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Show 48 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. CANTO II, Pleased for a while the assurgent youth above Relights the golden lamp of life and love; Ah, soon again to leave the cheerful light, And sink alternate to the realms of night. II. " HENCE ere Vitality, as time revolves, Leaves the cold organ, and the mass dissolves; The Reproductions of the living Ens F1·om sires to sons, unkno\Vn to sex, commence. New buds and bulbs the living fibre shoots On lengthening branches, and protruding roots; .Qr on the father's side from bursting gland~ The adhering young its nascent form expands; In branching lines the parent-trunk adorns, 60 And parts ere long like plumage, hairs, or horns. 70 " So the lone Truffle, lodged beneath tl1e earth, Shoots from paternal roots the tuberous birth; So the lone Tniffle, 1. 71. Lycoperdon tuber. This plant never rises above the ~arth, is propagated without seed by it~ roots only, CANTO II, REPRODUCTION OF LIFE. No statnen ~males ascend, and breathe above, No seed-born offspring lives by female love. From each young tree, for future buds design'd Organic drops exsude beneath the rind ·· ' 'Vhile these with appetencies nice invite, And those with apt propensities unite; 49 New embryon fibrils round the trunk combine With quick embrace, and form the living line: 80 Whose plume and rootlet at their early birth Seek the dry air, or pierce the humid earth. " So safe in waves prolific Volvox dwells, And five descendants crowd his lucid cells· ' So the male Polypus parental swims, And branching infants bristle all his limbs; and seems to require no ligl1t. Perhaps many other fungi are generated without seed by their roots only, and without light, and approach on the last account to animal nature. T¥hile these 'tvitlt appetencies, I. 77. See Additional Note VIII. Prolific Vol'V0.2', 1. 83. The volvox globator dwells in the lakes of Europe, is transparent, and bears within it children and grandchildren to the fifth g eneration; Syst. Nat. The male polypus. I. 85. The Hydra viridis and fusca of Lin11cu. H |