The Botanic Garden. Part II. - Containing the Loves of the Plants. a Poem. - With Philosophical Notes. by Erasmus Darwin
page 36 of 216 (16%)
page 36 of 216 (16%)
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Bright shines the silver halo, as she turns;
And, as she steps, the living lustre burns. [_Drosera_. l. 231. Sun-dew. Five males, five females. The leaves of this marsh-plant are purple, and have a fringe very unlike other vegetable productions. And, which is curious, at the point of every thread of this erect fringe stands a pellucid drop of mucilage, resembling a ducal coronet. This mucus is a secretion from certain glands, and like the viscous material round the flower-stalks of Silene (catchfly) prevents small insects from infesting the leaves. As the ear-wax in animals seems to be in part designed to prevent fleas and other insects from getting into their ears. See Silene. Mr. Wheatly, an eminent surgeon in Cateaton-street, London, observed these leaves to bend upwards, when an insect settled on them, like the leaves of the muscipula veneris, and pointing all their globules of mucus to the centre, that they compleatly intangled and destroyed it. M. Broussonet, in the Mem. de l'Acad. des Sciences for the year 1784. p. 615. after hiving described the motion of the Dionæa, adds, that a similar appearance has been observed in the leaves of two species of Drosera.] Fair LONICERA prints the dewy lawn, And decks with brighter blush the vermil dawn; 245 Winds round the shadowy rocks, and pansied vales, And scents with sweeter breath the summer-gales; [_Lonicera_. l. 243. Caprifolium. Honeysuckle. Five males, one female. Nature has in many flowers used a wonderful apparatus to guard the |
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