is time (1788) in her
89th year, with all the powers of a fine understanding still unimpaired.
I am informed another very ingenious lady, Mrs. North, is constructing a
similar Hortus ficcus, or Paper-garden; which she executes on a ground of
vellum with such elegant taste and scientific accuracy, that it cannot
fail to become a work of inestimable value.]

Her virgin train the tender scissars ply,
Vein the green leaf, the purple petal dye:
Round wiry stems the flaxen tendril bends,
160 Moss creeps below, and waxen fruit impends.
Cold Winter views amid his realms of snow
DELANY'S vegetable statues blow;
Smooths his stern brow, delays his hoary wing,
And eyes with wonder all the blooms of spring.

165 The gentle LAPSANA, NYMPHAEA fair,
And bright CALENDULA with golden hair,

[_Lapsana, Nymphaea alba, Calendula_. l. 165. And many other flowers close
and open their petals at certain hours of the day; and thus constitute
what Linneus calls the Horologe, or Watch of Flora. He enumerates 46
flowers, which possess this kind of sensibility. I shall mention a few of
them with their respective hours of rising and setting, as Linneus terms
them. He divides them first into _meteoric_ flowers, which less accurately
observe the hour of unfolding, but are expanded sooner or later, according
to the cloudiness, moisture, or pressure of the atmosphere. 2d. _Tropical_
flowers open in the morning and close before evening every day; but the
hour of the expanding becomes earlier or later, at the length of the day
increases or decreases. 3dly. _AEquinoctial_ flowers, which open at a
certain and exact hour of the day, and for the most part close at another
determinate hour.

Hence the Horologe or Watch of Flora is formed from numerous plants, of
which the following are those most common in this country. Leontodon
taraxacum, Dandelion, opens at 5--6, closes at 8--9. Hieracium pilosella,
mouse-ear hawkweed, opens at 8, closes at 2. Sonchus laevis, smooth
Sow-thistle, at 5 and at 11--12. Lactuca sativa, cultivated Lettice, at
7 and jo. Tragopogon luteum, yellow Goatsbeard, at 3--5 and at 9--10.
Lapsana, nipplewort, at 5--6 and at 10--1. Nymphaea alba, white water
lily, at 7 and 5. Papaver nudicaule, naked poppy, at 5 and at 7.
Hemerecallis fulva, tawny Day-lily, at 5 and at 7--8. Convolvulus, at
5--6. Malva, Mallow, at 9--10, and at 1. Arenarea purpurea, purple
Sandwort, a