E'er lingering winter wings his flight The coming hour, whose mild control Breathe softly now, ye gentle airs! Come ye, to whom her haunts are known, The joy that nature freely gives, Andromeda polifolia. Marsh Cistus. Wild Rosemary. Decandria Monogynia. Calyx with five divisions. Blossom more or less egg-shaped. Mouth five-cleft. Capsules five-celled. Seeds few. Umbel of few flowers, terminating. Blossom nodding. Leaves alternate, strap spear-shaped, edges rolled back.Withering. LINNÆUS NAMING THE ANDROMEDA. THE Swedish sage admires, in yonder bowers, CAMPBELL. IT is interesting to trace the steps of a genius like Linnæus, going over completely new ground, in the wide field of natural history; classing and naming birds, beasts, insects, and flowers, oftentimes according to a system which his own ingenuity and penetration had devised to supply the deficiencies of former naturalists An accurate examination of the minuter parts of the object under his consideration, frequently enables him to arrive at a juster conclusion, as to the order or genus to which it belongs, than others who had preceded him; and sometimes, after having with indefatigable industry ascertained these points, he indulges himself in combining with his new discovery associations of friendship, or of historical or classical allusion. We cannot give a more striking instance of this, than in the Andromeda polifolia. In traversing the uncultivated wilds of Lycksele Lapland, whither, while yet a young man, he was sent by the Royal Society of the uni versity of Upsal, on a tour of scientific research, he found this plant in great abundance, decorating the marshy grounds with its delicate blossoms. It is a beautiful little flower, somewhat resembling one of the heaths (Erica daboecia.) The buds are of a blood-red colour before they expand, but, when fully blown, the 18 THE HOROLOGE OF THE fields. Sweet may resound each silver bell, And never quick returning chime, Of hours mispent, and murder'd time. Though fortune, Emily, deny To us these splendid works of art, In every copse and sheltered dell, Are faithful monitors, who tell How pass the hours and seasons by. The green-robed children of the spring Mark where transparent waters glide, But conscious of the earliest beam, Till the bright day-star to the west She slumbers in the rocking wave. |