The Botanic Garden, a Poem in Two Parts. Part 1: the Economy of VegetationDarwin, Erasmus
History
The Botanic Garden, a Poem in Two Parts. Part 1: the Economy of Vegetation
Darwin, Erasmus
Natural history; Plants -- Poetry; Portland Vase
the tropics; trade-winds gain their easterly direction from the greater
velocity of the earth's surface at the line; not supplied by superior
currents; supplied by decomposed water in the sun's great light; 1.
Because there are no constant rains in the tract of the trade-winds; 2.
Because there is no condensible vapour above three or four miles high at
the line. _Monsoons and tornadoes_; some places at the tropic become
warmer when the sun is vertical than at the line; hence the air ascends,
supplied on one side by the north-east winds, and on the other by the
south-west; whence an ascending eddy or tornado, raising water from the
sea, or sand from the desert, and incessant rains; air diminished to the
northward produces south-west winds; tornadoes from heavier air above
sinking through lighter air below, which rises through a perforation;
hence trees are thrown down in a narrow line of twenty or forty yards
broad, the sea rises like a cone, with great rain and lightning. _Land
and sea breezes_; sea less heated than land; tropical islands more
heated in the day than the sea, and are cooled more in the night.
_Conclusion_; irregular winds from other causes; only two original winds
north and south; different sounds of north-east and south-west winds; a
Bear or Dragon in the arctic circle that swallows at times and
disembogues again above one fifteenth part of the atmosphere; wind-
instruments; recapitulation.
NOTE XXXIV ... VEGETABLE PERSPIRATION.
Pure air from Dr. Priestley's vegetable matter, and from vegetable
leaves, owing to decomposition of water; the hydrogene retained by the
vegetables; plants in the shade are _tanned_ green by the sun's light;
animal skins are _tanned_ yellow by the retention of hydrogene; much
pure air from dew on a sunny morning; bleaching why sooner performed on
cotton than linen; bees wax bleached; metals calcined by decomposition
of water; oil bleached in the light becomes yellow again in the dark;
nitrous acid coloured by being exposed to the sun; vegetables perspire
more than animals, hence in the sun-shine they purify air more by their
perspiration than they injure it by their respiration; they grow fastest
in their sleep.
NOTE XXXV ... VEGETABLE PLACENTATION.
Buds the viviparous offspring of vegetables; placentation in bulbs and
seeds; placentation of buds in the roots, hence the rising of sap in the
spring, as in vines, birch, which ceases as soon as the leaves expand;
production of the leaf of Horse-chesnut, and of its new bud; oil of
vitriol on the bud of Mimosa killed the leaf also; placentation shewn
from the sweetness of the sap; no umbilical artery in vegetables.
NOTE XXXVI ... VEGETABLE CIRCULATION.
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