor of all things in vital form ' 
 
 Thou art Brahma, Veshnoo, and Mahea ! Thou art Lord of the Universe ! Thou art, under the form of all things, moveable and immove- 
 able, the possessor of the whole ! and thus I adore thee. Reverence be unto the Bcstower of Salvation, and Resheekisa, the Ruler of the 
 Faculties! Reverence be unto thee (Kis ava) the Destroyer of the Evil Spirit Klseel O, Damordara, shew me favour ! Thou art he who 
 resteth upon the face of the milky ocean, and who lieth upon the scrpcnt,W. Thou art Treeviekrama, whoat three strides, encompassed 
 the Earth ! I adore thee who art celebrated by a thousand names, and under various forms, in the shape of Bood-dha, the G od of Mercy ! 
 Re propitious, O most High God!' 
 
 « Having thus worshipped the Guardian of Mankind, he became like one of the just. He joyfully caused a holy temple to be built, of a 
 wonderful construction, and therein were set up the divine foot of Veshnoo, for ever purifier of the sins of mankind ; the images of the Pan. 
 doos, and of the descents of Veshnoo : and in like manner of Brahma, and the rest of the divinities. 
 
 » This place is renowned ; and it is celebrated by the name of Bood-dha Gat/a. The forefathers of him who shall perform the cere- 
 mony of the Sradha at this place shall obtain salvation. 
 
 " A crime of an hundred fold shall undoubtedly be expiated from a sight thereof, of a thousand fold from a touch thereof, and of a 
 hundred thousand fold from worshipping thereof. But where is the use of saying so much of the great virtues of this place ? Even the 
 hosts of heaven worship it with joyful service both day and night." 
 
 Brahma, Vishnu, Surya, and Ganesa, are each seated upon the Lotos; and Gunga is painted walking on her own river, holding a 
 Lotos in each hand. Vide Dissertation on the Gods of Greece, Italy, and India, in the Asiatic Researches, by Sir William Jones Vol. I. 
 p. 221. 
 
 Krcmpfcr has given us a curious representation of the goddess Quamcon sitting upon this aquatic plant. In ono part of his work he de- 
 scribed her, as having eight little children placed round her head, six of whom formed a sort of crown, while the two others were larger than 
 the rest, (Kamipfer's Japan, p. 595.); and in another part of the same work, speaking of a different statue of the same goddess, he observes, 
 that " seven smaller idols adorned her head, like a crown or garland, whereby is denoted, that she was the happy mother of many a deified 
 hero : nay, the Japanese look upon this idol, as an emblematical representation of the birth of the gods in general." (Krempfer's Japan 
 p. 542.) Barrow remarks, in his account of the embassy, " that when the Shing.moo, or holy mother, is represented in Chinese temples^ 
 she generally holds a flower of the Ncluinbium in her hand; and when sitting she is usually placed upon its large peltate leaf :" and proceeds 
 to observe, p. 474, " that in China few temples arc without some representation of the Nelumbium. Sometimes the Shing.rnoo is painted as 
 standing upon its leaves in the middle of a lake and that in one temple he observed the intelligent mother seated upon its leaf, which had 
 been hewn out of the living rock. 
 
 In the « Songs of Jayudeva," the several kinds of Lotos are very frequently mentioned. " Thou, whose eyes sparkle as the Blue Lotos 
 agitated by the breeze, and whose lips are as the Red Lotos in full bloom. Those beautiful blue eyes arc become, through thy resentment 
 like the petals of the Crimson Lotos: Oh ! tinge with their effulgence theso my limbs reclining on a bed of soft White Lotos leaves , that they 
 may glow like the arrows of Love pointed with flowers. My locks are decked with the deep azure of Water Lilies, my dress is a robe 
 of pale yellow, which resembles the golden dust of the Water Lily scattered over its blue petals." Vide Asiatic Researches, p. 185. In all 
 Persian songs, Dipuc (Cupid) is represented as pointing his arrows with the petals of the Red Lotos. 
 
 Among the rights and ceremonies of the Hindus, a kind of religious Almanac translated by Sir William Jones, is the following passage. 
 " On this lunar day Sereswati, or Isa," (the Isis of the Egyptians), « the Goddess of Arts and Eloquence, is to be worshipped with offer- 
 ings of perfumes, flowers, and dressed rice. Even the implements of writing, and written books, arc to be treated with reverence, and not 
 used on this festival. This meditation is to be used. May Sereswati, the Goddess of Speech, enable us to attain all possible felicity; she 
 who wears on her locks a beautiful half moon, which shines with a pale, but exquisite lustre ; whose body bends through the weight of her 
 full breasts ; who sits reclined on the White Lotos ; and from the Crimson Lotos" (Lotos is used for beauty) <l of her hands infuses radiance 
 on the instruments of writing, and books produced through her favour." Vide Asiatic Researches, Vol. iii. p. 722. 
 
NYMPHiE A CCERULEA; 
 
 on, 
 
 BLUE EGYPTIAN WATER-LILY. 
 
 In our Picturesque Plate, we have introduced a distant view of Aboukir, and the waters of the 
 Nile, where the Blue Lotos is found in great abundance, and which tends much to enliven the 
 scene. As the flood subsides, its tuberous roots afford a nourishment nearly resembling our 
 Potatoe, but more mealy. It has an exterior calyx, consisting of four green leaves, internally 
 coloured blue ; numerous corolla leaves, of the finest azure colour; a number of stamina, with 
 yellow filaments, tipt with blue anthers; and an orbicular pistillum, crowned with a stigma radiated 
 like our Poppy, and turning like it to & pericarp filled with innumerable small seeds. The leaves 
 not being crenated, as with the White Lotos (Nymphjea Lotos), it more nearly corresponds 
 with our common White Lily. It comes under the Class Poi.yandria, Order Monogynia, 
 of Linnseus. 
 
 It was surely a most extraordinary sight, to observe the proud conqueror of Egypt presiding 
 over a literary association to promote science, and most attentively listening to, and applauding, 
 a discourse read by Julius Caesar Savigni* on those sacred Nympha^as which embellish the shores 
 of Egypt ; little then did his arrogant soul imagine, that, at that time, on the buoyant wave was 
 floating the thunder of the British Arms, which Providence had destined to annihilate his proud 
 army, and take from it its famed standard, impiously called ' Invincible.' Little then did HE 
 dream that a bloodyf diadem would soon encircle his brow, and that he would feel never satiated 
 with human honours, his mind becoming a dreadful prey to a cursed, a senseless, and wicked am- 
 bition. 
 
 TO THE BLUE LOTOS. 
 
 CHILD OF THE SUN ! why droops thy withering head, 
 While high in Leo flames thy radiant sire ? 
 With Egypt's glory is thy glory fled, 
 t And with her genius quench'd thy native fire 5 
 
 Far direr than her desert's burning wind, 
 Gaul's furious legions sweep yon ravag'd vale, 
 Death stalks before, grim Famine howls behind, 
 And screams of horror load the tainted gale. 
 
 * Such are the pompous appellations the French assumed, as their Christian names, and it was ridiculous enough for a pretended 
 republican to usurp the name of a usurper ! 
 
 + The needtess and atrocious murder of the Duke D'Ekgdien, by torch-light, in the Bois de Boulogne, appals every heart with 
 
Nile's crirason'd waves with blood polluted roll, 
 Her groves, lier fanes, devouring fire consumes ; 
 But mark ! Slow rising near the distant pole, 
 A sudden splendour all her shores illumes ! 
 
 Fatal to GAUL— 'tis BRITAIN'S rising star 
 That in the South the bright ascendant gains, 
 Resplendent as her Dog Star shines from far, 
 And with new fervour fires the Lybian plains. 
 
 A race, as Egypt's ancient warriors* brave, 
 For her insulted sons indignant glows, 
 Defies the tropic storm, the faithless wave, 
 And hurls destruction on their haughty foes. 
 
 Exulting to his source, old NILUS hears 
 Tlie deep'ning thunder of the British line ;f 
 Again its lovely head the Lotos rears, 
 Again the fields in rainbow glories shine. 
 
 Still wider, beauteous plant, thy leaves extend, 
 
 Nor dread the eye of an admiring Muse, 
 
 In union with the rising song ascend, 
 
 Spread all thy charms, and all thy sweets diffuse. 
 
 • The Egyptian. were formerly a martial race, a„J lie ancient city of Thebes so rieh, that Achilles, in Homer, introduce, the tempt,, 
 tions ol such an acquisition ! 
 
 IS'ot all proud Thebes' unrivall'd walls contain, 
 The world's great Empress on lh' Egyptian plain, 
 (That spreads her conquests o'er a thousand states, 
 And pours her heroes thro' an hundred gates, 
 Two hundred horsemen, and two hundred cars, 
 From each wide portal issuing to the wars) ; 
 Tho' bribes were heap'd on bribes, in number more 
 Than dust in fields, or sands along the shore; 
 Should all these otters for my friendship call ; 
 'Tis he that offers, and I scorn them all. 
 Atrides' daughter never shall be led 
 (An ill-match'd consort) to Achilles' bed ; 
 Like golden Venus, tho' she charm'd the heart, 
 And vy'd with Pallas in the works of art. 
 Some greater Greek let those high nuptials grace, 
 I hate alliance with a tyrant's race. 
 
 Should not FaiKCIS, Emperor of Austria, have made the same reply to lie' on A parte, when asking for his daughter in marriage .' 
 
 t The account gircn by Nkmoh of his Naial Victory, deserves to be written in letters of gold, for the religious and manly spirit 
 it breathes. 
 
 <c Vanguard, off the Mouth of the Nile, August 3, 1798. 
 
 " MY LORD, 
 
 " Almighty God has blessed his Majesty's arms in the late battle by a great victory over the tleet of the enemy, 
 « horn i attacked at sun-set on the first of August off the Mouth of the Nile. The enemy were moored in a strong line of battle for defending 
 the entrance of the Bay (of Shoals), flanked by numerous gun-boats, four frigates, and a battery of guns and mortars on an island in their 
 yan ; but nothing could withstand the squadron your Lordship did me the honour to place under my command. Their high state of discipline 
 is well known to you; and with the judgment of the captains, together with their valour, and that of the officers and men of every des- 
 cription, it was absolutely irresistible. 
 
 " Could any thing from my pen add to the character of (he captains, I would write it with pleasure, but that is impossible. 
 
Of that bold race, beneath the Pleiads born, 
 To chaunt thy praise a Northern Bard aspires, 
 Nor with more ardour, erst at early dawn, 
 The Theban minstrels smote their votive lyres. 
 
 For oh ! can climes th' excursive genius bound ? 
 No . 'Mid Siberia bursts the heav'n-taught strain ; 
 At either pole the Muses' songs resound, 
 And snows descend, and whirlwinds rage, in vain. 
 
 « I have to regret the loss of Captain Westcott, of the Majestic, who was killed early in the action • l,„t iu v 
 be fought by her first lieutenant, M, C_, that, have given hi. an l^^^^^ 
 
 « The ship, of the enemy, all but their two rear ship,, are nearly dismasted : and those two, with two frigates, I am sorry ,„ say made 
 
 foZr,L"L7; 1 ' assur : rr my powcr ,o pre?cnt ,hcm - ^a-— * ±^jl^*zz « SS2 
 
 no ship >n a condition to support the Zealous, and I was obliged to call her in 
 
 obiLcd tol"" 0 " Z* TTTt T rCCei,C " rr0m ClP ' ain BE "" Ca ""° l te «' 1 — »»** k the head, and 
 
 the goulg „ and to him I must beg leave to refer you for every information relative to this victory. He win present you with the Hag 
 of the second in command, that of the commander in chief being burnt in the L'Orient 
 
 " Herewith I transmit yon lists of the killed and wounded, and the lines of battle of ourselves and the French. 
 
 " I have the honour to be, &c. 
 
 « HORATIO NELSON," 
 
 LINE OF BATTLE. 
 
 ENGU.SU. 
 
 . CuLLODEN , . Captain T. Trou bridge . . . 
 
 . Theseus . ..Captain R. VV. Millar 
 
 . Alexander. . Captain Alex. J. Ball .... 
 
 Vanguard \ ®" ear AJmiral Horatio Nelso 
 \ Captain Edward Berry .... 
 . Minotaur ... Captain Thomas Louts .... 
 , Leandeu ....Captain T. B. Thompson... 
 
 . Swiftsure .. .Captain B. Hatlowell 
 
 . Audacious. . .Captain Davidge Gould 
 
 . Defence*" • .Captain John Peyton 
 
 , Zealous Captain Samuel Hood 
 
 . Orion Captain Sir James Saumarez. 
 
 Goliath . . . .Captain Thomas Foley 
 
 Majestic . . . .Captain G. B. Westcott. . . . 
 BellekofOON Captain JI. D. E. Darby..., 
 La Mutine, Brij". 
 
 . .74. 
 ..74. 
 .74. 
 
 74. 
 
 74. 
 
 ..74. 
 ..74. 
 
 . .590 
 . .590 
 . .590 
 . .595 
 
 . .640 
 . .34 
 , .590 
 . .590 
 , .590 
 . .590 
 . .590 
 .590 
 .590 
 .598 
 
 Officers, Seamen, and Marines, killed and wounded, 895. 
 
 . Le Guerrier 
 
 Le CoNQUERANT 
 
 Le SrARTIATE 
 
 L'Aquilon 
 
 Le Souverain Peltle 
 
 Le Franklin 
 
 L'Orient 
 
 Le Tonnant 
 
 L'Heuueux 
 
 Le Timoleon 
 
 Le Merccre 
 
 Lb Goillal-me Tell .. 
 
 Le GeNEKEL'X 
 
 La Diane. . .Frigate . , 
 La Justice. . Ditto 
 L'Artemise .Ditto.... 
 La Seiiieuse 
 
 FRENCH. 
 
 rr i 0oM - Men. 
 
 ■Taken 74. . 700 
 
 ■Taken 74.. 700 
 
 ■liken 74.. 700 
 
 ■ Takcn 74,. 700 
 
 ■l' ak en 74,. 700 
 
 ■ Iakc " 80.. 800 
 
 ■Burnt 120.. 1010 
 
 .T«k«n 80. . £00 
 
 ■Taken 74.. 700 
 
 •Bur" 1 74.. 700 
 
 ■Taken ■•' 74.. 700 
 
 leaped 8 0.. 800 
 
 Escaped 74., 700 
 
 Escaped 4 S .. 300 
 
 Escaped 44.. 300 
 
 Burnt 36.. 250 
 
 Dismasted and sunk 3G.. 250 
 
 1190 10810 
 
 To this tr.umph, not long after was added the famous rattle at Abouk.h, near Alexandra, in which the brave Aberceombje 
 fell, after which the Freeh army in Egypt surrendered to the BritM. In the Gazette account of this battle, Lord Hdtchiksoh gives 
 ns an affecting account of the death of Arercromdie. « Few more severe battle, have been fought. We have sustained an irreparable 
 loss in the person of our never-sufficiently to be lamented Commander in Chief, who was mortally wounded in this battle, and died 
 March 28, 1801. I believe he was wounded early, but he concealed his situation from those about him, and continued in the field, 
 giving his orders wilh that coolness and perspicuity which had ever marked his character, till long after the action was over, when he 
 fainted through loss of blood. Were it permitted for a mldier to regret any one who has fallen in the service of his country, I might 
 be excused for lamenting him more than any other person ; hut it is some consolation to those who tenderly loved him, that as his life 
 was honourable, so was his death glorious. Hi, memory henceforth will be recorded in the annals of his country-will be sacred to 
 every British soldier— anil embalmed in the recollection of a grateful posterity." 
 
 % 
 
 /J 
 
Four thousand summers have thy pride survey'd 
 Thy Pharaohs moulder in their marble tombs : 
 Oblivion's wing the pyramids shall shade, 
 But thy fair family unfading blooms ! 
 
 Still 'mid these ruin'd towers, admir'd, rever'd, 
 Wave high thy foliage, and secure expand, 
 These vast but crumbling piles by men were rear'd, 
 But thou wert form'd by an immortal hand. 
 
 With Nature's charms alone thy charms shall fade, 
 With being's self thy beauteous tribe decline ; 
 Oh ! living, may thy flow'rs my temples shade, 
 And decorate, when dead, my envied shrine. 
 
 Maurice. 
 
 The Blue Lotos, by affording to the inhabitants of Egypt,* from its root, and seed-vessel, 4 
 a nutritious food, was properly considered by them as an Emblem of Celestial Love. 
 
 Where Nile's proud waves roll slowly to the main, 
 
 Thro' the fam'd land that knows no falling shower, 
 In modest charms above the wat'ry plain 
 
 All bright emerges the mysterious flower. 
 
 And while her guardian siret with soft supplies 
 
 Feeds the glad earth, and wakes her green-rob'd brood, 
 She meets the tincture of the answering skies, 
 
 And spreads cerulean lustre o'er the flood. 
 
 Touch'd by the floating sapphire's starry vest. 
 
 The hoary Sage to raise devotion strove ; 
 And bade the beauteous blossom stand confess'd 
 
 The sacred symbol of celestial love. 
 
 Hence, to the dim recesses of the fane 
 
 He bears the gather' d sweets each rising morn : 
 From Isis' neck descends the flowery chain, 
 
 And flowery wreaths Osiris' brows adorn. 
 ' Benignant pair ! to mortals still be good : 
 
 Still let old Nilus feel your guiding power ! 
 O'er our parch'd plains extend his fattening flood, 
 
 And bear upon his breast your zacred flower! 
 
 And while, with pious care, our trembling hand 
 
 To Heaven's high praise this holy rite ordains, 
 Accept these tributes of a grateful land, 
 
 And bless with fav'ring smiles th' Egyptian plains.' 
 
 Shaw. 
 
 . The Lotos was equally sacred in Egypt a S in India. Vide notes to the history of the Nelnmb.nm. 
 t The Lotos is to this day ealled A-RA.s del Nil, Daughter, of the Nile, and Nile is derived from N't 
 the Greek word for any large river, used also for the Nile, is derived from the Sanserif word Paom.v, the 
 
i 
 
 I 
 
 1 
 
PROTEA CYNAROIDES; 
 
 OR, 
 
 ARTICHOKE SILVER-TREE. 
 
 This shrub is one of the most beautiful plants, which are to be found at the Cape of Good Hope, 
 a country so extremely rich in vegetable productions. At a distance is represented by us the two 
 celebrated mountains, one of which is called Table-Bay, from the flatness of the top, covered like 
 a table with verdure, and possessing a piece of fine clear water, even at that stupendous height. 
 It has the Generic appellation Protea, in allusion to Proteus, Son of the Ocean, and Thetis, 
 and he could assume all forms ; and this tribe is not less distinguished by the variety of 
 shapes, in which it appears, than for possessing a leaf, which, in some species, has a glossy hue 
 like silver, varying in different lights, which it the more readily effects by the waving of its foliage. 
 It may have the name of Proteus also from the variety in the flowers of GO different species of 
 this Genus. In this species the stem is perfectly erect, and without branches, and at different 
 distances all around proceed channelled peduncles, which seem to form a part of each leaf, which 
 is spreading, ovate, and possesses a wave, that gives a singularity and beauty to the whole plant. 
 The flower, as the specific name expresses, has the appearance of an Artichoke, but it is a perfect 
 cone, with the apex downwards, and its imbricated scales below are of a greenish cast, whereas 
 the leaves above are of a most delicate texture, having the rich colouring of petals, being of a fine 
 red, and in several rows. Within this cone, or common calyx, are situated the numerous florets, 
 which are small and slender ; the corolla is of a purple colour, and cut into four thin segments, 
 and contains the filaments supporting four anthers, which, projecting from the florets, and placed in 
 circular order, and being incumbent towards the centre, gives a very extraordinary appearance to 
 the whole flower; also a pistillum consisting of a roundish germen, a style setaceous, the length of 
 the stamens, with an obtuse stigma. Hence it comes under Class IV. Tetrandria, four Sta- 
 mens, Order I. Monogynia, one Pistillum, of Linna;us. 
 
 Where cool'd by rills, and curtain'd round by woods. 
 
 Slopes the green dell to meet the briny floods, 
 
 The sparkling noon-beams trembling on the tide, 
 
 The Proteus lover woos his playful bride, 
 
 To win the fair he tries a thousand forms, 
 
 Basks on the sands, or gambols in the storms. 
 
 A Dolphin now, his scaly sides he laves, 
 
 And bears the sportive damsel on the waves; 
 
 She strikes the cymbal as he moves along, 
 
 And wond'ring Ocean listens to the song. 
 
 — And now a spotted Pard the lover stalks, 
 
 Plays round her steps, and guards her favour'd walks ; 
 
 As with white teeth he prints her hand caress'd, 
 
 And lays his velvet paw upon her breast, 
 
O'er his round face her snowy fingers strain 
 The silken knots, and fit the ribbon-rein. 
 — And now a Swan, he spreads his plumy sails, 
 And proudly glides before the fanning gales ; 
 Pleas'd on the flowery brink with graceful hand 
 She waves her floating lover to the land ; 
 Bright shines his sinuous neck, with crimson beak 
 He prints fond kisses on her glowing cheek, 
 Spreads his broad wings, elates his ebon crest, 
 And clasps the beauty to his downy breast. 
 
 Darwin. 
 
 FINIS.