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Show 1.56 ORiy IN OF SOCIETY. CA N TO IV. 1"'uned Ly tby hand the dulcet harp she rings, And sounds responsive echo from th e strings; Dri~ht scenes of bliss in t rains suggested move, b And charm the world with melody and love. III. " SooN the fair forms with vital b ei~1g bless' cl, Time's feeble children, lose the boon possess' d ; The goaded fibre ceases to obey, And sense deserts the uncontractile clay; While births unnumber'd, ere the parents die, The hourly waste of lovely life supply ; And thus, alternating with death, fulfil The silent mandates of the Almighty Will; Whose hand unseen the works of nature dooms 340 By laws unknown-WHO GIVES, AND W HO RE SUMES. " Each pregnant Oak ten thousand acorns forms Profusely scatter'd by autumnal storms; The gr,aded.fibre, 1. 339. Old age consist s in the inaptitude to motion from the inirritability of the yst em, and the consequent want of fibrous contraction ; see Additional N ote VI I. C ANTO I V. OF GOOD AND EVIl,. Ten thousand seeds each pregnant poppy sheds Profusely scat tcr'd from its waving heads; The counties Aphides, prolific tribe, W it h greedy trunks the honey'd sap in1bibe ; 157 350 Ten thousand seeds, 1. 3.4·9. The fer tility of plants in respect to ecds is often rcm<:u+ ablc; from one root in one summer the seeds f zca, nwizc, amount to 2000; of inula, elecampane, to 3000 ; of helianthus, sunflower, to 4000; of papavcr, poppy, 32000 ; of nicotiana, tobacco, to 40320; to th is must be added the l)erennial roots, and the buds. Buds, which are so many herbs, in one tree, the trunk of which docs not exceed a span in thi ckness, freque nt ly amount to I 0000; Lin. Phil. Bot. p. 86. Tl1c rountlcss Aphides, L 35 1. The aphises, pucerons, or vinefre tters, are hatched from an egg in the early spring, and arc aH called females, as they produce a living offspring about once in a fortnight to the ni nth generation, w11ich are also all of them females ; then males arc also produced, and by their inte rcourse the females. bec01 1c ovi panms, and deposite their eggs on the bra nches, m· in the bark to be hatched in the ensuing spring. · This double mode of r eproduct ion, so exactly resembling the buds and seeds of trees, accounts for the wonderful increase of this insect, which1 according to Dr. 'Richardson, consists of ten generat ions, and of fifty at an average in ach generation; o that t he sum of fifty multi plied by fifty, and that prod uct again multipli ed by fifty nine tim s, wou ld give the product of one egg on ly J.n cauntJless millions; to whi ch must -be added the inn1.1merable eggs laid by the tenth generation for the r enovation of t heir progeny in the ensuiug spTing. The lwney'd safJ, l. 352. Tl1e aphi punctures with its fine proboscis the sap-ve se ls of vegetables wit hout any visible wound, and t hus drinks the sap-juice, or vegetable chyle, as it asc nds. Hence on the t\vigs of trees they st and with their heads downward , as I have ob ·erved, to acquire this ascending sap-juice with g reater facili ty .. |