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Show [ 194 l "C me YE soFT SYLPHS ! who fport on Latian land, 3· 0 ' Come, fweet-lip'd Zephyr, and Favonius bland! 410 Teach the fine SE.ED, inftina with life, to fh.oot On Earth's cold bofom its defcending root With Pith elafiic firetch its rifing fien1, Part the twin Lobes, expand the throbbing Gem ; Clafp in your airy arms the afpiring Plume, 415 Fan with your ba1my breath its kindling bloom, Each widening fcale and budl:ing film unfold, Swell the green cup, and tint the. flower with gold ; Ttach the fne feed. T. .4-J 1 • The feeds in their natural .{tate fall on the ~urface of tne th nd having abforbed fome moifl:urc the root fhoots ttfelf downwards tnto the cat th: ear , a . . b 1 d · :t and the plumerifes in air. Thus each endeavounng to feek 1ts proper pa u um tree_- cd by a vegetable irritability fimilar to th3.t of the lac:l:eal fy!lem and to the lungs m animals. . . The pith feems to pufh up or elongate the bud by its elafl:~city, like the pit~ m the callow quills of birds. This medulla Linneus bel~eves to confi~ of a bundle ot fibre~ , which diverging breaks through the bark yet gelatmous producmg the b~cls._ The lobes are refervoirs of prepared nutrimel1t for the yonng feed, wh1ch. 1s ~bforbecl by its placental ve!fds, and converted into fugar, till it has peuetr~ted with 1ts roots ur enough into the e:arth to extract fufficient moi!lure, and has acquaed leaves to convert it into nourifhment. In fome plants thefe lobes rife hom the e:uth and fupply th.e place of leaves, as in kidney-beans, cucumbers, and hcn.ce feem to ferve both ~s a placenta to the foetus, and lungs to the young plant. Dunng the procefs of gennlt.1ation the flarch of the feed is converted into fug3.1) as is feen in the proccf~ of malt 1ng. barley for the purpofe of brewing. An.d i.s on this account very fimilar to. the digdl:ion Qf foou in the fl:omachs of animals, which converts all their ::tliment into a c hyle, ·whi cit conftfb of mucilage,. oil,. and fugar; th~ plac.er:ta •.ion Jf buds will be rrokcn of hereafter •. [ 195 J \Vhile in bright veins the filvery Sap afcends, And rcfluent blood in milky eddies bends ; ' \Vhile, fpread in air, the leaves refpiring play, Or drink the golden quinteifence of day. -So from his :!hell on Delta's ihower-lefs ifle Burfis into life the Monfier of the Nile; 420 Fidl: in tran:fluccnt lymph with cobweb-threads 425 The Brain's fine Boating tiifue fwells, and fpreads ; Nerve after nerve the glifiening fpine defcends, The red Heart dances, the Aorta bends ; Through each new gland the purple current glides, New Veins n1candcring drink the rcfluent tides; 430 T he jilvery jap. 1. 419. See additional notes, No. XXXVI. Or drink tl.'e golden. 1. .:p2. Linneus having obferved the great influence of light on vegetation, imagined that the leaves of plants inhaled electric matter from the light with their upper furface. (Sy!lem of Vegetables tranflated, P· 8.) The effect or liaht on plants occafions the actions of the vegetable mufcles of their lcaf- ftalks, which ~urn the upper iide of the leaf to the light, and which open the_ir calyxes and carols, according to the experiments of Abbe Teflier, .who expofed vanety of plants in a c:m:rn to different quantities of light. Hi fl. deL' Academic Royal. Ann. 1783. Theil cp or vigilance of plants feems owing to the prefence or abfencc of this fl:inwlus. See note on Mimofa, Part. II. Ccz |
