it is the most full and complete account of the war in India, that we have feen. We are forry that we cannot praise it for its impartiality. The author feems to have adopted the prejudices and antipathies of those with whom he converfed, and from whom he copied. We perceive, in more than one in-, stance, that praife is cautioufly fuppreffed, and we have been informed, that the difputes and errors of the council have been greatly exaggerated. Even in the field, as we have hinted, Mr. Munro has his heroes whom he raises, and others whom he depreffes; but the period of party must pafs away before we have an history of the war, not only full and complete, but well digefted alfo and impartial. Our author's. language is on the whole correct, animated, and clear; his plans are valuable, and his reprefentation of Port Louis, in the island of Mauritius, picturefque and pleafing; we could have wished that he had added a map of the peninfula, for we could not always follow his description, without the chart of major Rennel.

The Botanic Garden.

of the Part II. Containing The Loves Plants, a Poem, with Philofophical Notes. Volume the Second. 4to. 125. in Boards. Johnfon.

EV

VERY paftoral writer has diverfified his fields with the daily and violet; has adorned his ruftic cottages with jafmine and woodbine, or blended in his landfcape the varied hues of the afh and the beech, the chefnut and the oak. It was referved for our author to defcribe, in elegant and flowing language, the minuter parts and more philofophical distinctions of botany, and even to adorn his poems with characteristic descriptions, which, in the uncouth language of Linnæus, are harsh and unpleafing. The fexual fyftem has afforded him the hint, which he has expanded with genius and diligence: each plant has its loves; each flamen is a husband; each pistil a wife; and each flower a house. From the peculiarities of different flowers, therefore, arise the various defcriptions in this volume, whofe elegant and finished poetry is only equalled by the accuracy of the botanical obfervations. One inconvenience has, however, arisen from the author having chofen the most curious peculiarities, and from the little unavoidable obfcurity of poetical language. When we read the poem, almoft the whole, even to a botanist, is at first ænigmatical, and to the lefs learned reader, appears to be a ftring of riddles, whofe folution is to be found in the notes. But we can venture to affure the reader, that if the perusal be at firft attended with a little difficulty, he will be amply repaid by the pleasure which he will reap from his future examinations;

and

and if, from this poem he attends only to fome of the common flowers of a common garden, his views of nature will be greatly extended, many cheerlefs moments will be filled with the most rational entertainment, and what at first began in amusement, may terminate in fcientific acquifition. Our author is no common guide in this refpect, and his notes contain a more judicious felection, and a better connected view of the arguments in favour of the fexual fyftem, than any one work that we have yet feen. The economy of vegetation, and the phyfiology of plants, form the first volume; but this didactic poem is deferred till another year, to afford time for the repetition of fome experiments.

In the preface an outline of the fexual fyftem, fo far as it may enable the reader to understand the defcriptions, is given; and in the proem, written in a whimsical style, is a good contraft between the Loves of the Plants and the Metamorphofes of Ovid. The Roman poet tranfmuted men, women, and even gods and goddeffes into trees and flowers; our author has undertaken, by a fimilar art, to restore some of them to their original animality.' They are, he fays, like little pictures, fufpended over the chimney of a lady's dreffing-room, conne&ed only by a flight feftoon of ribbands,' which may amufe, though we are not acquainted with the originals. But we must now turn to the poem.

The introduction is fingularly happy, and truly correct, except in one fingle inftance, which we have marked., The glittering of the glow-worm is, we believe, only confpicuous in its exertions, and he is here directed to be ftill and attentive, when he probably would not glitter. In the fubfequent lines, indeed, the fpider is told to defcend, and the fnail to flide; but these are brought from a distance.-Suppose he had said:

Come glittering glow-worms from your moffy beds.'

We should however have tranfcribed the lines before we had the prefumption to have endeavoured to amend them:

Defcend, ye hovering Sylphs! ærial Quires,
And fweep with little hands your filver lyres;
With fairy foot-fleps print your graffy rings,
Ye Gnomes! accordant to the tinkling ftrings;
While in foft notes I tune to oaten reed

Gay hopes, and amorous forrows of the mead.-
From giant Oaks, that wave their branches dark,
To the dwarf Mofs, that clings upon their bark,
What Beaux and Beauties croud the gaudy groves,
And woo and win their vegetable Loves.
How Snow-drops cold, and blue-eyed Harebels blend
Their tender tears, as o'er the ftream they bend;

The

The love-fick Violet, and the Primrofe pale
Bow their sweet heads, and whisper to the gale;
With fecret fighs the Virgin Lily droops,
And jealous Cowflips hang their tawny cups.
How the young Rofe in beauty's damask pride
Drinks the warm blushes of his bashful bride;
With honey'd lips enamour'd Woodbines meet,
Clafp with fond arms, and mix their kifles sweet.-

Stay thy foft-murmuring waters, gentle Rill;
Hufh, whispering Winds, ye rustling Leaves, be ftill;
Reit, filver Butterflies, your quivering wings;
Alight, ye Beetles, from your airy rings;
Ye painted Moths, your gold-eyed plumage furl,
Bow your wide horns, your fpiral trunks uncurl;
Glitter, ye Glow-worms, on your molly beds;
Defcend, ye Spiders, on your lengthen'd threads;
Slide here, ye horned Snails, with varnish'd fhells;
Ye Bee-nymphs, liften in your waxen cells!'—

The peculiarities of this poem confift not only in the easy and often elegant style in which the different defcriptions are conveyed, but in the vaft variety of uncommon facts introduced, and the address with which the different ornaments (the adventitious defcriptions) are conducted. It is by this clue that we fhall be led in our choice of extracts, for it is not easy to give, in a fhort compafs, an adequate idea of this beautiful poem, unlefs we follow fome general plan, fince the author feems not to have adopted any particular, at leaft any apparent defign. The lychnis is a common plant in our hedges, and of no extraordinary beauty; yet it is extremely beautiful in our author's hands: Five fifter-nymphs to join Diana's train

With thee, fair LYCHNIS! vow,-but vow in vain ;

Beneath one roof refides the virgin band,

Flies the fond fwain, and scorns his offer'd hand;
But when foft hours on breezy pinions move,

And filing May attunes her lute to love,

Each wanton beauty, trick'd in all her grace,

Shakes the bright dew-drops from her blushing face;
In gay undress displays her rival charms,

And calls her wondering lovers to her arms.'

The fun-flower, for inftance, we all have feen; though we never faw it in greater perfection than in our author's defcription:

Ten males and five females. The flowers, which contain the five females, and those which contain the ten males, are found on different plants; and often at a great distance from each other. Five of the ten males arrive at their maturity fome days before the other five, as may be feen by opening the corol before it naturally expands itfelf. When the females arrive at their maturity, they rife above the petals, as if looking abroad for their distant husbands, the fcarlet ones contribute`much to the beauty of our meadows in May and June.'

• Great

• Great HELIANTHUS guides o'er twilight plains
In gay folemnity his Dervice-trains :

Marth It'd in fives each gaudy band proceeds,
Each gaudy band a plumed Lady leads +;
With zealous ftep he climbs the upland lawn,
And bows n homage to the rising dawn;
Imbibes with eagle-eye the golden ray,
And watches, as it moves, the orb of day.'

Once more; the honeysuckle :

Fair LONICERA treads the dewy lawn,
And decks with brighter blush the vermil dawn;
Winds round the fhadowy rocks, and pancied vales,
And (cents with fweeter breath the fummer gales;
With artless grace and native ease the charms,
And bears the Horn of Plenty in her arms.
Five rival Swains their tender cares unfold,

And watch with eye afkance the treasured gold.'

We have found no little difficulty in felecting a paffage which will give a proper idea of our author's interefting digreffions, hot because any were exceptionable, but because they were in general too long. The following, after fome care, we have preferred: the lines are beautiful; and the transition is not obvious or expected. There are however fome others, that are too extensive, which we think more wildly poetical, and more ftrikingly picturefque :

• Where vast Ontario rolls his brineless tides,
And feeds the tracklefs forests on his fides,

Fair CASSIA § trembling hears the howling woods,
And trufts her tawny children to the floods.→

Cinctured

Sun-flower. The numerous florets, which conftitute the disk of this flower, contain in each five males furrounding one female, the five ftamens have their anthers connected at top, whence the name of the class "confederate males." The fan-flower follows the course of the fun by nutation, not by twisting its ftem. (Hales Veg. Stat.) Other plants, when they are confined in a room, turn the fhining furface of their leaves, and bend their whole branches to the light. See Mimofa.'

+ The feeds of many plants of this clafs are furnished with a plume, by which admirable mechanism they are diffeminated by the winds far from their parent stem, and look like a fhuttlecock, as they fly.'

Caprifolium. Honeyfuckie. Five males, one female. Nature has in many flowers used a wonderful apparatus to guard the nectary, or honey-gland, from infects. In the honey-fuckle the petal terminates in a long tube like a cornucopiæ, or horn of plenty; and the honey is produced at the bottom of it.'

Ten males, one female. The feeds are black, the stamens goldcolour. This is one of the American fruits, which are annually thrown on the coafts of Norway; and are frequently in fo recent a ftate as to vegetate, when properly taken care of, the fruit of the anacardium, cashewnut; of cucurbita lagenaria, bottlegourd; of the mimofa fcandens, co

coons;

Cinctured with gold while ten fond brothers ftand,
And guard the beauty on her native land,
Soft breathes the gale, the current gently moves,
And bears to Norway's coafts her infant-loves.
-So the fad mother at the noon of night
From bloody Memphis ftole her filent flight;
Wrap'd her dear babe beneath her folded veft,
And clafp'd the treasure to her throbbing breaft,
With foothing whispers hufhed its feeble crv,
Preffed the foft kifs, and breathed the fecret figh,
-With dauntlefs ftep fle feeks the winding fore,
Hears unappall'd the glimmering torrents roars
With Paper-flags a floating cradle weaves,
And hides the fimiling boy in Lotus-leaves;
Gives her white bofom to his eager lips,
The falt tears mingling with the milk he fips;
Waits on the reed-crown'd brink with pious guile,
And trufts the fcaly monsters of the Nile.-
-Erewhile majestic from his lone abode,
Emballador of Heaven, the Prophet trod;
Wrench'd the red Scourge from proud Oppreffion's
hands,

And broke, curft Slavery! thy iron bands.'

The following, our last extract, is exquifitely beautiful; and we have selected it not only on account of the admirable defcription; but to fay, that the chundali borrum is beautiful only by our author's drefling it. It is a papilionaceous flower of a yellow dusky hue:

When from his golden urn the Solstice pours
O'er Afric's fable fons the fultry hours;
When not a gale flits o'er her tawny hills,
Save where the dry Harmattan breathes and kills;
When ftretch'd in duft her gasping panthers lie,
And writh'd in foamy folds her ferpents die;
Indignant Atlas mourns his leaflefs woods,
And Gambia trembles for his finking floods;
Contagion ftalks along the briny fand,
And Occan rolls his fickening fhoals to land.
-Fair CHUNDA fmiles amid the burning waste,
Her brow unturban'd, and her zone unbrac'd;

Ten

coons; of the pifcidia erythrina, logwood-tree, and cocoa-nuts are enumerated by Dr. Tonning. (Aman. acad. 149) amongit thefe emigrant feeds. The fact is truly wonderful, and cannot be accounted for but by the existence of under currents in the depths of the ocean; or from vortexes of water paffing from one country to another through caverns of the earth.'

Chundali Borrum is the name, which the natives give to this plant; it is the Hedyfarum movens, or moving plant; its clafs is two brother

hoods