blushing head.

[_Basaltic piers_. l. 433. This description alludes to the cave of
Fingal in the island of Staffa. The basaltic columns, which compose the
Giants Causeway on the coast of Ireland, as well as those which support
the cave of Fingal, are evidently of volcanic origin, as is well
illustrated in an ingenious paper of Mr. Keir, in the Philos. Trans. who
observed in the glass, which had been long in a fusing heat at the bottom
of the pots in the glass-houses at Stourbridge, that crystals were
produced of a form similar to the parts of the basaltic columns of the
Giants Causeway.]

[_Byssus_. 437. Clandestine Marriage. It floats on the sea in the day,
and sinks a little during the night; it is found in caverns on the
northern shores, of a pale green colour, and as thin as paper.]

Where cool'd by rills, and curtain'd round by woods,
Slopes the green dell to meet the briny floods,
445 The sparkling noon-beams trembling on the tide,
The PROTEUS-LOVER woos his playful bride,
To win the fair he tries a thousand forms,
Basks on the sands, or gambols in the storms.
A Dolphin now, his scaly sides he laves,
450 And bears the sportive damsel on the waves;
She strikes the cymbal as he moves along,
And wondering Ocean listens to the song.
--And now a spotted Pard the lover stalks,
Plays round her steps, and guards her favour'd walks;

[_The Proteus-love_. l. 446. Conserva polymorpha. This vegetable is
put amongst the cryptogamia, or clandestine marriages, by Linneus; but,
according to Mr. Ellis, the males and females are on different plants.
Philos. Trans. Vol. LVII. It twice changes its colour, from red to brown,
and then to black; and changes its form by losing its lower leaves, and
elongating some of the upper ones, so as to be mistaken by the unskilful
for different plants. It grows on the shores of this country.

There is another plant, Medicago polymorpha, which may be said to assume
a great variety of shapes; as the seed-vessels resemble sometimes
snail-horns, at other times caterpillars with or without long hair upon
them; by which means it is probable they sometimes elude the depredations
of those insects. The seeds of Calendula, Marygold, bend up like a hairy
caterpillar, with their prickles bridling outwards, and may thus deter
some birds or insects from preying upon them. Salicornia also assumes
an animal similitude. P