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Show [ 142 ] And then her lute to fweeter tones ilie :!hung, And fwell'd with fofter chords the Paphian fong; Long ailes of Oaks return' d the :Giver found, And amorous Echoes talk' d along the ground; Pleas' d Lich:field lifl:en' d frotn her facred bowers, Bow' d her tall groves, and fhook her fl:ately towers. " Nymph l not for thee the radiant day returns, Nymph! not for thee the golden folil:ice burns, 10 Refulgent CEREA !-at the duiky hour I 5 She feeks with penfive fiep the mountain-bower, . Pleas'd Lichfield. 1. II. The fcenery defcribed at the beginning of the firfl: part, or economy of vegetation, is taken from a botanic garden about a mile from Lichfield. Cerea. 1. 15. CaClus grandiflorus, or Cereus. Twenty males, one female. This flower is a native of Jamaica and Veracrux. It expands a mofl: exquifitely beautiful coral, and emits a mofl: fragrant odour for a few hours in the night, and then clofes to open no more. The flower is nearly a foot in diameter; the inride of the calyx of a fplendid yellow, and the numerous petals of a pure white: it begins to open about feven or eight o'clock in the evening, and clofes before fun-rife in the morning. Martyn's Letters, p. 294· The Cifl:us labdaniferus, and many other flowers, lofe their petals after having been a few hours expanded in the day-time; for in thefe plants the fiigma is foon impregnated by the numerous anthers: in many flowers of the Cifl:us labdaniferus 1 obferved two or three of the fiamens were perpetually bent into contaa with the pifl:il. The N yCl:anthes, called Arabian J afmine, is another flower, which expands a beautiful coral, and gives out a mofi delicate perfume during the night, and not in the day, in its native country, whence its name; botanical philofophers have not yet explained [ 143 ] Bright as the bluih of riling n1orn, and warms The dull cold eye of Midnight with her charms. There to the fkies £he lifts her pencill' d brows, Opes her fai~ lips, and breathes her virgin vows ; Eyes the white zenyth; counts the funs that roll Their diil:ant fires, and blaze around the Pole ; Or marks where Jove direCls his glittering car O'er Heaven's blue vault,-Herfelf a brighter fl:ar. 20 -There as foft zephyrs [weep with pau:Gng airs 2 5 Thy fnowy neck,. and part thy ihadowy. hairs, Sweet Maid of Night! to Cynthia's fober beatns Glows thy warm cheek, thy polifh' d bofom glea1ns. In crowds around thee gaze the adtniring fwains, And guard in filence the enchanted plains ; this wonderful property; perhaps the plant fleeps durin~ the day as fome animals -do: and its odoriferous glands only omit their fragrance.dunng the expanfion of the pe~a!s' that is, during its waking hours: the Geranium tnfl:e has the ~arne prope:ty of giVIng up ·t ts fr agrance on 1y m· the n'1ght . The flowers of the Cucurb1ta lagenana are fa•d to clofe when the fun lhines upon them. In our climate many flowers, as tragopogon, and hibif1.1s, clofe their flowers b.:Jore the hottcfl: part of the ~ay comes on; and th~ flowers of fome fpecies of cucubalus, and Silenc, vifcous campwn, are clofed all day' but when the fun leaves them they expand, and emit a very agreeable fcent; whence fuch plants .are termed noCliflora. |