STUDY Xi. ipî 



/ 



umbrella, to ward off from them the water which 

 falls from Heaven. It's feed, when frefh, has ex- 

 actly the form of a boat. The upper part is raifed 

 into a flope, like a bridge to let the water run off; 

 and you diftinguifh perfectly, in the lower part, a 

 poop and a prow, a keel and a bottom, (See the 

 annexed Plate. - ) The little furrows of the feed of 

 the nafturtium are characters common to moft 

 nautical grains, as well as the triangular forms, and 

 thofe of the kidnev or keel. Thofe furrows, un- 

 doubtedly, prevent them from rolling about in all 

 directions, conftrain them to float along length- 

 wife, and give them the direction the belt adapted 

 to the track of the water, and to the paffage of the 

 narroweit flraits. But they have a character Itill 

 more general ; it is this, that they fwim in their 

 date of maturity, which is not the cafe with grains 

 deftined to grow in the plains, fuch as peafe and 

 lentils, which fink to the bottom. 



Some fpecies of thefe, neverthelefs, fuch as the 

 french-bean, fink, at firft, to the bottom, and rife 

 to the furface when penetrated with the water. 

 Others, on the contrary, float at firft, and fink af- 

 terward. Such is the Egyptian bean, or the feed 

 of the colochaha, which grows in the waters of the 

 Nile. In order to fow it, you are under the necef- 

 fity of rolling it up in a ball of earth ; and in that 

 ilate it is thrown, into the water. Without this 



precaution, 



