The Botanic Garden

E >> Erasmus Darwin >> The Botanic Garden

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29

"Unite, ILLUSTRIOUS NYMPHS! your radiant powers,
Call from their long repose the VERNAL HOURS.
Wake with soft touch, with rosy hands unbind
430 The struggling pinions of the WESTERN WIND;
Chafe his wan cheeks, his ruffled plumes repair,
And wring the rain-drops from his tangled hair.
Blaze round each frosted rill, or stagnant wave,
And charm the NAIAD from her silent cave;
435 Where, shrined in ice, like NIOBE she mourns,
And clasps with hoary arms her empty urns.
Call your bright myriads, trooping from afar,
With beamy helms, and glittering shafts of war;
In phalanx firm the FIEND OF FROST assail,
440 Break his white towers, and pierce his crystal mail;
To Zembla's moon-bright coasts the Tyrant bear,
And chain him howling to the Northern Bear.

[_Of the Western Wind_. l. 430. The principal frosts of this country are
accompanied or produced by a N.E. wind, and the thaws by a S.W. wind;
the reason of which is that the N.E. winds consist of regions of air
brought from the north, which appear to acquire an easterly direction as
they advance; and the S.W. winds consist of regions of air brought from
the south, which appear to acquire a westerly direction as they advance.
The surface of the earth nearer the pole moves slower than it does in
our latitude; whence the regions of air brought from thence, move
slower, when they arrive hither, than the earth's surface with which
they now become in contact; that is they acquire an apparent easterly
direction, as the earth moves from west to east faster than this new
part of its atmosphere. The S.W. winds on the contrary consist of
regions of air brought from the south, where the surface of the earth
moves faster than in our latitude; and have therefore a westerly
direction when they arrive hither by their moving faster than the
surface of the earth, with which they are in contact; and in general the
nearer to the west and the greater the velocity of these winds the
warmer they should be in respect to the season of the year, since they
have been brought more expeditiously from the south, than those winds
which have less westerly direction, and have thence been less cooled in
their passage.

Sometimes I have observed the thaw to commence immediately on the change
of the wind, even within an hour, if I am not mistaken, or sooner. At
other times the S.W. wind has continued a day, or even two, before the
thaw has commenced; during which time some of the frosty air, which had
gone southwards, is driven back over us; and in consequence has taken a
westerly direction, as well as a southern one. At other times I have
observed a frost with a N.E. wind every morning, and a thaw with a S.W.
wind every noon for several days together. See additional note, XXXIII.]

[_The Fiend of Frost_. l. 439. The principal injury done to vegetation
by frost is from the expansion of the water contained in the vessels of
plants. Water converted into ice occupies a greater space than it did
before, as appears by the bursting of bottles filled with water at the
time of their freezing. Hence frost destroys those plants of our island
first, which are most succulent; and the most succulent parts first of
other plants; as their leaves and last year's shoots; the vessels of
which are distended and burst by the expansion of their freezing fluids,
while the drier or more resinous plants, as pines, yews, laurels, and
other ever-greens, are less liable to injury from cold. The trees in
vallies are on this account more injured by the vernal frosts than those
on eminencies, because their early succulent shoots come out sooner.
Hence fruit trees covered by a six-inch coping of a wall are less
injured by the vernal frosts because their being shielded from showers
and the descending night-dews has prevented them from being moist at the
time of their being frozen: which circumstance has given occasion to a
vulgar error amongst gardeners, who suppose frost to descend.

As the common heat of the earth in this climate is 48 degrees, those
tender trees which will bear bending down, are easily secured from the
frost by spreading them upon the ground, and covering them with straw or
fern. This particularly suits fig-trees, as they easily bear bending to
the ground, and are furnished with an acrid juice, which secures them
from the depredations of insects; but are nevertheless liable to be
eaten by mice. See additional notes, No. XII.]

"So when enormous GRAMPUS, issuing forth
From the pale regions of the icy North;
445 Waves his broad tail, and opes his ribbed mouth,
And seeks on winnowing fin the breezy South;
From towns deserted rush the breathless hosts,
Swarm round the hills, and darken all the coasts;
Boats follow boats along the shouting tides,
450 And spears and javelins pierce his blubbery sides;
Now the bold Sailor, raised on pointed toe,
Whirls the wing'd harpoon on the slimy foe;
Quick sinks the monster in his oozy bed,
The blood-stain'd surges circling o'er his head,
455 Steers to the frozen pole his wonted track,
And bears the iron tempest on his back.

X. "On wings of flame, ETHEREAL VIRGINS! sweep
O'er Earth's fair bosom, and complacent deep;
Where dwell my vegetative realms benumb'd,
460 In buds imprison'd, or in bulbs intomb'd,
Pervade, PELLUCID FORMS! their cold retreat,
Ray from bright urns your viewless floods of _heat_;
From earth's deep wastes _electric_ torrents pour,
Or shed from heaven the scintillating shower;
465 Pierce the dull root, relax its fibre-trains,
Thaw the thick blood, which lingers in its veins;
Melt with warm breath the fragrant gums, that bind
The expanding foliage in its scaly rind;
And as in air the laughing leaflets play,
470 And turn their shining bosoms to the ray,
NYMPHS! with sweet smile each opening glower invite,
And on its damask eyelids pour the _light_.

[_In buds imprison'd_. l. 460. The buds and bulbs of plants constitute
what is termed by Linneus the Hybernaculum, or winter cradle of the
embryon vegetable. The buds arise from the bark on the branches of
trees, and the bulbs from the caudex of bulbous-rooted plants, or the
part from which the fibres of the root are produced, they are defended
from too much moisture, and from frosts, and from the depredations of
insects by various contrivances, as by scales, hairs, resinous
varnishes, and by acrid rinds.

The buds of trees are of two kinds, either flower-buds or leaf buds; the
former of these produce their seeds and die; the latter produce other
leaf buds or flower buds and die. So that all the buds of trees may be
considered as annual plants, having their embryon produced during the
preceeding summer. The same seems to happen with respect to bulbs; thus
a tulip produces annually one flower-bearing bulb, sometimes two, and
several leaf-bearing bulbs; and then the old root perishes. Next year
the flower-bearing bulb produces seeds and other bulbs and perishes;
while the leaf-bearing bulb, producing other bulbs only, perishes
likewise; these circumstances establish a strict analogy between bulbs
and buds. See additional notes, No. XIV.]

[_Viewless floods of heat_. l. 462. The fluid matter of heat, or
Calorique, in which all bodies are immersed, is as necessary to
vegetable as to animal existence. It is not yet determinable whether
heat and light be different materials, or modifications of the same
materials, as they have some properties in common. They appear to be
both of them equally necessary to vegetable health, since without light
green vegetables become first yellow, that is, they lose the blue
colour, which contributed to produce the green; and afterwards they also
lose the yellow and become white; as is seen in cellery blanched or
etiolated for the table by excluding the light from it.

The upper surface of leaves, which I suppose to be their organ of
respiration, seems to require light as well as air; since plants which
grow in windows on the inside of houses are equally sollicitous to turn
the upper side of their leaves to the light. Vegetables at the same time
exsude or perspire a great quantity from their leaves, as animals do
from their lungs; this perspirable matter as it rises from their fine
vessels, (perhaps much finer than the pores of animal skins,) is divided
into inconcievable tenuity; and when acted upon by the Sun's light
appears to be decomposed; the hydrogene becomes a part of the vegetable,
composing oils or resins; and the Oxygene combined with light or
calorique ascends, producing the pure part of the atmosphere or vital
air. Hence during the light of the day vegetables give up more pure air
than their respiration injures; but not so in the night, even though
equally exposed to warmth. This single fact would seem to shew, that
light is essentially different from heat; and it is perhaps by its
combination with bodies, that their combined or latent heat is set at
liberty, and becomes sensible. See additional note, XXXIV.]

[_Electric torrents pour_. l. 463. The influence of electricity in
forwarding the germination of plants and their growth seems to be pretty
well established; though Mr. Ingenhouz did not succeed in his
experiments, and thence doubts the success of those of others. And
though M. Rouland from his new experiments believes, that neither
positive nor negative electricity increases vegetation; both which
philosophers had previously been supporters of the contrary doctrine;
for many other naturalists have since repeated their experiments
relative to this object, and their new results have confirmed their
former ones. Mr. D'Ormoy and the two Roziers have found the same success
in numerous experiments which they have made in the last two years; and
Mr. Carmoy has shewn in a convincing manner that electricity accelerates
germination.

Mr. D'Ormoy not only found various seeds to vegetate sooner, and to grow
taller which were put upon his insulated table and supplied with
electricity, but also that silk-worms began to spin much sooner which
were kept electrified than those of the same hatch which were kept in
the same place and manner, except that they were not electrified. These
experiments of M. D'Ormoy are detailed at length in the Journal de
Physique of Rozier, Tom. XXXV. p. 270.

M. Bartholon, who had before written a tract on this subject, and
proposed ingenious methods for applying electricity to agriculture and
gardening, has also repeated a numerous set of experiments; and shews
both that natural electricity, as well as the artificial, increases the
growth of plants, and the germination of seeds; and opposes Mr.
Ingenhouz by very numerous and conclusive facts. Ib. Tom. XXXV. p. 401.

Since by the late discoveries or opinions of the Chemists there is
reason to believe that water is decomposed in the vessels of vegetables;
and that the Hydrogene or inflammable air, of which it in part consists,
contributes to the nourishment of the plant, and to the production of
its oils, rosins, gums, sugar, &c. and lastly as electricity decomposes
water into these two airs termed Oxygene and Hydrogene, there is a
powerful analogy to induce us to believe that it accelerates or
contributes to the growth of vegetation, and like heat may possibly
enter into combination with many bodies, or form the basis of some yet
unanalised acid.]

"So shall my pines, Canadian wilds that shade,
Where no bold step has pierc'd the tangled glade,
475 High-towering palms, that part the Southern flood
With shadowy isles and continents of wood,
Oaks, whose broad antlers crest Britannia's plain,
Or bear her thunders o'er the conquer'd main,
Shout, as you pass, inhale the genial skies,
480 And bask and brighten in your beamy eyes;
Bow their white heads, admire the changing clime,
Shake from their candied trunks the tinkling rime;
With bursting buds their wrinkled barks adorn,
And wed the timorous floret to her thorn;
485 Deep strike their roots, their lengthening tops revive,
And all my world of foliage wave, alive.

"Thus with Hermetic art the ADEPT combines
The royal acid with cobaltic mines;
Marks with quick pen, in lines unseen portrayed,
490 The blushing mead, green dell, and dusky glade;
Shades with pellucid clouds the tintless field,
And all the future Group exists conceal'd;
Till waked by fire the dawning tablet glows,
Green springs the herb, the purple floret blows,
495 Hills vales and woods in bright succession rise,
And all the living landscape charms his eyes.

[_Thus with Hermetic art_. l. 487. The sympathetic inks made by Zaffre
dissolved in the marine and nitrous acids have this curious property,
that being brought to the fire one of them becomes green, and the other
red; but what is more wonderful, they again lose these colours, (unless
the heat has been too great,) on their being again withdrawn from the
fire. Fire-screens have been thus painted, which in the cold have shewn
only the trunk and branches of a dead tree, and sandy hills, which on
their approach to the fire have put forth green leaves and red flowers,
and grass upon the mountains. The process of making these inks is very
easy, take Zaffre, as sold by the druggists, and digest it in aqua
regia, and the calx of Cobalt will be dissolved; which solution must be
diluted with a little common water to prevent it from making too strong
an impression on the paper; the colour when the paper is heated becomes
of a fine green-blue. If Zaffre or Regulus of Cobalt be dissolved in the
same manner in spirit of nitre, or aqua fortis, a reddish colour is
produced on exposing the paper to heat. Chemical Dictionary by Mr. Keir,
Art. Ink Sympathetic.]

XI. "With crest of gold should sultry SIRIUS glare,
And with his kindling tresses scorch the air;
With points of flame the shafts of Summer arm,
500 And burn the beauties he designs to warm;--
--So erst when JOVE his oath extorted mourn'd,
And clad in glory to the Fair return'd;
While Loves at forky bolts their torches light,
And resting lightnings gild the car of Night;
505 His blazing form the dazzled Maid admir'd,
Met with fond lips, and in his arms expir'd;--
NYMPHS! on light pinion lead your banner'd hosts
High o'er the cliffs of ORKNEY'S gulphy coasts;
Leave on your left the red volcanic light,
510 Which HECCLA lifts amid the dusky night;
Mark on the right the DOFRINE'S snow-capt brow,
Where whirling MAELSTROME roars and foams below;
Watch with unmoving eye, where CEPHEUS bends
His triple crown, his scepter'd hand extends;
515 Where studs CASSIOPE with stars unknown
Her golden chair, and gems her sapphire zone;
Where with vast convolution DRACO holds
The ecliptic axis in his scaly folds,
O'er half the skies his neck enormous rears,
520 And with immense meanders parts the BEARS;
Onward, the kindred BEARS with footstep rude
Dance round the Pole, pursuing and pursued.

[_With stars unknown_. l. 515. Alluding to the star which appeared in
the chair of Cassiopea in the year 1572, which at first surpassed
Jupiter in magnitude and brightness, diminished by degrees and
disappeared in 18 months; it alarmed all the astronomers of the age, and
was esteemed a comet by some.--Could this have been the Georgium sidus?]

"There in her azure coif and starry stole,
Grey TWILIGHT sits, and rules the slumbering Pole;
525 Bends the pale moon-beams round the sparkling coast,
And strews with livid hands eternal frost.
There, NYMPHS! alight, array your dazzling powers,
With sudden march alarm the torpid Hours;
On ice-built isles expand a thousand sails,
530 Hinge the strong helms, and catch the frozen gales;
The winged rocks to feverish climates guide,
Where fainting Zephyrs pant upon the tide;
Pass, where to CEUTA CALPE'S thunder roars,
And answering echoes shake the kindred shores;
535 Pass, where with palmy plumes CANARY smiles,
And in her silver girdle binds her isles;
Onward, where NIGER'S dusky Naiad laves
A thousand kingdoms with prolific waves,
Or leads o'er golden sands her threefold train
540 In steamy channels to the fervid main,
While swarthy nations croud the sultry coast,
Drink the fresh breeze, and hail the floating Frost,
NYMPHS! veil'd in mist, the melting treasures steer,
And cool with arctic snows the tropic year.
545 So from the burning Line by Monsoons driven
Clouds sail in squadrons o'er the darken'd heaven;
Wide wastes of sand the gelid gales pervade,
And ocean cools beneath the moving shade.

[_On ice-built isles_. l. 529. There are many reasons to believe from
the accounts of travellers and navigators, that the islands of ice in
the higher northern latitudes as well as the Glaciers on the Alps
continue perpetually to increase in bulk. At certain times in the ice-
mountains of Switzerland there happen cracks which have shewn the great
thickness of the ice, as some of these cracks have measured three or
four hundred ells deep. The great islands of ice in the northern seas
near Hudson's bay have been observed to have been immersed above one
hundred fathoms beneath the surface of the sea, and to have risen a
fifth or sixth part above the surface, and to have measured between
three and four miles in circumference. Phil. Trans. No. 465. Sect. 2.

Dr. Lister endeavoured to shew that the ice of sea-water contains some
salt and perhaps less air than common ice, and that it is therefore much
more difficult of solution; whence he accounts for the perpetual and
great increase of these floating islands of ice. Philos. Trans. No. 169.

As by a famous experiment of Mr. Boyles it appears that ice evaporates
very fast in severe frosty weather when the wind blows upon it; and as
ice in a thawing state is known to contain six times more cold than
water at the same degree of sensible coldness, it is easy to understand
that winds blowing over islands and continents of ice perhaps much below
nothing on Farenheit's scale, and coming from thence into our latitude
must bring great degrees of cold along with them. If we add to this the
quantity of cold produced by the evaporation of the water as well as by
the solution of the ice, we cannot doubt but that the northern ice is
the principle source of the coldness of our winters, and that it is
brought hither by the regions of air blowing from the north, and which
take an apparent easterly direction by their coming to a part of the
surface of the earth which moves faster than the latitude they come
from. Hence the increase of the ice in the polar regions by increasing
the cold of our climate adds at the same time to the bulk of the
Glaciers of Italy and Switzerland.

If the nations who inhabit this hemisphere of the globe, instead of
destroying their sea-men and exhausting their wealth in unnecessary
wars, could be induced to unite their labours to navigate these immense
masses of ice into the more southern oceans, two great advantages would
result to mankind, the tropic countries would be much cooled by their
solution, and our winters in this latitude would be rendered much milder
for perhaps a century or two, till the masses of ice became again
enormous.

Mr. Bradley describes the cold winds and wet weather which sometimes
happen in May and June to the solution of ice-islands accidentally
floating from the north. Treatise on Husbandry and Gardening, Vol. II.
p. 437. And adds, that Mr. Barham about the year 1718, in his voyage
from Jamaica to England in the beginning of June, met with ice-islands
coming from the north, which were surrounded with so great a fog that
the ship was in danger of striking upon them, and that one of them
measured fifty miles in length.

We have lately experienced an instance of ice-islands brought from the
Southern polar regions, on which the Guardian struck at the beginning of
her passage from the Cape of Good Hope towards Botany Bay, on December
22, 1789. These islands were involved in mist, were about one hundred
and fifty fathoms long, and about fifty fathoms above the surface of the
water. A part from the top of one of them broke off and fell into the
sea, causing an extraordinary commotion in the water and a thick smoke
all round it.]

[_Threefold train_. l. 539. The river Niger after traversing an immense
tract of populous country is supposed to divide itself into three other
great rivers. The Rio Grande, the Gambia, and the Senegal. Gold-dust is
obtained from the sands of these rivers.]

[_Wide wastes of sand_. l. 547. When the sun is in the Southern tropic
36 deg. distant from the zenith, the thermometer is seldom lower than 72
deg. at Gondar in Abyssinia, but it falls to 60 or 53 deg. when the sun
is immediately vertical; so much does the approach of rain counteract
the heat of the sun. Bruce's Travels, Vol. 3. p. 670.]

XII. Should SOLSTICE, stalking through the sickening bowers,
550 Suck the warm dew-drops, lap the falling showers;
Kneel with parch'd lip, and bending from it's brink
From dripping palm the scanty river drink;
NYMPHS! o'er the soil ten thousand points erect,
And high in air the electric flame collect.
555 Soon shall dark mists with self-attraction shroud
The blazing day, and sail in wilds of cloud;
Each silvery Flower the streams aerial quaff,
Bow her sweet head, and infant Harvest laugh.

[_Ten thousand points erect_. l. 553. The solution of water in air or in
calorique, seems to acquire electric matter at the same time, as appears
from an experiment of Mr. Bennet. He put some live coals into an
insulated funnel of metal, and throwing on them a little water observed
that the ascending steam was electrised plus, and the water which
descended through the funnel was electrised minus. Hence it appears that
though clouds by their change of form may sometimes become electrised
minus yet they have in general an accumulation of electricity. This
accumulation of electric matter also evidently contributes to support
the atmospheric vapour when it is condensed into the form of clouds,
because it is seen to descend rapidly after the flashes of lightning
have diminished its quantity; whence there is reason to conclude that
very numerous metallic rods with fine points erected high in the air
might induce it at any time to part with some of its water.

If we may trust the theory of Mr. Lavoisier concerning the composition
and decomposition of water, there would seem another source of thunder-
showers; and that is, that the two gasses termed oxygene gas or vital
air, and hydrogene gas or inflammable air, may exist in the summer
atmosphere in a state of mixture but not of combination, and that the
electric spark or flash of lightning may combine them and produce water
instantaneously.]

"Thus when ELIJA mark'd from Carmel's brow
560 In bright expanse the briny flood below;
Roll'd his red eyes amid the scorching air,
Smote his firm breast, and breathed his ardent prayer;
High in the midst a massy altar stood,
And slaughter'd offerings press'd the piles of wood;
565 While ISRAEL'S chiefs the sacred hill surround,
And famish'd armies crowd the dusty ground;
While proud Idolatry was leagued with dearth,
And wither'd famine swept the desert earth.--
"OH, MIGHTY LORD! thy woe-worn servant hear,
570 "Who calls thy name in agony of prayer;
"Thy fanes dishonour'd, and thy prophets slain,
"Lo! I alone survive of all thy train!--
"Oh send from heaven thy sacred fire,--and pour
"O'er the parch'd land the salutary shower,--
575 "So shall thy Priest thy erring flock recal,--
"And speak in thunder, "THOU ART LORD OF ALL."--
He cried, and kneeling on the mountain-sands,
Stretch'd high in air his supplicating hands.
--Descending flames the dusky shrine illume;
580 Fire the wet wood, the sacred bull consume;
Wing'd from the sea the gathering mists arise,
And floating waters darken all the skies;
The King with shifted reins his chariot bends,
And wide o'er earth the airy flood descends;
585 With mingling cries dispersing hosts applaud,
And shouting nations own THE LIVING GOD."

The GODDESS ceased,--the exulting tribes obey,
Start from the soil, and win their airy way;
The vaulted skies with streams of transient rays
590 Shine, as they pass, and earth and ocean blaze.
So from fierce wars when lawless Monarch's cease,
Or Liberty returns with laurel'd Peace;
Bright fly the sparks, the colour'd lustres burn,
Flash follows f
595 Blue serpents sweep along the dusky air,
Imp'd by long trains of scintillating hair;
Red rockets rise, loud cracks are heard on high,
And showers of stars rush headlong from the sky,
Burst, as in silver lines they hiss along,
600 And the quick flash unfolds the gazing throng.

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29