— end Propagation of marine Plants... 155 
the mature plants, I am induced to fuppofe that it may be a kind of 
fuppuration brought on by age, and poffibly may be itapata in 
facilitating the efcape, or difperfion, of thc feeds. jii nd 
aad plaufible remark in favour of the hypothefis is singe by the 
ifigenious author in the following words: * The pollen of any 
flower, when put into water, in a very {hort time begins to move; 
and its particles agitate themfelves in every direction, perfectly re- 
fembling the mofl lively animalcula. Their activity in this ftate 
lafts fome time; but if the leaft quantity of falt be put into the li- 
. quor, death quickly enfues, from which they never more recover. 
This inclofed mucilaginous fru&ification was therefore the only one 
which could enfure exiftence to vegetables living chiefly in id 
water, with. which their mucus is. found to be immifcible." 
the paffage. - E ti. as s alluding to ovd which Nature 
has made to proteét the impregnating body from the deleterious 
effect of faline p (which would at once deftroy the a&ive 
| „of pollen), by fixing it in a menftruum which is immifci- 
ble seis: fe ie -water. The fuppofition i is ingenious. ‘Yet i is Mr. Correa 
de Serra aware, that this very mucilage is not free from the infeétion 
of falt;—that faline particles may frequently be found upon the fur- 
faces of dried fpecimens;—that in diffe&ions under the micro- 
Ícope fimilar appearances may be difcovered, which fuddenly fhoot 
into minute cryftallizations;—and that it is owing to this faline qua- 
pS ig | "which feems intimately combined with the very texture and con- 
| of the Fuci, that they poffefs the property of an hygro- 
" M pm tape 
meter for years after they are dried * ?"—From thefe circumftances 
=. 4 am induced, from an Lobferiation. of. Mr. Lightfoot, t to atate this circumftance 
to the natural quality of. the frond, rather than to the effect of the fea-water in which it 
x» B dans author remarks, that if the Fucus Jaccharinus be foaked LI water, then 
DL A4. ; 3 dried 
T MM 
