Arbutus

“ At Kephissia it was obligatory to dismount and hunt for the grotto of nymphs, and then talk nonsense [Pg 225] beneath its dripping rocks and curtains of maidenhair. It was even compulsory to taste of its water, and the French viscount made a gallant allusion, and quoted the inevitable line from Homer. Then on up the straight road to Tatoi, the arbutus in full fruit, and on either side exquisite varieties of shrub and leaf and winter flowers. The young ladies were eager to feed on the arbutus, and sent their escorts to gather this ethereal nourishment. ”

“ It comes before any of the flowers are even astir, when the arbutus buds are still tight little green points, when the hepaticas have scarcely pushed open their winter sheaths, while their soft little gray-furred heads are still tucked down snugly, like a bird's head under its wing. Before even the snowdrops at our feet and the maples overhead have thought of blossoming, a soft breath may blow across our path filled with this wondrous fragrance. ”

“ The other genera in this sub-tribe are quite distinct from each other, and contain several well-known plants. The most popular of these genera are Arbutus, Arctostaphylos, Gaultheria, and Clethra.
The Strawberry tree (Arbutus Unedo) has little bell-shaped flowers, contracted at the mouth, and with a curling-back limb, which are easily recognised as belonging to the Ericaceæ. They have ten stamens, the filaments of which are hairy at the base (see a in fig. 55) and Fig. 55.—Fruit &c. of Arbutus Unedo. inserted in the disk; which in this genus is large, and rises up round the ovary (see b) . ”

“ From the west the ascent is a mild, upward path over a stony hill-side, and the more delectable way is on its east side, where a very steep ascent burrows among thick growing scrub of laburnum and arbutus till it reaches the toppling precipices that frown above it. ”

“ In the summer season they feed chiefly on the berries of the alpine arbutus and other shrubs and plants, which are laid bare by the thaw, and which do not disappear until they are replaced by a new crop. They incubate about the beginning of June, at which time the females moult. The males assume their red-colored plumage as soon as the rocks and eminences become bare, at which time they are in the habit of standing upon large stones, calling in a loud and croaking voice to their mates, which, still in their white wintry garb, are hidden in the snows below. ”

“ Every rocky hillside on which the Trailing Arbutus is frequently found, swarms with ants which are debarred from the blossoms by hairs which project upward from the inner surfaces of the corolla and the outer surfaces of the ovary and style and effectually prevent the ants from entering but are not sufficiently rigid to keep out the larger insects.
As a rule, the pollen bearing flowers are larger and whiter than the others. The stigma bearing blossoms, while small, more than offset their defect by a rosy color which makes the flowers far more attractive than their larger but paler rivals. ”

“ Alaternus is only useful for feeding sheep; for it is always leafy. Hybrid arbutus is used for making stakes and for burning: holly and Judas-tree [12] for walking-sticks; some also use bay for these; for of this [13] they make light sticks and sticks for old men. Willow is used for shields hampers baskets and the like. ”

“ Pope's essay on critiscism, was plundered from Vida—Gays pastoral lucubrations, were built upon Spencer, and Brown's Britania's-pastorals, published in the year 1613—and Arbuthnot could never be eminent in surgery, since he never study'd at Paris or Leyden; for in Scotland, he could learn nothing, but to cure the itch. So Fossile appears as the principal character in this ludicrous drama: He gain'd that title tis said, by asking a man digging in a gravel-pit—if he ever met with any Fossils? ”

“ The periproct is covered by four valve-like plates. The ambulacral pore-plates are separate near the periproct, but near the peristome unite on the "Arbacioid" pattern (v. p. 531) to form secondary plates. The interambulacral plates each carry several spines. No representatives of this remarkable family are known in British waters, but Arbacia is found both on the east coast of North America and in the Mediterranean. It is distinguished by its conical test. All the upper tube-feet are devoid of a sucker; only those on the oral surface are used for locomotion. ”

“ I glory in the fertility of my invention the more, that it is beyond the imagination of a pagan deity. Besides, it is form'd upon the vraysemblance; for I know you had a mummy and a crocodile to be brought home.
Fos. Dr. Nautilus is an infirm tender gentleman; I wish the sudden concussion of his animal spirits may not kindle him into a fever. I myself, I must confess, have an extreme palpitation.
Clink. Dear uncle, be pacified. We are both of us the votaries of our great master Appollo. To you he has assign'd the art of healing: Me he has taught to sing ”

“ Arbuscula, or the Prolific Tree Cholla, grows from three to eight feet tall and has a short stout trunk three to six inches in diameter. There are several branches which are intricately arranged, forming a rounded head from six to ten feet across; the gray-brown bark is coarse and fissured. The branch-joints are from two to ten inches long or longer, and are bright green. The light brownish spicules form as a small tuft. Usually only one or two spines are present, sometimes none at all, less than two inches long when they occur, bent, slender, needlelike, and a dull straw or brown. ”

“ His final experiment was to place the Abrus in a bookcase in such a position that the sun shone full upon it; when the leaves were fully expanded he closed the doors and found that in an hour "The lobes were all drop't, and it was in the same state that it would have shewn at midnight. ”

“ At a place where coral mushrooms reared fantastic shapes out of the still waters of the lagoon, they cried a halt and, sitting side by side in the sand, Mr. Mumpus "by request" boomed the fine, round notes of his clarionet into the night, while the elf listened enthralled. She had never met such a man. ”

“ Soon hands would be stretched out to them—the welcoming hands of the men and women of their own land.
So Orpheus sang, and his voice and the music of his lyre prevailed above the Sirens' voices. Men dropped their oars, but other men remained at their benches, and pulled steadily, if wearily, on. Only one of the Argonauts, Butes, a youth of Iolcus, threw himself into the water and swam toward the rocks from which the Sirens sang. ”

“ The elf's hand shot out and caught him by the ankle, spilling him to the ground, and a wild-cat, not an elf, was on his shoulders, raining blow after blow with a coral rock upon his head.
He did not move. The elf stood back panting, and viewed her handiwork. Still he did not move. Then she turned and ran, blindly, madly along the beach, a flitting figure in the moonlight that dwindled, and faded, and was lost amongst the palm groves.
And Mr. Mumpus finished his favourite serenade, and looked about him. The elf was gone. The spell was broken ... ”

“ Albertus was troubled by many subtle problems connected with the souls of plants, such questions, for instance, as whether in the case of the material union of two individuals, such as the ivy and its supporting tree, their souls also united. Like Theophrastus, and other early writers, Albertus held the theory that species were mutable, and illustrated this view by pointing out that cultivated plants might run wild and become degenerate, while wild plants might be domesticated. ”

“ Blue Rock Cress, Aubrietia.—Dwarf Alpine plants, with purplish flowers, quite distinct in aspect and hue from anything else grown in our gardens, and never perishing from any cause, except being overrun by coarser subjects. They are admirable for association with the Alyssums and Arabises in any position where the vegetation is very dwarf, or in rocky bare places. There are several species and varieties, all almost equally suitable, but not differing much in aspect or stature from each other. The Aubrietias come chiefly from the mountains of Greece, Asia Minor, and neighbouring countries. ”

“ Certainly nowhere else is the relative proportion of albinos so great as amongst the Monbuttus, who are otherwise distinguished by their long and somewhat slender extremities, muscular frames, and marvellous agility. Faithful to their ancestral customs, all the men wear a dress made from the bark of the fig-tree, to which time imparts a glossy appearance, and which is wound in graceful folds round the legs and body and fastened to the waist by ox-hide thongs ornamented with copper. ”

“ The Ribhus, or Arbhus, again, were the sunbeams or the lightning, who forged the armour of the Gods, and made their thunder-bolts, and turned old people young, and restored out of the hide alone the slaughtered cow on which the Gods had feasted. ”

“ In the Abrus they are large, and of a lax composition; consequently the lobes are capable of a drooping, an horizontal, and an oblique upward position: in the Tamarind, and the broad-leaved Robinia, they are more compact, and hence all the motion of which those leaves are capable, is an expanding open and a closing sideways; which the direction and course of the fibres also favours: in the Parkinsonia they are smaller, and yet more compact; and the consequence of this is, that its lobes have no farther possible motion, than the expanding upwards. ”

“ The figure was draped with spangled black gauze, through which the girl’s marble white limbs gleamed like ivory seen through gauze of gossamer transparency. She rose from her crouching posture like a wood nymph startled by a satyr, glanced from one side to the other, and stepped timidly forth to the table. ”

“ For, as has just been shown, a longer continuance of the helical mode of growth in which Orbitolites often commences, would really produce an Orbiculina, with its centre so invested by successive whorls as to form a vertical linear axis; and we find this axis in Orbiculina, sometimes equalling in length the diameter of the spire, so that this organism at an early stage of its growth may be nearly spheroidal. ”

“ I am indebted to Privy Councillor Lichtenstein of Berlin for the opportunity of examining several specimens of Urubus from different parts of South America and from Mexico; and I am now convinced that they, together with the Brazilian, form a species which is distinct from the North American. The male of the southern red-headed Urubu (C. aura) is smaller, more uniformly dark, with stronger metallic gloss, and with less brightly-rounded wing feathers than the northern. In the Brazilian bird the iris is bright red, and in the mature bird the head is sky blue and orange. ”

“ He is just come from the very place. Mr. Oliver Ubertus, your humble and devoted subject—ahem!—and hopes your Majesty will be merciful to him, and not cut his head off this time.'
'That will be as he deserves,' replied the King. 'Come forward thou, Oliver U. Burstus, if that is thy name, and tell our Court what thou knowest of that strange land. Keep away from him, Doctor Julius; thou wilt prompt him; we know thy tricks and magic arts. ”

“ Again, I have shown (2nd series) that a parallel variation is displayed by the genus Orbiculina, whose ordinarily helical plan of growth has caused M. D'Orbigny to range it among his Helicostègues, notwithstanding that in fully developed specimens its mode of growth is not unfrequently cyclical. The occasional exchange in this type of one plan of increase for the other, at an advanced period of life, is a fact of very high interest; for when an Orbiculina has undergone this change, the outer or cyclical portion of its disk can in no way be distinguished from that of Orbitolites ”

“ The people, maddened by the sight, hastily sought their arms, and while some guarded the gates, that none might carry the news to the king, the others followed Brutus to Rome. Here the story of the wickedness of Sextus and the self-sacrifice of Lucretia ran through the city like wildfire, and a multitude gathered in the Forum, where Brutus addressed them in fervent words. ”

“ Soon after, naming severally all his friends that had been slain before his face in the battle, he groaned heavily, especially at the mentioning of Flavius and Labeo, the latter his lieutenant, and the other chief officer of his engineers. In the meantime, one of his companions, that was very thirsty and saw Brutus in the same condition, took his helmet and ran to the brook for water, when, a noise being heard from the other side of the river, Volumnius, taking Dardanus, Brutus's armor-bearer, with him, went out to see what it was. ”

“ Hence the idea of the derivation of Orbitolites and Orbiculina from the same original must be admitted to be scarcely less probable than that of the derivation of the helical and the cyclical forms of Orbiculina, or of the simple and complex types of Orbitolites, from a common parentage.
Let us now apply the same mode of inquiry to Alveolina. I have shown (2nd series) that this organism is closely allied in every other respect than its geometrical plan of growth to the types we have just been considering ”

“ Notwithstanding, therefore, the apparently wide divergence of the cyclical Orbitolites, the helical Orbiculina, the fusiform Alveolina, and the simply-chambered Peneroplis and Dendritina, these several types must be regarded as most intimately related to one another; and that relationship seems to me much more likely to have arisen from a common ancestral descent, than from the original creation of independent types, capable of graduating into each other so continuously as almost to assume each other's characters. ”