SMITH ON THE BOTANY OF KENT. 



255 



footsteps of its first and most revered professors." The following is an 

 example of the sentimentalism to whicli we have alluded : — 



" The newly expanded flowers of this grass (Anthoxanthumodoratum), emit a very 

 pleasant scent of sweet musk ; when dried, its stem and leaves spread the well 

 known perfume through hay. We seek in vain a purer emblem of virtue, which in 

 youth breathes a grateful incense from the eye and the voice, and pleases still in 

 age, when early beauty is faded, diffusing the sweets and senses of chaste society 

 through every class and condition." — p. 2. 



The following is still better : — 



" The plant ( Silene nutans) is humble without grace, and uses no display ; when 

 night has hidden the glories of the garden, it expands the narrow petals, and fills 

 the whole air, and every breeze with most delicious fragrance. What in darkness 

 the distant glimmering lamp, the glow-worm, the firefly, are to the eye ; what, in 

 still night, the sound of distant bells, of soft music, of flowing waters, is to the ear; 

 what, in night's solitude, the trembling footstep, the hand, the lip of a friend, is to 

 the sense of perception and touch, are flowers and fragrances, the tuberose, the 

 orchis, and the catch-fly to the sense of smelling ; and when the flowers of the 

 day are faded, the stillness and secret influence of night render sense as well as 

 imagination more vivid, and susceptible of agreeable as well as more acutely 

 impatient, and conscious of displeasing or discordant impressions." — p. 27. 



As an exemplification of one of the innumerable and wonderful con- 

 trivances of Providence, we shall quote what Mr. Smith says of the 

 butterfly orchis (Plalanthera bifolia, Richard) : — 



It is " characterised," he says, " by the anther lobes, whose foot rests upon a 

 concave, glutinous, projecting scale, upon which scale the fertilisation of the stigma 

 depends. Without these scales, the anther lobes must fall from the flower. The 

 nectar is distilled in a' tube, which opens immediately below the stigma. Early 

 in the day the treasure is robbed : — 



" 4 Through the soft air the busy nations fly, 

 Cling to the bud, and with inserted tube 

 Suck its pure essence, its ethereal soul :' 



but the eager insect, in thrusting forward its head, comes in contact with the scales, 

 the lobes are withdrawn, and decorate the robber with no light appendage ; his feet 

 are applied to remove the incumbrance, and the pollen is brushed upon the stigma. 

 This process, which compensates for the stolen nectar, is a beautiful instance of 

 provision, distinct from the provision made in other cases of the same tribe, and may 

 rank with the well known instances in the birthwort, the fig, and the barberry." — 

 p. 48. 



Mr. Smith has also given a very interesting account of the tassel 

 pond-weed (Ruppia maritima), whose fructification is not a little 

 singular : — 



