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Show [ 10 ] With .fl:range deformity PLANTAGO treads, A mon.fl:er-birth! and lifts his hundred heads; Yet with foft love a gentle belle he channs, And clafps the beauty in his hundred anns. So haplefs DEsDEMONA, fair and young, Won by OTHELLo's captivating tongue, Sigh' d o'er each .fl:range and piteous tale, difl:refs 'd, And funk enamour' d on his footy breafi. Two gentle Jhepherds and their fifier-wives With thee, ANTHOXA! lead ambro:Gallives; So Bs Plantago. I. 77· Rofea. Rofc-Plantain. In this vegetable monfler the braB:es, or divifions of the fpike, become wonderfully enlarged; and are converted into leaves. The chaffy fcales of the calyx in Xeranthemum, and in a fpecies of Dianthus and the glume in fome alpine graffes, and the fcales of the ament in the Salix Rofea, 'rofe willow, grow into leaves; and produce other kinds of monflers. The double flowers become monflcrs by the multiplication of their petals or nectaries. See note on Alcea. Anthoxanthum. I. 83. Vernal grafs. Two males, two females. The other graffes have three males and two females. The flowers of this grafs give the fragrant fcent to hay. I am informed it is frequently vivaporous, that is, that it bears fomctimes roots o: bulbs inlle~d of. feeds, w!lich after a time drop off ami {hike root into the ground. This Circumflance IS fa1d to obtain in many of the alpine graffes, whofe feeds are perpetually devoured by fmall birds. The Fefluca Dumetorum, fefcue grafs of the bufhes, produces lmlbs from the !heaths of its flraw. The Allium Magic urn, or magical onion, produce• ( 11 ] \Vhere the wide heath in purple pride extends, And fcatter' d furze its golden luftre blends, Clofed in a green reccfs, unenvy' d lot ! The blue frnoak rifes from their turf-built cot; Bofom' din fragrance bluih their infant train, Eye the warm fun, or drink the filver rain. The fair OsMUNDA feeks the :Glent dell, The ivy canopy, and dripping cell ; There hid in Jhades clande.ftine rites approves, Till the green progeny betrays her loves. 95 onions on its head, inflead of feeus. The Polygonum Viviparum, viviparous biflort, rifes about a foot high, with a beautiful fpike of flowers, which are fucceeded by buds or bulbs, which fall off and take root. There is a bufh frequently feen on birch-trees, like a bird's neil, which feems to be a fimilar attempt of nature to produce another tree ; which falling off, might take root in fpongy ground. There is an inflance of this double mode of produtl:ion in the animal kingdom, which is equally extraordinary, the fame fpecies of Aphis is viviparous in fummer, 2.nd oviparous in autumn. A. 'I:· Bladh. Amxn. Acad. V. 7· Ojmunda. I. 93· This plant grows on moifl rocks ; the parts of its flower or its feeds are fcarce difcernible ; whence Linneus has given the name of clandelline marriage to this clafs. The younger plants are of a beautiful vivid green. c 2 |
