OCEANIC DISPERSAL OF PLANTS. 301 



Comparatively fresh seeds of Ccesalpinia bondncella and of Ccesalpinia bonduc were 

 tried at Kew, to see whether they would float in salt water, and the former floated, while 

 the latter sank. Older seeds of the two species were tried with the same result, though 

 the seeds of Ccesalpinia bonduc settled down very slowly, and might perhaps float on 

 water of the specific gravity of the Atlantic. Whether the very light pod retains the 

 seeds for any length of time after immersion in water we have been unable to ascertain. 



Cassia fistula, Linn. 



Cassia fistula, Linn., Amoen. Acad., viii. p. 3 ; Benth. in Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond., xxvii. p. 514 ; Oliver, 

 Fl. Trop. Afr., ii. p. 270, in nota, sub. Cassia sieberiana ; Griseb., Fl. Brit. W. Ind., p. 206. . 



Sea-shore at Palisadoes Plantation, Jamaica. 



This is one of the seeds, already alluded to, recorded by Linnaeus as having been 

 thrown up on the coast of Norway in a living condition ; and Professor Martins (Bull. 

 Soc. Bot. France, iv. p. 326) states that he had seen seeds which were cast ashore in the 

 south of France germinate perfectly. In the latter case the seeds were still in the pod, 

 and most likely this is usually the case, for the pod is indehiscent and breaks up very 

 tardily. This pod is cylindrical, and from one to two feet long, with numerous seeds 

 separated from each other by transverse partitions. Cassia Jistida is now very widely 

 diffused in warm countries, both in a wild and cultivated state ; but it doubtless owes its 

 present wide area to man rather than any other agency. Bentham treats it as indigenous 

 in Asia, and as possibly so in Africa. 



Dimorphandra mora, Benth. 



Dimorphandra mora, Benth. in Benth. et Hook, f., Gen. Plant., i. p. 588. 



Mora excelsa, Benth. in Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond., xviii. t. 16 ; Griseb., Fl. Brit. W. Ind., p. 216. 



Sea-shore at Palisadoes Plantation, Jamaica. 



This is one of the finest and commonest forest trees of British Guiana, and it has also 

 been collected in Trinidad ; but it is unknown from elsewhere. Only an empty pod was 

 stranded in Jamaica. The seed of Dimorphandra mora is one of the largest of the 

 dicotyledonous class, and its embryo is one of the largest in the vegetable kingdom, being 

 sometimes as much as four and a half inches across the broadest part, in striking contrast 

 to the small embryo of such large monocotyledonous seeds as the cocoa-nut. But this is 

 far surpassed by an undescribed 1 species in the Kew Herbarium, collected by Sutton 

 Hayes in the swamps of the Rio Grande, Panama. An embryo of this, preserved in spirit, 

 and therefore perhaps a little swollen, measures fourteen inches round, and six and a half 

 inches across in the widest part, This is probably the largest embryo in the vegetable 

 kingdom. 



^Dimorphandra oleifera, Triana MSS. in" Herb. Kew. 5 f Dimorphandras mora] affinis, a 1 qua differt 

 foliolis bijugis oblongo-lanceolatis longe acuminatis, spicis lateralibus subsolitariis, legumine semineque multo 

 majori. 



