Ifles de l'A- 

 merique, 

 Tom. ii. p 



557- 



156 NATURAL HISTORY of NORWAY. 



bignefs of thefe; tho\ in time, it might have equalled it; three 

 other long, but fmaller mufcles, doubtlefs of the fame, kind, but 

 thin and foft as a herring-fcale, hanging on the fide of this 

 branch. 



Concerning the quicknefs or flownefs of the growth of thefe 

 feveral vegetables, nothing can be advanced very pofitively ; but 

 of a certain fort ufed in the Weft-Indes for burning lime, father 



Voyage aux Labat relates, that he obferved the branches to grow four or five 

 foot in two years, tho' never above the furface of the water, yet 

 growing there upon much higer grounds than hath fallen within 

 our obfervation here. The branches on reaching the furface of 

 the water, fpreading themfelves as it were to avoid the air, for 

 which their porous bodies are not adapted. If it be ailced, whe- 

 ther thefe fea-trees bear any thing, which may properly be called 

 a fruit or feed, though nothing like it has occurred to me or any 

 of my correfpondents, yet along our fea-coafts one meets fome- 

 times with fubftances which favour the affirmative. Among thefe 

 I particularly reckon one, to which I fhall take the liberty of giv- 



sea-bean. ing the appellation of Faba-marina, a fea-bean. It is of the fize 

 of a cheftnut, orbicular, yet flat, or as it were comprefied on both 

 fides. Its colour is a dark brown yet in the middle, at the junc- 

 tion of the fhells, it is variegated with a circle of a fhining-black, 

 and clofe by that another of a lively red, which have a very pretty 

 effect. The infide of the fhell is entirely black, but the kernel is 

 of a pale yellow, and in tafte, when dried, not unlike a French- 

 man, fo that could they be had in great quantities, a very good 

 ufe mio-ht be made of them. Mr. Frederic Arentz, fuperinten- 

 dent in Syndfiord, who lately fent me a fample of them, fays, that 

 they were found among the Tang, and other fea-weeds, which had 

 been thrown up, and driven afhore by the wind and waves, from 

 whence they might be concluded to belong to the fea, unlefs they 

 are to pafs for an Indian vegetable of the tribe called Pediculus 

 Elephantinus, which, by the lofs of fome fhip, was, in the courfe 

 of time, brought to this coaft. But having received fome of thefe 

 beans from another virtuofo, who lives fome miles from hence, the ' 

 arrival of them on this coaft, is more ufual, than agrees with any 

 fuch opinion. As to bringing this vegetable from the oppofite 

 coafls of America, whence wood and the like are known to be 

 t driven 



