hil. Bot. p. 87. See note on Iris in additional
notes; and Cypripedia in Vol. I.]

455 As with white teeth he prints her hand, caress'd,
And lays his velvet paw upon her breast,
O'er his round face her snowy fingers strain
The silken knots, and fit the ribbon-rein.
--And now a Swan, he spreads his plumy sails,
460 And proudly glides before the fanning gales;
Pleas'd on the flowery brink with graceful hand
She waves her floating lover to the land;
Bright shines his sinuous neck, with crimson beak
He prints fond kisses on her glowing cheek,
465 Spreads his broad wings, elates his ebon crest,
And clasps the beauty to his downy breast.

A _hundred_ virgins join a _hundred_ swains,
And fond ADONIS leads the sprightly trains;

[_Adonis_. l. 468. Many males and many females live together in the
same flower. It may seem a solecism in language, to call a flower, which
contains many of both sexes, an individual; and the more so to call a
tree or shrub an individual, which consists of so many flowers. Every
tree, indeed, ought to be considered as a family or swarm of its
respective buds; but the buds themselves seem to be individual plants;
because each has leaves or lungs appropriated to it; and the bark of the
tree is only a congeries of the roots of all these individual buds. Thus
hollow oak-trees and willows are often seen with the whole wood
decayed and gone; and yet the few remaining branches flourish with
vigour; but in respect to the male and female parts of a flower, they do
not destroy its individuality any more than the number of paps of a sow,
or the number of her cotyledons, each of which includes one of her young.

The society, called the Areoi, in the island of Otaheite, consists of
about 100 males and 100 females, who form one promiscuous marriage.]

Pair after pair, along his sacred groves
470 To Hymen's fane the bright procession moves;
Each smiling youth a myrtle garland shades,
And wreaths of roses veil the blushing maids;
Light joys on twinkling feet attend the throng,
Weave the gay dance, or raise the frolic song;
475 --Thick, as they pass, exulting Cupids fling
Promiscuous arrows from the sounding string;
On wings of gossamer soft Whispers fly,
And the sly Glance steals side-long from the eye.
--As round his shrine the gaudy circle