FROM

HERE, seen of old, the elfin race
With sprightly vigils mark'd the place;
Their gay processions charm'd the sight,
Gilding the lucid noon of night;
Or, when obscure the midnight hour
With glow-worm lantherns hung the bower
-Hark! the soft lute!-along the green
Moves with majestic step the Queen!
Attendant Fays around her throng,
And trace the dance or raise the song ;
Or touch the shrill reed, as they trip,
With finger light and ruby lip.

High, on her brow sublime, is borne
One scarlet woodbine's tremulous horn;
A gaudy Bee-bird's* triple plume
Sheds on her neck its waving gloom;
With silvery gossamer entwined
Stream the luxuriant locks behind.
Thin folds of tangled network break
In airy waves adown her neck;-
Warp'd in his loom, the spider spread
The far-diverging rays of thread,
Then round and round with shuttle fine
Inwrought the undulating line ;-
Scarce hides the woof her bosom's snow,
One pearly nipple peeps below.

• The humming-bird.

One rose-leaf-forms her crimson vest,'
The loose edge crosses o'er her breast;
And one translucent fold, that fell
From the tall lily's ample bell,

Forms with sweet grace her snow-white train,
Flows, as she steps, and sweeps the plain.
Silence and Night enchanted gaze,
And Hesper hides his vanquish'd rays!—

Now the waked reed-finch swells his throat,
And night-larks trill their mingled note:
Yet hush'd in moss with writhed neck
The blackbird hides his golden beak;
Charm'd from his dream of love, he wakes,
Opes his gay eye, his plumage shakes,
And, stretching wide each ebon wing,
First in low whispers tries to sing;
Then sounds his clarion loud, and thrills
The moon-bright lawns, and shadowy hills.
Silent the choral Fays attend,

And then their silver voices blend,
Each shining thread of sound prolong,
And weave the magic woof of song.
Pleased Philomela takes her stand
On high, and leads the Fairy band,
Pours sweet at intervals her strain,
And guides with beating wing the train.
Whilst interrupted Zephyrs bear
Hoarse murmurs from the distant wear;
And at each pause is heard the swell
Of Echo's soft symphonious shell.

CANTO I.

LINE 39

SEEDS of Canna used for prayer-beads Stems and leaves of Callitriche so matted together, as they float on the water, as to bear a person walking on them The female in Collinsonia approaches first to one of the males, and then to the other. Females in nigella and epilobium bend towards the males for some days, and then leave them The stigma or head of the female in spartium (common broom) is produced amongst the higher set of males; but when the keel-leaf opens, the pistil suddenly twists round like a French horn, and places the stigma amidst the lower set of males

45

51

The two lower males in ballota become mature before the two higher; and when their dust is shed, turn outwards from the female. The plants of the class two powers with naked seeds are all aromatic. Of these marum and nepeta are delightful to cats. The filaments in meadia, borago, cyclamen, solanum, &c. shown by reasoning to be the most unchangeable parts of those flowers, Rudiments of two hinder wings are seen in the class diptera, or two-winged insects. Teats of male animals. Filaments without anthers in curcuma, linum, &c. and styles without stigmas in many plants, show the advance of the works of nature towards greater perfection

57

60

61

Bulbous roots contain the embryon flower, seen by dissecting a tulip root Flowers of colchicum and hamamelis appear in autumn, and ripen their seed in the spring following Sunflower turns to the sun by nutation, not by gyration Dispersion of seeds

204

212

221

224

Double flowers, or vegetable monsters, how produced

The calyx and lower series of petals not changed in double flowers Dispersion of the dust in nettles and other plants

Cedar and cyprus unperishable