| OCR Text |
Show r 66 J Her virgin train the tender fciffars ply, Vein the green leaf, the purple pet.al dye : Round wiry fiems the flaxen tendril bends, Mofs creeps below, and waxen fruit impends. Cold Winter views amid his realms of fnow DELANY's vegetable fiatues blow; Smooths his fiern brow, delays his hoary wing, And eyes with wonder all the blooms of fpring. The gentle LAPS AN A, N YMPHJEA fair, And bright CALENDULA with golden hair, 16o in which fi1e much exce!Ied: oetween her age of 14 and' 82, at which time her eyes quite failed her, fhe executed the curious Hortus flccus above mentioned, which I fuppofe contains a greater number of plants than were ever before drawn from the life by. any one perfon. Her method confl!l:ed in phcing the leaves of each plant with the petals, and all the other parts of the flowers on coloured paper, and cutting them with fciffars accurately to the natural flze and form, and then pa!l:ing them on a dark ground; the effett of which is wonderful, and their accuracy lefs liable to fallacy th:m drawings. Sfie is at this time (I 788) in her 89th year, with all the powers of a fine undedl:anding !till unimpain:d. I am informed another very ingenious lady, Mrs. North, is conftrueting a flmilar Hortus ficcus, or Paper-garden; which fhc executes on a ground of vellum with fuch elegant ta!l:e anJ fcientific accuracy, that it cannot fail to become a work of ine!l:imable value. ~apjana Jllymph~r~ alba, Calendullz. I. I65. And many other flowers clofe and open . their petals at certam hours of the day; and thus conflitute what Linneus calls the Horol~~ e, or Watch of Flora. He enumerates 46 flowers, which poffefs this kind of fcnfibJiny, I !11all mention a fe.w of them with their refpeetive hours of rifing and fetting, . [ 67 ] Watch with nice ey_e the Earth's diurnal way, Marking her folar and :Gdereal day, Her flow nutation, and her varying clime, And trace with mimic art the march of Time ; Round his light foot a magic chain they Ring, And count the quick vibrations of his wing.Firft in its brazen cell reluCtant roll' d Bends the dark fpring in many a fieely fold. 170 as Linneus terms them. He divides them firfl into nuteoric flowers, which lefs accu. rately obferve the hour of unfolding, but are expanded fooner or later, according to the cloudinefs, moifture, or preffure of the atmofphere. 2d. Tropiral flowers open in the morning and clofe before evening every day; but the hour of the expanding becomes earlier or later, as the length of the day increafes or decreafes. 3dly . .!Equi .. noBial flowers, which open at a certain and exaa hour of the day, and for the mo!l: part clofe at another determinate hour. Hence the Horologe or Watch of Ji)ora is formed frbm numerous p1ants, of which the following are thofe mofl common in this country. Leontodon taraJ..acum, Dandelion, opens at s-6, clofes at 8-g. Hieracium pilofe!la, moufe-cnr hawkweed, opens at 8, clofes at 2. Sonchus lxvis, fmooth Sow-thiflle, at 5 and at I 1-12. Latluca fativa, cultivated Lettice, at 7 anJ 10. Tragopogon luteum, yellow Goatfbeard, at 3-5 and at 9-IO. Lapfana, nipplewort, at s-6 and at 10-I. Nymph.ra alba, white water lily, at 7 and 5· Papaver nudicaule, naked poppy, at 5 and at 7· Hemerocallis fulva, tawny Day-lily, at 5 and at 7-8. Convolvu lu s, at s-6. Malva, Mallow, at 9-10. and at t. Arenarea purpurea, purple Sandwort, at 9-Io, and at 2-3. Anagallis, pimpernel, at 7-8. Portulaca hortenfls, garden Purflain, at 9-10, and at I I- 12. Dianthus prolifer, proliferous Pink, at 8 and at I. Cichoreum, Succory, at 4-5, Hypoch:eris, at 6-7, and at 4-5· Crepis, at 4-5, and at IO-II. Picris, at 4-5, an.d at I 2. Calendula field, at 9, and at 3· Calenc1ula African, at 7, and at 3-4. As thefe obfervations were probably made in the botanic gardens at U pfaJ, they mufl require farther attention to fuit them to our climate. Sec Stillingfleet's Calendar of Flora. |
