warmth*, he inclines his {hell, by tilting it againft the wall* to
colleft and admit every feeble ray.
Pitiable feems the condition of this poor embarraffed reptile.:
to be cafed in a fuit of ponderous armour, which he cannot lay
afide; to be imprifoned, as it were, within his own Ihell, muft
preclude, we ihould fuppofe, all aftivity and difpofition for enter-
prize. Yet there is a feafon of the year (ufually the beginning of
June) when his exertions are remarkable. He'then walks on tiptoe,
and is {lining by five in the morning; and, traverfing the garden,
examines every wicket and interface in the fences, through
, which he will efcape if poffible: and often has eluded the care of
V the gardener, and wandered to fome diflantfield. Theftiotivcs
that impel him to undertake thefe rambles feem to be of the amorous
kind: his fancy then becomes intent on fexual attachments,
which tranfport-him beyond, his ufual .gravity; -and .induce hip. toforget
for a time his ordinary folemn deportment. -
• Several years ago a book was written, entitled
« them to the hor i zonin Which ..ttie authorte lhewn,.by^cuJanon, that a muchgreater
number of the rays of the fun will fall on fuch walls than on thofe which are Een-
jenjdicular.
A D b l T I O N S
O F S E L B O R N E. £19
A D D I T I O N S » L E T T E R X L I , page;,236.
O f all the propenfities ’of plants none- feem more firahge than
their different periods of blofl'oming. ’! Some produce their'flowers
in the winter, or very firft dawnings of fpring; many when the
fpring is eftablifhed; fome at midfummer, and fome not till, autumn.
When we fee the helleborus fostidus and helleborus niger
blowing at Chriftmas, the helleborus hyemalis in January, and
the helleborus viridis as foon as ever it emerges out of the ground,
we do not wonder, becaufe they are kindred plants that we expedt
Ihould keep pace the one with the other. But other congenerous
vegetables differ fo widely in their time of flowering, that we cannot
but admire. I fhall only inftance at prelent in the crocus
fativus, the vernal, and the autumnal crocus, which have fuch an
affinity, that the beft botanifts only make them varieties of the fame
genus, of which there is only one fpecies; not being able to difcern
any difference-in the corolla, or in the internal ftmdfure. Yet the
vernal crocus expands it’s flowers by the beginning of March at far-
theft, and often in very rigorous weather; and cannot be retarded
but by fome violence offered while the autumnal (the Saffron)
defies the influence of the fpring and fummer, and will not blow
till moft plants begin to fade and run to feed. This circumftance
is one of the wonders of the creation, little noticed, becaufe a
common occurrence; yet ought not to be overlooked on account