l$Z STUDIES OF NATURE. 



common in warm countries than the rofe-formed. 

 The tulip grows fpontaneoufly in the vicinity of 

 Conftantinople. To this form may like wife be 

 referred that of the liliaceous, which are more 

 common there than elfewhere. However, when 

 Nature employs them in countries flill farther to 

 the South, or in the middle of Summer, it is al- 

 moft always with negative characters ; thus, (he 

 has inverted the tulip-form flowers of the impe- 

 rial, which is originally from Perfia, and has (haded 

 them with a tuft of foliage. Thus, (he bends 

 back outwardly, in our climates, the petals of the 

 lily; but the fpecies of white lilies which grow 

 between the tropics, have, befides, their petals 

 cut out into thongs. 



Flowers with parabolic, or plane, mirrors, 

 are thofe which reflect the rays of the Sun in paral- 

 lel directions. The configuration of the firfh gives 

 much luftre to the corolla of thefe flowers, which 

 emit from their bofom, if I may be allowed the 

 expreflion, a bundle of light, for they collect it 

 toward the bottom of their corolla, and not on the 

 antherae. It is, perhaps, in order to weaken the 

 action of it, that Nature has terminated flowers of 

 this form in a fpecies of cpwl, which Botanifts 

 call fpur. It is probably in this tube that the fo- 

 cus of their parabola terminates, which is, perhaps, 

 fituated there, as in many curves of this kind, 



beyond 



