OK THE COROLLAS OF FLOWEEl. 17$ 



round bubbles, placed in rows. If the sun falls on the 

 magnolia, when the surface is taken off, it will shine like so 

 many little stars. Sometimes the upper skin is in round 

 bladders, sometimes long; but the former produces the 

 most brilliant appearance. These thick flowers always def- 

 ray the soonest, as the little water they contain is quickly 

 evaporated. 



The everlasting in its name declares its nature. Unlike Everlastinf 

 all the rest, it retains a part of its beauty, and owes it to its 

 being coloured by a powder, instead of water, I found 

 little else in the bubbles, which are long, and have a very 

 thin pabulum. But to show, that some of our flowers may 

 owe their beauty to other contrivances beside water, I shall 

 name a plant common in the fields, which greatly adorn* 

 them, and is known by the vulgar name of butterflower, the 

 ranunculus. The petals appear to be varnished; but this 

 arises from a powder, which exactly resembles calcined 

 magnesia, and lies between the pabulum and njjper skin. 

 This is easily proved to be the cause of its shining appear- 

 ance ; for in the claw there is no white powder, nor is ther« 

 any varnish. The powder in the everlasting flowers is pro- 

 bably formed in ihe same manner, and of the same nature* 

 which will account for their not decaying: though the ra- 

 nunculus does not last, because the pabulum under th« 

 white powder is full of water, which is not the case with the 

 everlastings. 



1 shall next describe the means by which these thin trans- Manner in 

 parent flimsy bodies are sustained and strengthened, so as ^^ sup^porrSi Jt 

 to bear much pressure, and to preserve their elegant shapes strengthened, 

 often in spite of wind and rain. In describing the forma- 

 tion of leaves in a former letter, I mentioned two sorts o£ 

 vessels belonging to them, the nourishhvg and spiral vesseis ^ 

 they equally belong to the corolla, and enter it up the claw 

 of the petals, the latter forming always the middle stroke^ 

 while the noui'isinng vessels adorn each side: see PI., VI, 

 fig. 1. It is a beautiful provision of nature, that those mu*- 

 cles that serve to turn, to open and shut the flower, iu short» 

 to manage it in every way, should also be its means o^ 

 Rtrengtli ; for the spiral vesseU being in their cases very sti^ 

 and itrong, «»lten compared to a petal, certainly 9€rv« tlii» 



doublet • 



