104 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO \6gQ. 



hot parts of the East and West-Indies. The third kind, from the same place, 

 was what in Jamaica is called ash-coloured nickar,* from its being perfectly 

 round and very like a nickar, such as boys use to play with. This is likewise 

 common in the hot parts of the East and West Indies. The fourth sort I never 

 saw grow, but have seen several of them in collections of rare fruits. It is well 

 described but ill figured by Clusius, Exot. lib. 2, cap. \6, p. 41, with the title 

 to it, Fructus Exot. Q, k Jac. Gareto acceptus, and is the Fructus exot. orbi- 

 cularis, sulcis nervisque distinctus 4"' sen fructus alter splendens quatuor sulcis 

 distinctus. C. B. Authors are silent as to the place of its growth. 



How these several beans should come to the Scotch isles, and one of them 

 to Ireland, seems very hard to determine. It is very easy to conceive, that, 

 growing in the woods in Jamaica, they may either fall from the trees into the 

 rivers, or be any other way conveyed by them into the sea. It is likewise easy 

 to believe, that being got to sea, and floating in it in the neighbourhood of 

 that island, they may be carried from thence by the wind and current, which 

 being obstructed by the main continent of America, is forced through the gulph 

 of Florida, or canal of Bahama, going there constantly E. and into the N. 

 American sea ; for the lenticula marina serratis foliis. Lob. or sargasso grows on 

 the rocks about Jamaica, and is carried by the winds and current towards the 

 coast of Florida, and thence into the northern American ocean, where it lies 

 very thick on the surface of the sea. But how they should come the rest of 

 their way I cannot tell, unless it be thought reasonable, that as ships when 

 they go south expect a trade-easterly-wind, so when they come north, they ex- 

 pect and generally find a westerly wind, for at least two parts of three of the 

 whole year ; so that the beans being brought north by the current from the gulph 

 of Florida, they may be supposed by this means at last to arrive in Scotland. 



By the same means that these beans come to Scotland, it is reasonable to be- 

 lieve, that the winds and currents brought from America those several things 

 towards the Azores and Porto Santo, which are recorded by Fernand. Columb. 

 in the Life of his father Christopher, to be some of the reasons which moved the 

 said Christopher Columbus to attempt the discovery of the West Indies. The 

 things mentioned by them, are J, a piece of wood ingeniously wrought, but 

 not with iron, taken up by Martin Vicenzo, a Portuguese pilot, 450 leagues at 

 sea, oft' Cape St. Vincent, after a west wind of many days. 2dly. Another 

 piece of wood, like the former, taken up by Pietro Correa, on the island of 

 Porto Santo, after the like winds. 3dly, Very large canes, much beyond any 

 growing in those parts. 4thly, Some of the inhabitants of the Azores observed, 



* Guillandina Boiiiluc. Lin. 



