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Show 4 ] The virtuous pair, in milder regions born, Dread the rude blafi of Autumn's icy morn ; Round the chill fair he folds his crimfon vefi,. And clafps the timorous beauty to his breafi. Thy love, CALLITRICHE, two Virgins £hare, Smit with thy fiarry eye and radiant hair;On the areen tnarain fits the youth, and laves b b His Boating train of treffes in the waves; Sees his fair features paint the :fl:reams that pafs, And bends for ever o'er the watery glafs. TuJo brother {wains, of CoLLIN's gentle name, The fame their features, and their forms the fame, 45 so Callitricht. 1. 45· Fine-hair, Stargrafs. One male and two females inhabit each flower. The upper leaves grow in form of a flar, whence it is called Stellaria Aquatica by Ray and others; its flems and leaves float far on the water, and are often fo matted together, as to bear a perfon walking on them. The male fometimes lives in a feparate flower. Collinjonia. I. 51. Two males one female. I have lately obferved a very flngular circumfl: ance in this flower; the two males fl:and widely diverging from each other, and the female bends herfelf into contact firfl: with one of them, and after fome time leaves this and applies herfelf to the other. It is probable one of the anthers may be mature before r s J With rival love for fair CoLLINIA figh, Knit the dark brow, and roll the unfieady eye. With fweet concern the pitying beauty mourns, And fooths with {miles the jealous pair by turns. Sweet blooms GENISTA in the myrtle ihade, And ten fond brothers woo the haughty maid. 55 the other. See note on Gloriofa, and Genifl:a. The females in Nigella, devil in the bufh, are very tall compared to the males, and bending over in a cir~le t~ them, giv_e the flower fome refemb\ance to a regal crown. The female of the Epilobwm Augufl:tfolium, rofe bay willow herb, bends down amongfl: the males for feveral days, and be-comes upright again when impregHated. Gmijla. 1. 57· Dyer's broom. Ten males and one female inhabit this flower. The· males are generally united at the bottom in two fets, whence Linneus has named the clafs " two brotherhoods." In the Genifl:a, however, they are united in but one fet. The flowers of this clafs arc called papilionaceous, from their refemblance to a butterfly, as the pea-bloffom. In the Spartium Scoparium, or common broom, I have lately obferved a curious circumfl:ance, the males or fl:amens are in two fets, one fet rifing a quarter of an inch above the other; the upper fet docs not arrive at their maturity fo foon as the lower, and the fl:igma, or head of the female, is produced amongfl: the upper or immature fet ; but as foon as the pifl:il grows tall enough to burfl: open. the keel-le.af, or hood of the flower, it bends itfelf round in an inflant, like a French horn, and mferts its head, or fligma, amongrt the lower or mature fet of males. The pi!l:il, or female, continues to grow in length; and in a few days the fligma arrives again amongfl the upper fet, by the time they become mature. This wonderful contrivance is readily feen by opening the keel-leaf of the flowers of broom before they burfl fpontaneouDy. Sec note on CoHinfonia, Gloriofa, Draba. |