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Show [ 30 J Cradled in fnow and fann'd by arB:ic ai1· Shines, gentle BAROME TZ ! thy golden hair ; Rooted in earth each cloven hoof defcends, And round and round her £exile neck !he bends ; Crops the gray coral mofs, and hoary thyme, Or laps with rofy tongue the melting rime. Barometz.. l. 282. Polypodium Barometz. Tnrtarian Lamb. Clandefline Marriage. This fpecies of Fern is a native of China, with a decumbent root, thick, and every wh«:!re covered with the moll foft and denfe wool, intenfely yellow. Lin. Spec. Plant. This curious flem is fometimes pufhed out of the ground in its horizontal lltuation by fome of the inferior branches of the root, fo as to give it [orne refemblance to a Lamb flanding on four legs ; and has been faid to dellroy all other plants in its vicinity. Sir Hans Sloane dcfcribes it under the name of Tartarian Lamb, and has given a print of it. Philof. Tranf. abridged, v. II, p. 646. but thinks fome art had been ufed to give it an animal appearance. Dr. Hunter, in his edition of the Terra of Evelyn, has given a more curious print of it, much refembling a fheep. The down is ufed in India externally for fl:opping hemorrhages, and is called golden mofs. The thick downy clothing of fome vegetables feems defigned to proteCt them from the injuries of cold, like the wool of animals. Thofe bodies, which are bad conductors of electricity, are alfo bad conduCl:ors of heat, as glafs, wax, air. Hence either of the two former of thefe may be melted by the flame of a blow-pipe very near the fingers which hold it without burning them ; and the lafi, by being confined on the fur:ace of anima\ bodies, in ~he interfl:ices of their fur or wool, prevents the efcape of their natural warmth; to which fhould be added, that the hairs themfelves are imperfect conduEl.ors. The fat or oil of whales, anrl other northern animals, feems defigned for the .fame pur~ofe of preventing the too fudden efcapc of the heat of the body in cold c~1~1ates. Snow proteEl.s vegetables which are covered by it from cold, both bec~ ufe 1t IS a bad.conduCl:or. of htat itfdf, and contains much air in its pores. If a piece of. camphor be llnmerfed 111 a fnow-ball, except one extremity of it, on fetting fire to tl~1s, as the fn~w melts, ~he water becomes abforbed into the furrouncling fnow by capillary .attraEl.wn? on th1s account, when living animals are buried in fnow, they are not moiflened by It;. bu.t the cavity enlarges as the fnow diflolves, affording them both. a dry and warm habJtatwn. [ 3I J Eyes with mute tendernefs her difiant dam ' Or feen1s to bleat, a Vegetable Lamb. -So, warm and buoyant in his oily tnail, Garnbols on feas of ice the unwieldy Whale; Wide-waving fins round Boating iflands urge His bulk gigantic through the troubled furge; With hideous yawn the Hying !hoals he feeks, Or clafps with fringe of horn his maffy cheeks; Lifts o'er the toiling wave his nofirils bare, And fpouts pellucid columns into air; The filvery arches catch the fetting beams, And tranG.en t rainbows. tremble o'er the fireams. 295 Weak with nice fenfe the chafl:e MrMosA Rands, From each rude touch withdraws her timid hands; 300· Mimofa. l. 299· The fenfitive plant. Of the clafs Polygamy, one houfe. Naturalifis have not explained the immediate caufe of the collapfing of the fenfitive pl ~ nt; the leaves meet and clofe in the night during the !lecp ;f the plant, or when expofed to much cold in the day-time, in the fame manner as when they are affected by external violence, foldi. ng their upper furfaces toget}Jer, and in part over each other like fcales or tiles, fo as to expofe as little of the upper furface as may be to the air; but do not indeed collapfe quite |