386 i Flora Unveiled
about the sex lives of prominent aristocrats.^17 Mimosa pudica (“modest mimosa”) was a
problematical phallic symbol, however, because its behavior in response to touch— folding
its leaflets and collapsing its petioles— was the opposite way a proper phallic symbol ought
to behave. Undeterred, Perry soldiered on verse after verse, straining and stretching his
metaphor to the breaking point, while propping up his narrative with copious scientific
and gossipy footnotes. The poem is addressed to a “Kitt Frederick, Duchess of Queensberry,
Elect,” although it seems likely that the name was thinly disguised, like the other names
cited in the poem.^18 The poem opens with an invocation to the Duchess:
O Thou! Who hast, so often proved
The virtues of the plant, beloved,—
That from the touch recedes.—
Assist, its magic to display;
For thou hast felt it every way,
And know’st how it suc- ceeds.In Perry’s conceit, the Mimosa with its leaflets open is like an erect phallus. Upon being
touched by the Duchess’s “lovely hand,” the erect Mimosa reaches its climax and undergoes
“a momentary death”:
Yet, not until its magic power
Titilates in every pore,
And takes away the breath;
Miller and many more relate
Its virtual qualities create
A momentary death.
Oft have you felt upon the touch,
The force of contact to be such,
“As made it poor indeed.”
The pendicles, alas give way,
It shews each emblem of decay;
And droops the sickly head.The poem soldiers on for another forty- nine verses with variations on the same sexual joke,
raising the question why such works were so popular. The fact that they were recited at all- male
clubs offers a partial explanation, and the liberal quaffing of ale and spirits no doubt lowered the
bar for hilarity. Increasing talk of women’s rights may account for the appeal of the misogynis-
tic aspects, whereas class resentment no doubt added further zest as the sex lives, both “natural”
and “unnatural,” of notable aristocrats were paraded before the gathering. At the end of the
poem, a natural meritocracy based on the size and vigor of one’s “plant” was proposed:
Search all nature’s wide domains,
And you will find she still maintains
Each thing, within its station.
Lavish and frugal in degree,