on the stigma, or the reservoir of honey might receive injury from the water.  Mr. Needham observed, that in the ripe dust of every flower, examined by the microscope, some vesicles are perceived, from which a fluid had escaped; and that those, which still retain it, explode if they be wetted, like an eolopile suddenly exposed to a strong heat.  These observations have been verified by Spallanzani and others.  Hence rainy seasons make a scarcity of grain, or hinder its fecundity, by bursting the pollen before it arrives at the moist stigma of the flower.  Spallanzani’s Dissertations, v.  II. p. 321.  Thus the flowers of the male Vallisneria are produced under water, and when ripe detach themselves from the plant, and rising to the surface are wafted by the air to the female flowers.  See Vallisneria.]

        The silvery sea-weed matted round her bed,
        And distant surges murmuring o’er her head.—­
        High in the flood her azure dome ascends,
270 The crystal arch on crystal columns bends;
        Roof’d with translucent shell the turrets blaze,
        And far in ocean dart their colour’d rays;
        O’er the white floor successive shadows move,
        As rise and break the ruffled waves above.—­
275 Around the nymph her mermaid-trains repair,
        And weave with orient pearl her radiant hair;
        With rapid fins she cleaves the watery way,
        Shoots like a diver meteor up to day;
        Sounds a loud conch, convokes a scaly band,
280 Her sea-born lovers, and ascends the strand.

        E’en round the pole the flames of Love aspire,
        And icy bosoms feel the secret fire!—­
        Cradled in snow and fann’d by arctic air
        Shines, gentle BAROMETZ! thy golden hair;
285 Rooted in earth each cloven hoof descends,
        And round and round her flexile neck she bends;
        Crops the grey coral moss, and hoary thyme,
        Or laps with rosy tongue the melting rime;
        Eyes with mute tenderness her distant dam,
290 Or seems to bleat, a Vegetable Lamb.

[Barometz. l. 284.  Polypodium Barometz.  Tartarian Lamb.  Clandestine Marriage.  This species of Fern is a native of China, with a decumbent root, thick, and every where covered with the most soft and dense wool, intensely yellow.  Lin.  Spec.  Plant.

This curious stem is sometimes pushed out of the ground in its horizontal situation by some of the inferior branches of the root, so as to give it some resemblance to a Lamb standing on four legs; and has been said to destroy all other plants in its vicinity.  Sir Hans Sloane describes it under the name of Tartarian Lamb, and has given a print of it.  Philos.  Trans. abridged, v.  II. p. 646. but thinks some art had been used to give it an animal appearance.  Dr. Hunter, in his edition of the Terra of Evelyn, has given a more curious print of it, much resembling a sheep.  The down is used in India externally for stopping hemorrhages, and is called golden moss.