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Show [ H With vain ddires the penfive ALCEA burns, And, ljke fad ELoisA, loves and mourns. The freckled lRrs owns a fiercer flarne, And three unjcalous hufbancls wed the clarne. rally replete with a thin kind of milk at their nativity, is a wonderful infl:ance of thi !> kind. Perhaps all the produaions of nature are in their progrefs to greater perfection ? an idea countenanced by the modern difcoveries and deductions concerning the progrenive formation of the folid parts of the terraqueous globe, and confonant to the dignity of the Creator of all things. Alaa. 1. 69. Flore pleno. Double hollyhock. The double flowers, fo much ad~ mired by the florifl:s, are termed by the botanifl: vegetable monfl:ers; in fame of thefc the petals are multiplied three or four times, but without excluding the fiarnens, hence they produce fome feeds, as Campanula and Strarnoneum; but in others the petals become fo numerous as totally to exclude the fl:amens or males: as Caltha, Peonia, and Alee a ; thefe produce no feeds, and are termed eunuchs. Philof. Botan. No. 150. Thefc vegetable monfl:ers arc formed in many ways: 1fl:. By the multiplication of the petals and the exclufion of the neCl:aries, as in larkfpur. 2d. By the multiplication of the neCl:aries and exclufion of the pet.:<ls, as in columbine. 3d. In forne flowers growing in cymes, the wheel-fhape flowers in the margin are multiplied to the excluflon of the bell-fhape flowers in the centre, as in gelder-rofe. 4th. By the elongation of the florets in the centre. ln!tances of both thefe are found in daify and feverfew; for other kinds of vegetable rnonfl:t:rs, fee Plantago. The. perianth is not changed in double flowers, hence the genus or family may be oft:n dtfcovered by the calyx, as in Hepatica, Ranunculus, Alcea. In thofe flowers, wh1ch have many petals, the lowefl: feries of the petals remains unchanged in refpeCl: to number; hen.ce the natura~ !~umber of the petals is eafily difcovered. As in poppies, rofcs, and N1gella, or devil 111 a bu01. Phil. Bot. p. 128. Iris . . 1. 71. Flower de Luce. Three males, one female. Some of the fpecies have a beautifully freckled flower; the large fl:igrna or head of the female covers the three males, counterfeiting a petal with its divifions. [ 9 ] CuPREssus dark difdains his dufky bride, One dome contains them, but two beds divide. The proud OsYRIS flies his angry fair, r wo houfes hold the fafhionable pair. 75 Cupref!us. 1. 73· Cyprefs. One houfe. The males live in fep:uate flowers, but Ol\ the fame plant. The males of fome of thefe plants, which are in feparate flowers from the females, have an elafl:ic membrane; which difperfes their dufl to a conftderable diftance, when the anthers burfi open. This dufl:, on a fine day, may often be fcen like a cloud hanging round the common nettle. The males and females of all the cone-bearing plants are in fcparate flowers, either on the fame or on different plants; they produce refins, and many of them arc fuppofed to fupply the ~ofl: durable timber: what is called Venice-turpentine is obtained from the larch by wounding the bark about two feet from the ground, and catching it as it exfudes; Sandarach is procured from common juniper; and incenfe from a juniper with yellow fruit. The unperifhable chefl:s, which contain the Egyptian mummies, were of Cyprefs; and the Cedar, with which black-lead pencils are covered, is not liable to be eaten by worms. See Miln's Bot. Diet. art. coniferx. The gates of St. Peter's church at Rome, which had bfl:ed from the time of Confiantine to that of Pope Eugene the Fourth, that is to fay, eleven hundred years, were of Cyprcfs, and had in that time fuffered no decay. According to Thucydides, the Athenians buried the bodies of their heroes in coffins of Cyprefs, as being not fubject to ·decay. A flmilar durability has alfo been afcribed to Cedar. Thus Horace, ----fptramus carmina jingi Poffi lincnda cedro & la:vi Javanda cuprt.!Jo. Ojyris. 1. 75· Two houfes. The males and females are on different plants. Thcret are many i nfl:ances on record, where female plants have been impregnated at very gr.;at difl:ancc from their male ; the dufl: difcharged from the anthers is very light, fma ll, and copious, fo that it may fpread very wide in the atmofphere, and be carrier{ to the difl:ant piflils, without the fuppofition of any particular attraJ:ion; thcfe plant1 rcfcmble forne infeCl:s, as the ants, and cochineal infect, of which the males have wings, but not the female. c |