ix THE GERMINATION <>!< KLOATINCJ SICKI) i Hi 



where tin- water temperature ran;;ed |.,i lli,- In ,1 |,-\v u<-,-| 



between 75 and 90, three of them began to swell within ten day;, 

 and 'n removal at onee : M -mi inal < -d In -a 1 1 Inly. The rrm.iiimi'.; two 

 were! afloat at tin- end of twelve months, and uhen planted one "I 



them verm muted a month aftei wards, 



Having experimented on the seeds of about half a dozen 



dilfeirnt ,],< irs <!' Mm 111 i.i i iter, all with buoyant qualities, 



it is po iihli- for me to lay down the general rule for the buoyant 

 seeds of the gem is that sinking is the result of an attempt at 



;;< rmination, wlii h, a . l>< lir "I, ,, -\\, d, proves abortive miles . the 



seed is removed in time, It is obvious that the gardener wishing 



to raise plants ol this venns without delay mi;.'.ht profitably adopt 



the method of keeping them afloat in water at a temperature of 

 So 90 F, until they begin to swell, which may happen in some 

 cases in a few days. Sea-water seems to produce the most rapid 



results. 



When on Keeling Atoll in the Indian Ocean I collected, 



amoii;;,! thr stranded seed drift bioiijdit by the currents to those 



i lands, the seeds of five or six species of Mucuna, two of which 

 were identified at Kew as M. macrocarpa, Wall., and M. gigantea 

 D.C. (see my paper on the dispersal of plants at Keeling Atoll). 

 No plant of this genus appears up to that time to have been 

 recorded from the Keeling Islands, so that at all events most if not 

 all of the seeds had been brought by the currents from the Indian 

 \r< hip< la ; ;o, -.nine 7oo miles away. It may be added that amongst 

 tin dull gathered by me on the south coast of Java the seeds of 

 three species of Mucuna were identified at Kew, including the two 



above named species from Keelin- Atoll. 



These current-borne seeds of the Keeling beaches had probably 



performed an ocean journey of a thousand miles, since the route 



could scarcely have been direct. Yet their behaviour when placed 



i h teen months after in sea-water in a hothouse in England was 



erratic. Of three seeds of Mucuna gigantea all swelled and 



sank within ei : dit days. Two .seeds of M, macrocarpa sank after 



tlo.it ing from sixty to a hundred days; whilst of two seeds of 



anolln r .]<< i-s both remained all.ul alter a \<.n In a sea water 



experiment in England on five Hawaiian seeds of M. gigantea, 



under the conditions referred to in the Mucuna urens experiment, 



one sank within ten days, whilst three of them were afloat after 



twelve months, one of them subsequently germinating. This 



!>! ,ii ;i b i i.ed, is widely distributed as a coast plant 



over tropical Asia, Australia, and in Polynesia. It seems to take 



VOL, II G 



