The fair OSMUNDA* feeks the filent dell,
The ivy canopy, and dripping cell;
There hid in shades, clandeftine rites approves,
Till the green progeny betrays her loves.

Five fifter-nymphs to join Diana's train

With thee, fair LYCHNIST! vow, but vow in vain
Beneath one roof refides the virgin band,

Flies the fond fwain, and fcorns his offer'd hand;
But when foft hours on breezy pinions move,
And fmiling May attunes her lute to love,
Each wanton beauty, trick'd in all her grace,
Shakes the bright dew-drops from her blufhing face;
In gay undress difplays her rivals charms,
And calls her wondering lovers to her arms.

The fell SILENE ‡ and her fifters fair,
Skill'd in deftruction, spread the viscous fnare.
The harlot-band ten lofty bravoes screen,
And frowning guard the magic nets, unfeen.-
Hafte, glittering nations, tenants of the air,
Oh, fteer from hence your viewless courfe afar!
If with foft words, fweet blushes, nods, and fmiles,
The three dread Syrens lure you to their toils,
Lim'd with their art, in vain you point your ftings;
In vain the efforts of your whirring wings!-
Go, feek your gilded mates and infant hives,
Nor tafte the honey purchas'd with your lives!'

This plant grows on moift rocks; the parts of its flower or its feeds are scarce difcernible; whence Linneus has given the name of clandeftine marriage to this clafs. The younger plants are of a beautiful vivid green.'

+ The flowers, which contain the five females, and those which contain the ten males, are found on different plants; and often at a great diftance from each other. When the females arrive at their maturity, they rife above the petals, as if looking abroad for their diftant husbands; the fcarlet ones contribute much to the beauty of our meadows in May and June.'

Silene, Catchfly-The viscous material which furrounds the ftalks under the flowers of this plant, and of the Cucubulus Otites, is a curious contrivance to prevent various infects from plundering the honey, or devouring the feed. In the Dionæa Mufcipula there is a still more wonderful contrivance to prevent the depredations of infects: the leaves are armed with long teeth, like the antennæ of infects, and lie fpread upon the ground round the ftem; and are fo irritable, that when an infect creeps upon them, they fold up, and crush or pierce it to death.-The flower of the Arum mufcivorum has the fmell of carrion; by which the flies are invited to lay their eggs in the chamber of the flower, but in vain endeavour to efcape, being prevented by the hairs pointing inwards; and thus perish in the flower, whence its name of Fly-eater.'

Z 2

Though

Though this bard profeffes to have counteracted the spells of Ovid, yet on fome occafions he takes up the very wand of that great enchanter; and how fkilfully he can manage it, the following tranfmutation will fhew:

*

• On Dove's green brink the fair TREMELLA food,
And viewed her playful image in the flood;
To each rude rock, lone dell, and echoing grove,
Sung the fweet forrows of her fecret love.—
"Oh, ftay!-return!"-along the founding fhore
Cried the fad Naiads,-fhe return'd no more!-
Now, girt with clouds, the fullen Evening frown'd,
And withering Eurus fwept along the ground;
The misty Moon withdrew her horned light,
And funk with Hefper in the skirt of Night;
No dim electric ftreams (the northern dawn)
With meek effulgence quiver'd o'er the lawn;
No flar benignant fhot one tranfient ray,
To guide or light the wanderer on her way.
Round the dark craggs the murmuring whirlwinds blow,
Woods groan above, and waters roar below;
As o'er the fleeps with paufing foot fhe moves,
The pitying Dryads fhriek amid their groves;

** I have frequently obferved fungufles of this genus on old rails and on the ground, to become a tranfparent jelly, after they had been frozen in autumnal mornings; which is a curious property, and diflinguishes them from fome other vegetable mucilage; for I have obferved that the pafte, made by boiling wheat-flour in water, ceafes to be adhesive after having been frozen. I fufpected that the Tremella nofloc, or ftar-jelly, alfo had been thus produced; but have fince been well informed, that the Tremella noftoc is a mucilage voided by Herons after they have eaten frogs; hence it has the ap pearance of having been preffed through a hole; and limbs of frogs are faid fometimes to be found amongst it; it is always feen upon plains, or by the fides of water, places which Herons generally fre quent.'

It may here be proper to add, from a note in a different part of the book (p. 166.), what the author fays of another vegetable muci lage, bird lime, made from the bark of hollies; viz. that it seems to be a very fimilar material to the elastic gum, or Indian rubber as it is called.' This intimation may probably give rife to further inquiries, which will doubtlefs prove interefting to fcience, if they hould not be productive of any immediate utility in arts.

Some of the funguses are fo acrid, that a drop of their juice blifters the tongue; others intoxicate those who eat them. The Oftiachs in Siberia ufe them for the latter purpofe; one fungus, of the fpecies agaricus mufcarum, eaten raw, or the decoction of three of them, produces intoxication for 12 or 16 hours.-As all acrid plants become less fo if expofed to a boiling heat, it is probable the common mushroom may fometimes difagree from being not fufficiently ftewed. The Oftiachs blifter their fkin by a fungus found on birch trees, and use the officinal agaricus for foap.'

She

She flies, fhe ftops,-fhe pants,-fhe looks behind,
And hears a demon howl in every wind.

-As the bleak blaft unfurls her fluttering veft,
Cold beats the fnow upon her fhuddering breaft;
Through her numb'd limbs the chill fenfations dart,
And the keen ice-bolt trembles at her heart.
"I fink, I fall! oh, help me, help!"-fhe cries,
Her ftiffening tongue the unfinish'd found denies;
Tear after tear adown her cheek fucceeds,
And pearls of ice beftrew the glistering meads;
Congealing fnows her lingering feet furround,
Arrest her flight, and root her to the ground;
With fuppliant arms fhe pours the filent prayer,
Her fuppliant arms hang cryftal in the air;
Pellucid films her fhivering neck o'erfpread,
Seal her mute lips, and filver o'er her head,
Veil her pale bofom, glaze her lifted hands,
And shrined in ice the beauteous ftatue ftands.'-

The reader will, by this time, have obferved, that though the Loves of the Plants be the ground-work of the poem, a great variety of collateral poetic ornaments very naturally branch out; and we shall give a fpecimen of one or two of those that can be the best detached from the fubjects that gave rife to them

Fair CISTA,

IV.

Warm with new life, the glittering throngs,
On quivering fin, and ruffling wing,

Delighted join their votive fongs,

And hail thee, goddess of the Spring."

The account of a medicinal plant introduces Hygeia,-Contagion,-BENEVOLENCE,-and an Encomium on Mr. Howard,

as juft as it is poetic:

From realm to realm, with crofs or crefcent crown'd,
Where'er Mankind and Misery are found,

O'er burning fands, deep waves, or wilds of fnow,
Thy HowARD journeying feeks the house of woe.
Down many a winding ftep to dungeons dank,
Where anguish wails aloud, and fetters clank;
To caves beftrewed with many a mouldering bone,
And cells, whofe echoes only learn to groan;
Where no kind bars a whispering friend disclose,
No funbeam enters, and no zephyr blows,
HE treads, inemulous of fame or wealth,
Profufe of toil, and prodigal of health;
With foft affuafive eloquence expands

Power's rigid heart, and opes his clenching hands;
Leads ftern-ey'd Justice to the dark domains,
If not to fever, to relax the chains;

Or guides awaken'd Mercy through the gloom,
And fhews the prifon, fifter to the tomb!-
Gives to her babes the felf-devoted wife,
To her fond husband liberty and life!-

Difeafe and Death retire,

And murmuring Demons hate him, and admire."

The circumftance of Caffia trufting her tawny children to the floods,' and of the fruits of fome other American, trees being conveyed by currents to the coafts of Norway, frequently in fo recent a ftate as to vegetate, produces, by way of fimile, a highly pathetic episode of the prefervation of Mofes, in the cradle of Lotus leaves, on the Nile. But the poet does not stop at the prefervation of the infant ;-he sketches out, in glowing colours, the first great act of the adult;

majeftic from his lone abode,
Embaffador of Heaven, the prophet trod;

Wrench'd the red fcourge from proud OPPRESSION's hands,
And broke, curft SLAVERY! thy iron bands.'

It is not to be expected that the warm imagination, and the benevolent heart, of our philofophic poet, could quit this idea without fome animated touches on the prefent flavery of the Africans; which he concludes with an addrefs to the British fenate :

Ye bands of Senators! whofe fuffrage sways
Britannia's realms,-whom either Ind obeys ;-
Who right the injur'd, and reward the brave;
Stretch your ftrong arm, for ye have power to fave!
Stern Confcience

With ftill fmall voice the plots of GUILT alarms,
Lights his dark mind, his lifted hand difarms;
But wrap'd in night with terrors all his own,
He fpeaks in thunder when the deed is done.
Hear him, ye Senates! hear this truth fublime,

"HE, WHO ALLOWS OPPRESSION, SHARES THE CRIME."

The

The poem is divided into four Cantos, and between them are profe interludes, in the form of dialogues betwixt the poet and his bookfeller; in which various literary fubjects are critically dif cuffed, and placed in a new and, we think, a juft light; fuch as, the effential differerence between poetry and profe; the degree of analogy requifite in fimiles; the relationship between poetry and painting; the fuitableness of allegoric figures for the former, and their unfuitablenefs for the latter; an affinity between poetry and mufic, refpecting their measure or time; fome advantages of the English language for poetical compofition, above those of Rome or Greece, &c. &c. But we have already made fuch large extracts from the poem itself, that our limits will not admit of any more particular account, either of the interludes, or of the notes; and we shall only add, that the notes have great merit, and that science is not lefs indebted to the philofopher, than claffic tafte is to the poet. Ch

ART. XIV. Bell's Claffical Arrangement of Fugitive Poetry. The first Three Vols. 12mo. 9s. fewed *. Bell. 1789.

our Review for Auguft 1788, we paid a juft tribute of ap

INrou Ron to Mr. Bell's edition of Shakespeare, and now we

have before us another fpecimen of the elegant productions of the prefs, under his direction.

The plan of this new undertaking is, to give to the public a felection of detached pieces of English poetry of acknowleged merit, formerly printed feparately, or in prior collections; and here republifhed, under a claffical arrangement:' a circumftance that will, probably, for the most obvious reasons, recommend the undertaking to moft of its readers. Dodsley's Mifcellany, and others of the kind, will, no doubt, contribute much toward the accomplishment of this defign. The three volumes already published, which are more beautiful than bulky, contain the claffes of Ethic Epiftles,'- Epiftles Familiar and Humorous,' and Epiftles Critical and Didactic.' The periods of publication are monthly. The firft volume appeared in February laft, and the whole collection, as we gather from the advertisements on the covers, will be comprised in about twenty volumes, at 3s. each.

The collector (as far as we can venture to pronounce, from the volumes before us) has manifefted no deficiency of taste, either in the choice of his fubjects, or in respect of the merit of thofe pieces that he has felected: but as tafte has no fandard, we muft leave the public to judge for themselves on this point.

In the ift volume (containing the Ethic Epiftles) we diftinguish Soame Jenyns's Effay on Virtue,-Melmoth's Poem on

• About 180 pages

in each volume. Z 4

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