INTRODUCTION. XXIX 



inclining the basin, to pour off the water and let the seeds 

 remain. In performing this operation I was witness to an 

 explosion or bursting of one of these seeds or pericarps, 

 which agitated the water considerably under the microscope, 

 and brought to my recollection the circumstance mentioned 

 by Major Velley during his investigation of F. vesiculosus. 

 I at last obtained a discharge of seeds likewise from F. 

 bifurcatus (luberculatus) ; these perfectly resembling the 

 others. Having established this point, viz., that marine 

 plants scatter their seeds in their native element without 

 violence when ripe, and without awaiting the decay of the 

 frond, I next procured some sea pebbles and small frag- 

 ments of rock, taken from the beach, and having drained 

 off the greater part of the water in the jar, I poured the 

 remainder on them, and left them dry for some time that 

 the seeds might affix themselves. I then fastened strings 

 to the pebbles, and alternately sunk them in sea water in a 

 wide-mouthed jar and left them exposed to the air, in or- 

 der to imitate as nearly as possible their peculiar situation 

 between high and low-water mark, and when the weather 

 was rainy I took care to expose them to it. In less than a 

 week a thin membrane was discoverable on the surface of 

 the pebble where the seeds had lodged, with a naked eye ; 

 this gradually extended itself, and turned to a darkish olive 

 colour. It continued increasing in size, till at last there 

 appeared numerous papillae or buds coming up from the 

 membrane : these buds, when viewed with a glass, were ra- 

 ther hollow in the centre, from which a shoot pushed forth : 

 in some instances they seemed on a short, thick footstalk, 

 and in this latter case resembled in some measure the 

 pezizae-formed seedling of F. loreus, and the others without 

 stems were like the stemless Pezizte. These plants conti- 

 nued to put forth the central shoots for some time, but 

 their growth was not rapid after the first efforts; most 



