found in the East Indies, in Norway, and various parts
of Italy. Lin. Spec. Plant. They have their roots at the bottom of the
Rhone, the flowers of the female plant float on the surface of the
water, and are furnished with an elastic spiral stalk, which extends or
contracts as the water rises and falls; this rise or fall, from the rapid
descent of the river, and the mountain torrents which flow into it, often
amounts to many feet in a few hours. The flowers of the male plant are
produced under water, and as soon as their farina, or dust, is mature;
they detach themselves from the plant, and rise to the surface, continue
to flourish, and are wafted by the air, or borne by the currents to the
female flowers. In this resembling those tribes of insects, where the
males at certain seasons acquire wings, but not the females, as ants,
Cocchus, Lampyris, Phalaena, Brumata, Lichanella. These male flowers are
in such numbers, though very minute, as frequently to cover the surface
of the river to considerable extent. See Families of Plants translated
from Linneus, p. 677.]

[Illustration: Vallisneria Spiralis]

For him she breathes the silent sigh, forlorn,
Each setting-day; for him each rising morn.--
"Bright orbs, that light yon high etherial plain,
400 Or bathe your radiant tresses in the main;
Pale moon, that silver'st o'er night's sable brow;--
For ye were witness to his parting vow!--
Ye shelving rocks, dark waves, and sounding shore,--
Ye echoed sweet the tender words he swore!--
405 Can stars or seas the sails of love retain?
O guide my wanderer to my arms again!"--

Her buoyant skiff intrepid ULVA guides,
And seeks her Lord amid the trackless tides;

[_Ulva_, l. 407. Clandestine marriage. This kind of sea-weed is buoyed
up by bladders of air, which are formed in the duplicatures of its
leaves; and forms immense floating fields of vegetation; the young
ones, branching out from the larger ones, and borne on similar little
air-vessels. It is also found in the warm baths of Patavia; where the
leaves are formed into curious cells or labyrinths for the purpose of
floating on the water. See ulva labyrinthi-formis Lin. Spec. Plant. The
air contained in these cells was found by Dr. Priestley to be sometimes
purer than common air, and sometimes less pure; the air-bladders of fish
seem to be similar organs, and serve to render them buoyant in