OF THE GEEMINATION OF SEEDS. 135 



table rubbish off estuaries, I assumed that plants, with ripe seeds, 

 washed into the sea by rivers, landslips, &c, might be drifted 

 by sea-currents during a period of some weeks. The closing of the 

 capsules, pods, and heads of the Composite, Ac, when wetted, and 

 their re-opening when cast on shore and dried, the seeds being 

 thus allowed to be driven inland by the first stormy winds, seemed 

 to favour such means of transport. But in putting 34 plants of 

 different orders, with ripe fruit, into salt water, one alone, the 

 Euonymus, floated for a month, being buoyed up by its fruit ; the 

 others all sunk in 21 days, some in 5, and several in 7, 9, and 11 

 days. But I am not sure that I have made the trial fairly, for I 

 kept the floating plants in too warm and dark a place, which 

 might have favoured their decay. Finally I may remark, that the 

 seeds of very few species are, as far as we yet know, all killed by 

 10 days' immersion, — that some plants will float for this period, — 

 that the average rate of the ten currents in the Atlantic Ocean, 

 given in Johnston's " Physical Atlas," is 33 miles per diem (the 

 main Equatorial current running at the rate of 60 miles, and the 

 Cape Stream at 80 miles per diem) ; and therefore I conclude, 

 under the existing extremely scanty materials for forming any 

 opinion, that some plants might under favourable conditions be 

 transported over arms of the sea 300 or even more miles in breadth ; 

 and if cast on the shore of an island not well stocked with species, 

 might become naturalized. 



In the following list, to save repetition, I have marked the 

 plants tried by Mr. Berkeley, and which germinated after a 

 month's immersion, with f ; when they did not germinate, this is 

 expressly stated. The " cold water " refers to the seeds placed in 

 salt water in the tank with snow. 



I have arranged the families in accordance with Lindley's 

 "Vegetable Kingdom." 



EKDOGEJSTS. 



(GrEAMINE^.) 



Avena (common oats) : after 85 days' immersion germinated 

 excellently ; after 100 days some germinated ; after 120 days 

 some half-germinated. 



Hordeum (common barley) : germinated well after 28 days, but 

 none after 42 days ; in the cold water well after 30 days(f). 



"fTriticum (wheat). , 



Phalaris Ccmariensis : after 70 days nearly all germinated ; in 



