ecifically lighter than the sea water,
or being repelled by it, have legs placed as it were on their backs for
the purpose of walking under it. As the Scyllcea. See Barbut's Genera
Vermium. It seems necessary that the marriages of plants should be
celebrated in the open air, either because the powder of the anther, or
the mucilage on the stigma, or the reservoir of honey might receive injury
from the water. Mr. Needham observed, that in the ripe dust of every
flower, examined by the microscope, some vesicles are perceived, from
which a fluid had escaped; and that those, which still retain it, explode
if they be wetted, like an eolopile suddenly exposed to a strong heat.
These observations have been verified by Spallanzani and others. Hence
rainy seasons make a scarcity of grain, or hinder its fecundity, by
bursting the pollen before it arrives at the moist stigma of the flower.
Spallanzani's Dissertations, v. II. p. 321. Thus the flowers of the male
Vallisneria are produced under water, and when ripe detach themselves from
the plant, and rising to the surface are wafted by the air to the female
flowers. See Vallisneria.]

The silvery sea-weed matted round her bed,
And distant surges murmuring o'er her head.--
High in the flood her azure dome ascends,
270 The crystal arch on crystal columns bends;
Roof'd with translucent shell the turrets blaze,
And far in ocean dart their colour'd rays;
O'er the white floor successive shadows move,
As rise and break the ruffled waves above.--
275 Around the nymph her mermaid-trains repair,
And weave with orient pearl her radiant hair;
With rapid fins she cleaves the watery way,
Shoots like a diver meteor up to day;
Sounds a loud conch, convokes a scaly band,
280 Her sea-born lovers, and ascends the strand.

E'en round the pole the flames of Love aspire,
And icy bosoms feel the _secret_ fire!--
Cradled in snow and fann'd by arctic air
Shines, gentle BAROMETZ! thy golden hair;
285 Rooted in earth each cloven hoof descends,
And round and round her flexile neck she bends;
Crops the grey coral moss, and hoary thyme,
Or laps with rosy tongue the melting rime;
Eyes with mute tenderness her distant dam,
290 Or seems to bleat, a _Vegetable Lamb_.

[_Barometz_. l. 284. Polypodium Barometz. Tartarian Lamb. Clandestine
Marriage. Th