rd,
Queen of the bright seraglio of her Lord.--
So sinks or rises with the changeful hour
The liquid silver in its glassy tower.
315 So turns the needle to the pole it loves,
With fine librations quivering as it moves.
All wan and shivering in the leafless glade
The sad ANEMONE reclined her head;
Grief on her cheeks had paled the roseate hue,
320 And her sweet eye-lids dropp'd with pearly dew.
--"See, from bright regions, borne on odorous gales
The Swallow, herald of the summer, sails;
[_Anemone_. l. 318. Many males, many females. Pliny says this flower
never opens its petals but when the wind blows; whence its name: it has
properly no calix, but two or three sets of petals, three in each set,
which are folded over the stamens and pistil in a singular and beautiful
manner, and differs also from ranunculus in not having a melliferous pore
on the claw of each petal. ]
[_The Swallow_. l. 322. There is a wonderful conformity between the
vegetation of some plants, and the arrival of certain birds of passage.
Linneus observes that the wood anemone blows in Sweden on the arrival
of the swallow; and the marsh mary-gold, Caltha, when the cuckoo sings.
Near the same coincidence was observed in England by Stillingfleet. The
word Coccux in Greek signifies both a young fig and a cuckoo, which is
supposed to have arisen from the coincidence of their appearance in Greece.
Perhaps a similar coincidence of appearance in some parts of Asia gave
occasion to the story of the loves of the rose and nightingale, so much
celebrated by the eastern poets. See Dianthus. The times however of the
appearance of vegetables in the spring seem occasionally to be influenced
by their acquired habits, as well as by their sensibility to heat: for the
roots of potatoes, onions, &c. will germinate with much less heat in the
spring than in the autumn; as is easily observable where these roots are
stored for use; and hence malt is best made in the spring. 2d. The grains
and roots brought from more southern latitudes germinate here sooner than
those which are brought from more northern ones, owing to their acquired
habits. Fordyce on Agriculture. 3d. It was observed by one of the scholars
of Linneus, that the apple-trees sent from hence to New England blossomed
for a few years too early for that climate, and bore no fruit; but
afterwards learnt to accommodate themselves to their
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