- Call forth thy negroes from their rushy couch:1
- And ere the sun with mid-day fervour glow,
- When every broom-bush2 opes her yellow flower; [410]
- Let thy black labourers from their toil desist:
- Nor till the broom her every petal lock,
- Let the loud bell recall them to the hoe.
- But when the jalap3 her bright tint displays,
- When the solanum4 fills her cup with dew, [415]
- And crickets, snakes, and lizards 'gin their coil;
- Let them find shelter in their cane-thatch’d huts:
- Or, if constrain’d unusual hours to toil,
- (For even the best must sometimes urge their gang)
- With double nutriment reward their pains. [420]
VER. 410. broom-bush] This small plant, which grows in every pasture, may, with propriety, be termed an American clock; for it begins every forenoon at eleven to open its yellow flowers, which about one are fully expanded, and at two closed. The jalap, or marvel of Peru, unfolds its petals between five and six in the evening, which shut again as soon as night comes on, to open again in the cool of the morning. This plant is called four o’clock by the natives, and bears either a yellow or purple-coloured flower.
VER. 415. solanum] So some authors name the fire-weed, which grows every where, and is the datura of Linnaeus;5 whose virtues Dr. Stork, at Vienna,6 has greatly extolled in a late publication. It bears a white monopetalous flower, which opens always about sun-set.
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A bed made from stiff and hollow plants. ↩︎
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Gilmore identifies the broom bush as possibly Sida acuta, a plant native to Central America with yellow flowers that open in the morning. ↩︎
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Mirabilis jalapa. Also known as the four o’clock flower because its flowers open in the afternoon. Probably native to Mexico; used by the Aztecs as an ornamental. Sometimes believed to be native to the Peruvian Andes because it was exported from that region to Europe in the 1500s. ↩︎
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Datura stramonium, also known as fireweed or jimsonweed. Probably originated in the tropical regions of Central and South America. ↩︎
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Carolus Linnaeus or Carl von Linné (1707-1778) was a Swedish naturalist who laid the foundations for modern taxonomy or the systematic classification of living organisms. He also established a system for naming organisms known as binomial nomenclature. ↩︎
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Dr. Stork was Anton von Störck (1731-1803), a physician from Vienna known for his research on poisonous plants. ↩︎