48 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



Winter's Bark from the Straits of Magellan. Of most of Llie seeds and fruits 

 obtained from these and other correspondents, he had drawings made which, 

 alonw with his descriptions, were brought together and piiblished in 1605, 

 when the author was in liis eightieth year, in his " Exotkoni.m IJbri Decern." 

 From certain passages in this work Clusius would seem to have anticipated 

 by three centuries the seed-buoyancy experiments of Sehimper and Dr. Guppy. 

 Thus, on page 58, speaking of Critilandina Bonduc, he tells us that the seed is 

 solid and of stony hardness, and tliat it sank in water {in aqua suhsidchai), 

 and of G. BonduceUa lie remarks that the seed is hard as stone, though it floats 

 in water {saaxi duritie, lied in aqiiam siipemataret). Again, on page 95, he 

 speaks of seeds of two different species sinking to the bottom when placed in 

 water {in aqua suhsidcns Sf imum pdens). What precise object Clusius may 

 have had in thus testing his exotic seeds I have not been aljle to discover. 

 There seem to be no grounds, however, for suspecting that he liad in his 

 mind a possible dispersal of seeds by ocean currents. 



Entada scandens Bentl). 



This species of almost world-wide distribution in the tropics is a vigorous 

 climWr, which, as Sloane tells us in his "History of Jamaica," 1707, is found 

 " creeping up the trees and covering their tops for many acres." Tlie bent or 

 twisted seed pods, amongst the largest known fruits of tlie kind, often measure 

 up to six feet in length by four inches in breadtli and enclose numerous seeds 

 from two lo two and a-half inches in diameter, of a rich mahogany colour, 

 with hard, smooth surface, and varying in outline from reniform or kidney- 

 shaped to cordiform or lieart-shai>ed. Tatrick Brown, a native of Mayo, in 

 his " Histor)- of Jamaica," published in 1756, proposed for tlie plant tlic name 

 Gigaldbium scandens, suggested by its huge pods; Linnaeus named it Mimosa 

 scandens ; subsequently De Candolle, adopting for the genus Adanson's name 

 Entada, called the plant Entada fji/jalohium; and, finally, Bentliam gave it 

 the name Entada scandens, by which it is now most generally known. 



Tlie seeds of this species appear to have been first brouglit to Europe from 

 the New World. They are included amongst the Falac jJurgairiccs in a work 

 on drugs, published at Seville in 1569 by Nicolas Moiiardes, a Spanisli botanist 

 and pliysician.* A Latin version of this Spanish treatise was produced by 

 Clusius in 1574, and in this the seeds are figured and fully described. The 

 plant is set down as a native of the Island of St. Thomas, and for this 

 reason, and because the seed resembles the heart as it is usually figured, the 



' " Hiatorin Mcdicinnl du laa Cosas que se traen dc nueatras Indias OccidenUles que 

 sirren en Bledicina." Duas partidas. ScviUa, 15G9. 



