SECT. II. SEEDS. 405 



the contained seed by its exposing to the wind a 

 large and distended surface with but little weight. 

 And so also in the case of the Maple, Elm, and 

 Ash, the capsules of which are furnished, like some 

 seeds, with a membranous wing, which when they 

 separate from the plant the wind immediately lays 

 hold of and drives before it. 



Finally, a further means adopted by nature for Rivers and 

 the dispersion of the seeds of vegetables is that of 

 the instrumentality of streams, rivers, and currents 

 of the ocean. The mountain-stream or torrent 

 washes down to the valley the seeds which may 

 accidentally fall into it, or which it may happen to 

 sweep from its banks when it suddenly overflows 

 them. The broad and majestic river, winding 

 along the extensive plain, and traversing the conti- 

 nents of the world, conveys to the distance of many 

 hundreds of miles the seeds that may have vegetated 

 at its source. Thus the southern shores of the Baltic 

 are visited by seeds which grew in the interior 

 of Germany, and the western shores of the Atlantic 

 by seeds that have been generated in the interior 

 of America. But fruits indigenous to America and 

 the West Indies have sometimes been found to be 

 swept along bv the currents of the ocean to the 

 western shores of Europe. The fruit of Mimosa 

 scandens, Dolichos pruriens, Guilindina bonduc, 

 and Anacardium occidentale, or Cashew-nut, have 

 been thus known to be driven across the Atlantic 

 to a distance of upwards of 200O miles: and 



