ns the whiten'd plain.
--Chain'd at his root two scion-demons dwell,
Breathe the faint hiss, or try the shriller yell;
Rise, fluttering in the air on callow wings,
And aim at insect-prey their little stings.
255 So Time's strong arms with sweeping scythe erase
Art's cumberous works, and empires, from their base;
While each young Hour its sickle fine employs,
And crops the sweet buds of domestic joys!

With blushes bright as morn fair ORCHIS charms,
260 And lulls her infant in her fondling arms;

[_Orchis_. l. 259. The Orchis morio in the circumstance of the
parent-root shrivelling up and dying, as the young one increases, is
not only analogous to other tuberous or knobby roots, but also to some
bulbous roots, as the tulip. The manner of the production of herbaceous
plants from their various perennial roots, seems to want further
investigation, as their analogy is not yet clearly established. The
caudex, or true root, in the orchis lies above the knob; and from this
part the fibrous roots and the new knob are produced. In the tulip the
caudex lies below the bulb; from whence proceed the fibrous roots and the
new bulbs; and I suspect the tulip-root, after it has flowered, dies
like the orchis-root; for the stem of the last year's tulip lies on the
outside, and not in the center of the new bulb; which I am informed does
not happen in the three or four first years when raised from seed, when
it only produces a stem, and slender leaves without flowering. In the
tulip-root, dissected in the early spring, just before it begins to
shoot, a perfect flower is seen in its center; and between the first and
second coat the large next year's bulb is, I believe, produced; between
the second and third coat, and between this and the fourth coat, and
perhaps further, other less and less bulbs are visible, all adjoining
to the caudex at the bottom of the mother-bulb; and which, I am told,
require as many years before they will slower, as the number of the coats
with which they are covered. This annual reproduction of the tulip-root
induces some florists to believe that tulip-roots never die naturally, as
they lose so few of them; whereas the hyacinth-roots, I am informed, will
not last above five or seven years after they have flowered.

The hyacinth-root differs from the tulip-root, as the stem of the last
year's flower is always found in the center of the root, and t