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[Illustration: FLORA at Play with CUPID.]
The general design of the following sheets is to inlist Imaginationunder the banner of Science, and to lead her votaries from the looseranalogies, which dress out the imagery of poetry, to the stricter ones,which form the ratiocination of philosophy. While their particular designis to induce the ingenious to cultivate the knowledge of BOTANY; byintroducing them to the vestibule of that delightful science, andrecommending to their attention the immortal works of the SwedishNaturalist LINNEUS.
In the first Poem, or Economy of Vegetation, the physiology of Plantsis delivered; and the operation of the Elements, as far as they may besupposed to affect the growth of Vegetables. But the publication of thispart is deferred to another year, for the purpose of repeating someexperiments on vegetation, mentioned in the notes. In the second poem, orLOVES OF THE PLANTS, which is here presented to the Reader, the SexualSystem of LINNEUS is explained, with the remarkable properties of manyparticular plants.
The author has withheld this work, (excepting a few pages) many yearsfrom the press, according to the rule of Horace, hoping to have renderedit more worthy the acceptance of the public,—but finds at length, thathe is less able, from disuse, to correct the poetry; and, from want ofleizure, to amplify the annotations.
In this second edition, the plants Amaryllis, Orchis, and Cannabis areinserted with two additional prints of flowers; some alterations are madein Gloriosa, and Tulipa; and the description of the Salt-mines in Polandis removed to the first poem on the Economy of Vegetation.
Linneus has divided the vegetable world into 24 Classes; these Classesinto about 120 Orders; these Orders contain about 2000 Families, orGenera; and these Families about 20,000 Species; besides the innumerableVarieties, which the accidents of climate or cultivation have added tothese Species.
The Classes are distinguished from each other in this ingenious system,by the number, situation, adhesion, or reciprocal proportion of the malesin each flower. The Orders, in many of these Classes, are distinguishedby the number, or other circumstances of the females. The Families, orGenera, are characterized by the analogy of all the parts of the floweror fructification. The Species are distinguished by the foliage of theplant; and the Varieties by any accidental circumstance of colour, taste,or odour; the seeds of these do not always produce plants simi