-swarms_, l. 39. Stronger
bee-swarms frequently attack weak hives, and in two or three
days destroy them and carry away their honey; this I once
prevented by removing the attacked hive after the first day's
battle to a distinct part of the garden. See Phytologia,
Sect. XIV. 3. 7.]

"Yes! smiling Flora drives her armed car
Through the thick ranks of vegetable war;
Herb, shrub, and tree, with strong emotions rise
For light and air, and battle in the skies;
Whose roots diverging with opposing toil
Contend below for moisture and for soil;
Round the tall Elm the flattering Ivies bend,
And strangle, as they clasp, their struggling friend;
Envenom'd dews from Mancinella flow,
And scald with caustic touch the tribes below; 50
Dense shadowy leaves on stems aspiring borne
With blight and mildew thin the realms of corn;
And insect hordes with restless tooth devour
The unfolded bud, and pierce the ravell'd flower.

"In ocean's pearly haunts, the waves beneath
Sits the grim monarch of insatiate Death;
The shark rapacious with descending blow
Darts on the scaly brood, that swims below;
The crawling crocodiles, beneath that move,
Arrest with rising jaw the tribes above; 60
With monstrous gape sepulchral whales devour
Shoals at a gulp, a million in an hour.
--Air, earth, and ocean, to astonish'd day
One scene of blood, one mighty tomb display!
From Hunger's arm the shafts of Death are hurl'd,
And one great Slaughter-house the warring world!

[Footnote: _The shark rapacious_, l. 57. The shark has three
rows of sharp teeth within each other, which he can bend
downwards internally to admit larger prey, and raise to
prevent its return; his snout hangs so far over his mouth,
that he is necessitated to turn upon his back, when he takes
fish that swim over him, and hence seems peculiarly formed to
catch those that swim under him.]

[Footnote: _The crawling crocodiles_, l. 59. As this animal
lives chiefly at the bottom of the rivers, which he
frequents, he has the power of opening the upper jaw as well
as the under one, and thus with greater facility catches the
fish or water-fowl which swim over him.]

[Footnote: _One great slaughter-house_, l. 66. As vegetables
a