XIV EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES. 



AQUATIC GRAINS. , PLATE V, 



Volume III. Page 191. 



AQUATIC grains have characters entirely oppofite to 

 thofe which are produced on the mountains ; if we except, 

 as has been faid, thofe which thrive on the brink of ftag- 

 nant waters ; but even thefe poffefs, at once, volatile and 

 nautical characters, for they are amphibious. They fwim 

 along the furface of the water, and they fly through the 

 air; fuch is that of the willow, and feveral others. It is 

 the leaf which determines the fite, as we have obferved, for 

 aquatic plants never have any aquedudf. on their leaves. 

 Nay, moft of them repel the water. The leaves of the 

 nymphxa and of the reed are never wet. It is likewife fo 

 with thofe of the nafturtium, which are never humid, how- 

 ever copioufly the rain may fall, though that plant is ex- 

 cetfively fond of the water ; for the culture of it confumes 

 an incredible quantity. I am perfuaded that if a morafs 

 were fown with plants of this fort, it would be fpeedily 

 dried up. The leaf of the martinia of Vera Cruz, which is 

 here reprefented among aquatic plants, is, on the contrary, 

 always humid. It has even, in it's firft expanfion, a fluting 

 on it's tail. From this double mountain-chara&er, I am 

 difpofed to fufpect that the martinia naturally grows on the 

 parched and fandy fhores of the Sea ; for Nature, in the 

 view of varying her harmonies, extends very dry places 

 along the brink of the waters, jufl: as fhe depofits fheets of 

 water and morafles in the bofom of mountains. But from 

 the form of the pod of the martinia, which refembles a 



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