obweb wings,
Aim their light shafts, and point their little stings.

First the tall CANNA lifts his curled brow
40 Erect to heaven, and plights his nuptial vow;

[_Canna_. l. 39. Cane, or Indian Reed. One male and one female inhabit
each flower. It is brought from between the tropics to our hot-houses,
and bears a beautiful crimson flower; the seeds are used as shot by the
Indians, and are strung for prayer-beads in some catholic countries.]

The virtuous pair, in milder regions born,
Dread the rude blast of Autumn's icy morn;
Round the chill fair he folds his crimson vest,
And clasps the timorous beauty to his breast.

45 Thy love, CALLITRICHE, _two_ Virgins share,
Smit with thy starry eye and radiant hair;--
On the green margin sits the youth, and laves
His floating train of tresses in the waves;
Sees his fair features paint the streams that pass,
50 And bends for ever o'er the watery glass.

_Two_ brother swains, of COLLIN'S gentle name,
The same their features, and their forms the same,

[_Callitriche_, l. 45. Fine-Hair, Stargrass. One male and two females
inhabit each flower. The upper leaves grow in form of a star, whence it
is called Stellaria Aquatica by Ray and others; its stems and leaves
float far on the water, and are often so matted together, as to bear a
person walking on them. The male sometimes lives in a separate flower.]

[_Collinsonia_. l. 51. Two males one female. I have lately observed a
very singular circumstance in this flower; the two males stand widely
diverging from each other, and the female bends herself into contact
first with one of them, and after some time leaves this, and applies
herself to the other. It is probable one of the anthers may be mature
before the other? See note on Gloriosa, and Genista. The
females in Nigella, devil in the bush, are very tall compared to the
males; and bending over in a circle to them, give the flower some
resemblance to a regal crown. The female of the epilobium angustisolium,
rose bay willow herb, bends down amongst the males for several days,
and becomes upright again when impregnated.]

[_Genista_. l. 57. Dyer's broom. Ten males and one female inhabit this
flower. The males are generally united at the bottom in two sets, whence
Linneus has named the class "two brotherhoods." In the Genista, however,
they are united in but one set. Th