CUPID 



INSPIRING PLANTS WITH LOVE. 



The sexes of Plants had been suggested by Grew and Sir Thomas Millington, and this 

 doctrine was more advanced by Vaillant, but wanted confirmation by experiments, which made 

 the Imperial Academy of Petersburgh offer an handsome premium for proofs of this doctrine, 

 and occasioned Linnaeus to write a dissertation on this subject, which gained for him the 



honourable award. 



Teeming with Nature s lively hues, 

 I bid thee welcome, genial spring! 

 While fancy wakes her thousand lyres, 

 And woods and vales responsive sing. 



She comes; lo! winter scowls away; 

 Harmonious forms start forth to view, 

 Nymphs tripping light in circles gay, 

 Deck'd in their robes of virgin hue. 



Then I, on am'rous sportings bent, 



Like a sly archer take my stand; 



Wide through the world my shafts are sent; 



And ev'ry creature owns my hand. 



First man, the lord of all below, 

 A captive sinks beneath my dart; 

 And lovely woman, made to glow, 

 Yields the dominion of her heart. 



Through sea and earth and boundless sky, 

 The fond subjection all must prove, 

 Whether they swim the stream or fly, 

 Mountain or vale or forest rove. 



Nor less the Gardens sweet domain, 

 The mossy heath and verdant mead, 

 The tow'ring hill, the level plain, 

 And fields with blooming life o'erspread. 



George Dyer. 



