416 GROWTH OF THE 'ORIGIN.' [1855. 



nation they had in my mind been swallowed, fish and all, 

 by a heron, had been carried a hundred miles, been voided 

 on the banks of some other lake and germinated splendidly, 

 when lo and behold, the fish ejected vehemently, and with 

 disgust equal to my own, all the seeds from their mouths.* 



But I am not going to give up the floating yet : in first 

 place I must try fresh seeds, though of course it seems far 

 more probable that they will sink ; and secondly, as a last 

 resource, I must believe in the pod or even whole plant or 

 branch being washed into the sea ; with floods and slips and 

 earthquakes ; this must continually be happening, and if kept 

 wet, I fancy the pods, &c. &c, would not open and shed their 

 seeds. Do try your Mimosa seed at Kew. 



I had intended to have asked you whether the Mimosa 

 scandens and Guilandina bonduc grows at Kew, to try fresh 

 seeds R. Brown tells me he believes four W. Indian seeds 

 have been washed on shores of Europe. I was assured at 

 Keeling Island that seeds were not rarely washed on shore : 

 so float they must and shall ! What a long yarn I have been 

 spinning. 



If you have several of the Loffoden seeds, do soak some 

 in tepid water, and get planted with the utmost care : this is 

 an experiment after my own heart, with chances 1000 to 1 

 against its success. 



* In describing these troubles to Mr. Fox, my father wrote : — " All 

 nature is perverse and will not do as I wish it ; and just at present I wish 

 I had my old barnacles to work at, and nothing new." The experiment 

 ultimately succeeded, and he wrote to Sir J. Hooker: — "I find fish will 

 greedily eat seeds of aquatic grasses, and that millet-seed put into fish 

 and given to a stork, and then voided, will germinate. So this is the nur- 

 sery rhyme of ' this is the stick that beats the pig,' &c, &c." 



