I90 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



pimenta of the fhores of Louifiana. The formi* 

 dable apple of the mancenilla, which grows on the 

 fea-fhore of the iflands fituated between the Tro- 

 pics, and the fruit of the manglier, which grows 

 there actually in the falt-water, are almofr. ligne- 

 ous. There are others with (hells fimilar to the 

 fea- urchin, without prickles. Many are coupled, 

 and perform their voyage like the double canoe, 

 or balfe, of the South-Sea. Such is the double 

 cocoa of the Sechelles-Iflands. 



If you examine the leaves, the ftems, the atti- 

 tudes, and the feeds of aquatic plants, you will 

 always remark in them characters relative to the 

 places where they are deftined to grow, and in 

 harmony with each other -, fo that, if the feed has 

 a nautical form, it's leaves are deprived of an aque- 

 duct ; juft as in mountain-plants, if the grain is 

 volatile, the pedicle of the leaf, or the leaf altoge- 

 ther, prefents a channel. 



I (hall affume* as an inftance of the nautical 

 harmonies of plants, the nafturtium, with which 

 every one is acquainted. This plant, which bears 

 flowers fo agreeable, is one of the creffes of the ri- 

 vulets of Peru. It mufl be obferved, firft, that the 

 foot-ftalks of it's leaves have no conduit, like 

 thofe of all aquatic plants; they are inferted in 

 the middle of the leaf, which they fupport like an 



umbrella, 



