From Rumex strong our Gardener frees his ground,

Takes soft Senecio from the yielding land,

And grasps the arm’d Urtica in his hand.

Not Darwin’s self had more delight to sing

Of floral courtship, in th’ awaken’d Spring,

Than Peter Pratt, who simpering loves to tell

How rise the Stamens, as the Pistils swell;

How bend and curl the moist-top to the spouse,

And give and take the vegetable vows;

How those esteem’d of old but tips and chives,