Ittflatues offufpended Jn'mation in VegtiablfS. 509 



t'tg, ^. A view of the upper jaw and palate, to (hew the teeth in their fituation. 

 Fig. 5. A fimilar view of the under jaw. 



Fig. 6. The bones which form the beak delineated, and the foft furrounding parts only 

 marked in outline. 

 ■Fig. 7. A fimilar view of the bones forming the lower portion of the beak. 



VII. 



Xnjiances of fufpended Ahimatloii in Vegetables. By Mr, JoHN GouGH. 



To, Mr. NICHOLSON.. 

 S I R, 



Kendal, Jan. 20, iSoii- 



M. 



LR. Baker and Sig. Spalanzani have cBferved and' defcribed various aquatic ani^ 

 malcula; which fuffer apparent death when deprived of water, but refume their figure and 

 all their natural funftions upon being reftored, at a future period, to their native element 

 The latter gentleman has alfo extended his enquiries, in' hopes of finding fimilar examples 

 in the vegetable kingdom,, but with little fuccefs; one or two fpecies of tremella being alL 

 the plants he difcovered anfwering his expeGations. 



Notwithftanding the great induftry of this celebrated naturalift, a plant more perfeft'in 

 its ftrufture than the gelatinous fubftances compofing the genus tremella, appears to have 

 efcaped his notice; which poflefles in a high degree the faculty of dying apparently, and: 

 reviving again, in order to accommodate itfelf to the viciffitudes of its fituation. 



The plant upon which nature, or more properly, the author of nature, has bellowed this 

 remarkable property, is the lemna minor, or common duck's meat. Some remarks which 

 I made accidentally on a pond covered with duck's meat, in the beginning of July, 1797,. 

 induced me to imagine that this little plant could hardly preferve its exiftence during a long: 

 fit of dry weather; unlefs it refembles the wheel animal, in fufFering a kind of temporary- 

 death when deprived of water;, and afterwards experiencing what may be called a refur- 

 reftion to a fecond life, upon receiving a frcfH fupply of its native fluid. , 



In order to difcover in what degree the lemna poflefles a power of accommodating itfelf. 

 to the inconveniences of its fituation, the following experiments were made. A quantity 

 of the plant was expofed for four or five hours to the fun, in which time it became per-- 

 feftly dry ; a number of leaves which had undergone the preceding procefs, and appeared; 

 dead and. withered, were placed j at the end of two days, in a jar of frefli water, where 

 they, revived immediately, and continued apparently in a healthy (late for three weeks ; , 



wheai 



