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Show ( 188 ] Steers with expanded eye and gaping tnouth, His mafs enonnous to the affrighted South ; Spreads o'er the iliuddering Line his fhadowy limbs, 3 3 5 And Frofi and Famine follow as he fwims.- SY LPHS! round his cloud-built couch your bands array, And mould the Monfter to your gentle fway ; Charm with. foft tones, with tender touches check, Bend to your golden yoke his willing neck, 3 40 With :filver curb his yielding teeth refirain, And give to KIRwAN's hand the filken rein. -Pleafed ihall the Sage, the dragon-wings between, Bend o'er difcordant climes his eye ferene, With Lapland breezes cool Arabian vales, .A.nd call to Hindoftan antarCtic gales, Adorn with wreathed ears Katnpfchatca's brows, And fcatter rofes on Zealandic fnows,. 345 <J'o Kirwan's hand. 1. 342. Mr. Kirwan has publi!hed a valuable treatife c:m the temperature of climates, as a fl:ep towards inveil:igating the theory of the winds ; and has fwce written fome ingenious papers on this fubjeCl in the TranfaClions of the. Ro.yal lri{h Society. Earth's wondering Zones the genial feafons fhare, And nations hail him "MoNARCH oF THE ArR." 350 X. I. " SYLPHS ! as you hover on ethereal wing, Brood the green children of parturient Spring!Where in their burfiing cells my Embryons refi, I charge you, guard the vegetable neft ; Count with nice eye the myriad SEEDs, that fwell 355 Each vaulted wotnb of hufk, or pod, or fhell ; Feed with fweetjuices, clothe with downy hair, Or hang, in:fhrincd, their little orbs in air. <J'he myriad feeds. l. 355· Nature would fc:em to have been wonderfully prodigal in he feeds of vegetables, and the fpawn of fifl1; almofl: any one plant, if all its feecls fhould grow to maturity, would in a few years alone people the terrefl:rial globe. Mr. Ray alferts that 1012 feeds of tobacco w ighcd only one grain, and that from one tobacco plant the feeds thus calcubted amounteu to 36o,ooo! The ft.:eds of the ferns are by him fuppofed to exceed a million on a leaf. As the works of nature are governed by general laws this exuberant reproduCtion prevents the accidental cxtinEtion of the fpecies at the fame time that they fcrve for food for the higher orders of animation. Every feed polfdfes a refcrvoir of nutriment dcfigned for the growth of the future plant, this confifl:s of {brch, mucilage, or oil, within the cc,at of the feed, or of fugar and fubacid pulp in the fruit, which belongs to it. For the prefervation of the immature feed nature has ufed many ingenious methods ; fome are wrapped in down, as the feeds of the rofc, bean, and cotton-plant; others. are fufpendcd in a large ::.ir -veflcl, as thofc of the bladdcr-fena, {bphylxa, and pea. |
