The Flower Garden, 207 



narcotic and irritating poisons produced an effect upon vegeta- 

 bles altogether analogous to that which they produce upon 

 animals. The very valuable experiments with gases by Drs« 

 Turner and Christison, lead to the same conclusion. The phe- 

 nomena, when compared with that which was observed in the 

 instances of sulphurous and hydrochlorous acid, would appear 

 to establish, in relation to vegetable life, a distinction among the 

 poisonous gases nearly equivalent to the difference existing be- 

 tween the effects of the irritant and the narcotic poisons on ani- 

 mals. The gases which rank as irritant, in relation to animals, 

 seem to act locally on vegetables, destroying first the parts least 

 plentifully supplied with moisture. The narcotic gases, includ- 

 ing under that term those which act on the nervous system of 

 animals, destroy vegetable life by attacking it throughout its 

 whole system at once. The former probably act by abstracting 

 the moisture of the leaves ; the latter, by some unknown influ- 

 ence on their vitality. The former seem to have upon vege- 

 tables none of that sympathetic influence upon general life which 

 in animals follows so remarkably injuries inflicted by local irri- 

 tants. 



The Flower Garden. 



There the Rose unveils 

 Her breast of beauty, and each delicate bud 

 Of the season comes in turn to bloom and perish. 

 But first of all the "Violet, with an eye 

 Blue as the midnight heavens ; the frail Snowdrop, 

 Born of the breath of winter, and on his brow 

 Fixed like a pale and solitary star. 

 The languid Hyacinth, and pale Primrose 

 And Daisy, trodden down like modesty ; 

 The Foxglove, in whose drooping bells the bee 

 Makes her sweet music ; the Narcissus (named 

 From him who died for love), the tangled Woodbine, 

 Lilacs, and flowering Limes, and scented Thorns, 

 And some from the voluptuous June 



Catch their perfumings. 



