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Show [ 144 J Drop the fl:ill tear, or breathe the impaffion' d figh, And drink inebriate rapture from thine eye. Thus when old Needwood's hoary fcenes the Night Paints with blue fhadow, and. with milky light ; Where MuNDY pour'd, the li:fl:ening nymphs among, 35 Loud to the echoing vales his parting fang ; With meafured :fl:ep the Fairy Sovereign treads, Shakes her high plume, and glitters o'er the meads ; Round each green holly leads her fportive train, And little foot:fl:eps mark the circled plain ; 40 Each haunted rill with :lilver voices rings, And Night's f weet bird in livelier accents fing.s. Ere the bright fiar, which leads the morning fk.y, Hangs o'er the bluiliing eafi his diamond eye, The chafte TRoPJEo leaves her fecret bed; A faint-like glory tre1nbles round her head; 45 .· Whe~c Mundy. l. 35· Alluding to an unpublifhed' poem by F. N. C- MunJy, Efq. onhis leavmg Needwood-Forefi. See the paffage in the notes at the end of this volume. Tropceolum. I. 45· Majus. Garden Nafl:urtion,. or greater Indian crefs. Eight males, cme female. Mifs E. C. L.inneus firft obferved the Tropreolum Majus to emit fparks or [ 145 ] Eight watchful fwains along the lawns of night With amorous :fl:eps purfue the virgin light ; . 0' er her fair form the eleCtric lufire plays, And cold fhe 1noves amid the lambent blaze. So fhines the glow-fly, when the fun retires, And gems the night-air with phofphoric fires ; so fla!hes in the mornings before fun-rife, during the months of June or July, and alfo during the twilight in the evening, but not after total darknefs came on; thefe fingular cintill ations were !hewn to her father and other philofophers; and Mr. Wilcke, a celebrated electrician, believed them to be electric. Lin. Spec. Plantar. p. 490. Swedifh Acts for the year q62. Pulteney's View of Linneus, p. 220. Nor is this more wonderful than that the elecl:ric eel and torpedo fhould give voluntary !hocks of electricity; and in this plant perhaps, as in thofe animals, it may be a mode of defence, by which it harraffes or defl:roys the night-flying infects which infefl: it; and probably it may emit the f::~ me fparks during the day, which mufl: be then invifible. This curious fubject deferves further invelligation. See Dictamnus. The ceafmg to fhine of this plant after twilight might induce one to conceive, that it abforbed and emitted light, like the Bologni:m Phofphorus, or calcined oyfl:er-fhells, fo well explained by Mr. B. Wilfon, and by T. B. Bcccari. Exper. on Phofphori, by B. Wilfon, DoJiley. The light of the evening, at the fame difl:ance from noon, is much greater, as I have repeatedly obferved, than the light of the morning: this is owing, I fuppofe, to the phofphorefcent quality of almofl: all bodies, in a greater or lefs degree, which thus abforb light during the fun-fhine, and continue to emit it again for fome time afterwards, though not in fuch quantity as to produce apparent fcintillations. The neCl:ary of this planf grows from what is fuppofed to be the calyx; but this fuppofcd calyx is coloured; and perhaps, from this circumfl:ance of its bearing the nectary, fhould rather be efl:eemed a part of the carol. See an additional note at the end of the poem. So Jbincs the glow-fly. I. 51. In Jamaica, in fome fcafons of the year, the fire-flies are feen in the evenings in great abundance. When they fettle on the ground, the bull-frog greedily devours them; which feems to have given origin to a curious, though cruel, method of defl:roying thtfe animals: if red-hot pieces of charcoal be thrown towards them in the dufk of the evening, they leap at them, and, hafl:ily [wallowing them, are burnt to death. u |
