- Anon they form in ranks; nor inexpert
- A thousand tuneful intricacies weave,
- Shaking their sable limbs; and oft a kiss
- Steal from their partners; who, with neck reclin’d, [600]
- And semblant scorn, resent the ravish’d bliss.
- But let not thou the drum their mirth inspire;
- Nor vinous spirits: else, to madness fir’d,
- (What will not bacchanalian frenzy dare?)
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Fell acts of blood, and vengeance they pursue. [605]
- COMPEL by threats, or win by soothing arts,
- Thy slaves to wed their fellow slaves at home;
- So shall they not their vigorous prime destroy,
- By distant journeys, at untimely hours,
- When muffled midnight decks her raven-hair [610]
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With the white plumage of the prickly vine.1
- WOULD’ST thou from countless ails preserve thy gang;
VER. 611. prickly vine] This beautiful white rosaceous flower is as large as the crown of one’s hat, and only blows2 at midnight. The plant, which is prickly and attaches itself firmly to the sides of houses, trees, &c. produces a fruit, which some call Wythe Apple, and others with more propriety, Mountain strawberry. But though it resembles the large Chili-strawberry3 in looks and size; yet being inelegant of taste, it is seldom eaten. The botanical name is Cereus scandens minor. The rind of the fruit is here and there studded with tufts of small sharp prickles.
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Grainger refers here to the night-blooming cereus (Selenicereus grandiflorus), also sometimes known as the queen of the night because of the exquisite beauty and fragrant scent of its large, white flowers. These flowers only open after sunset. Because of this unusual property, the night-blooming cereus became a subject of much speculation and even fantasy on the part of European botanists and observers, who wondered if it could be compared to a nocturnal animal. Botanists today have realized that the flower blooms at night because the cactus’ pollinators, which include bats and moths, are nocturnal themselves. They also note the fact that the flower’s petals are opalescent and highly visible at night, especially in the moonlight, to attract these pollinators. For more on the night-blooming cereus, see a digital exhibit on “Poetic Botany” created by the New York Botanical Garden. The night-blooming cereus is native to the Bahamas, the Cayman Islands, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Haiti, Jamaica, Mexico, and Nicaragua. ↩︎
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Blooms. ↩︎
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The Chilean strawberry (Fragaria chiloensis) is native to the Pacific Northwest but was probably spread by migratory birds to Hawaii and Chile, where indigenous peoples began cultivating it thousands of years ago. In the eighteenth century, the Chilean strawberry was brought to Europe, where it was crossed with the Virginia strawberry (Fragaria virginiana) to create today’s commercial strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa). ↩︎