JUMPING SEEDS. 305 



one, then a second, then a third. Sometimes, the motion was con- 

 tmued (always in jerks) for some minutes ; sometimes, one or other 

 seed would remain quiet for a few seconds or minutes, or even for half 

 an hour. "W hile active, the movement was generally what sailors would 

 call fore and aft, with little or no progression : now and then, a very 

 sudden jerk would bring a seed on one of its ends, and sometimes it 

 toppled completely over, and lay on its nearly plane side. In this po- 

 sition the motion is diflFerent, being progressive, forward or backward, 

 at times so continuous in one direction that the seed fairly works its way 

 off the sheet of letter-paper on which it has been placed, and, finally, 

 off the table ! This steady direction struck us as the most remarkable 

 feature of the movement, for it seemed to indicate a degree of intention. 

 After that several scientific friends, as well as myself, had gratified 

 ourselves with this spectacle for some time, it was suggested that pos- 

 sibly an insect within the shell might be the occasion of these peristaltic 

 movements, and it was resolved to sacrifice one of the seeds. Externally, 

 indeed, there is not, even when seen under a microscope, the smallest 

 appearance of aperture or injury in the shell, no breathing-hole. With 

 a knife the shell was carefully laid open, and then appeared the cause 

 of all these strange contortions, in the form of a fine maggot, — -the larva, 

 probably, of some beetle {CurcuUo), fat and white, occupying nearly the 

 whole cavity. It bore considerable resemblance, as far as can be stated 

 without direct comparison, to the larva of CurcuUo nucam of our own 

 nuts. In all the three instances that have now been examined, the crea- 

 ture had completely eaten up the seed or kernel, and the cavity con- 

 tained nothing but the insect, lying in a curved form in the hollow of 

 the shell. It has feet, indeed, but so minute that it would not appear 

 they could be intended for walking. Its movements, if I may so say, 

 appeared muscular, never in very rapid succession, and like what we 

 see in the spring of a salmon or dolphin out of the water : and to every 

 motion of this kind, of the insect within the shell, the seed or nut re- 

 sponds. It is not so easy to account for the forward impulse in a con- 

 tumous line when the seed lies on its flatter side; but it may be due to 

 the movement of the insect, and the pressure against the shell being for 

 a time in one and the same direction, and in the form of the seed being 

 longer than broad ; and probably, in some measure, to the little ridge 

 or keel, so that, being impelled to move, it is in a continued line, like 

 that of a boat, even when influenced by a side-wind. 



VOL. VI. 



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