NORTH AMERICA. 
s 7 
may direCL They are fir It produced on, or clofe 
to, the fhore, in eddy water, where they gradually 
fpread themfelves into the river, forming moil de- 
lightful green plains, feveral miles in length, and in 
feme places a quarter of a mile in breadth. Thefe 
plants are nourifhed and kept in their proper hori- 
zontal fituation, by means of long fibrous roots, 
which defeend from the nether center, downwards, 
towards the muddy bottom. Each plant, when full 
grown, bears a general refemblance to a well grown 
plant of garden lettuce, though the leaves are more 
nervous, of a firmer contexture, and of a full green 
colour, inclining to yellow. It vegetates on the fur- 
face of the ftiil flagnant water ; and in its natural 
fituat on, is propagated from feed only. In great 
ftorms of wind and rain, when the river is fuddenly 
raifed, large maffes of thefe floating plains are bro- 
ken loofe, and driven from the fhores, into the wide 
water, where they have the appearance of iflets, and 
float about, until broken to pieces by the winds and 
waves; or driven again to fhore, on fome diftant 
coaft of the river, where they again find footing, 
and there, forming new colonies, fpread and extend 
themfelves again, until again broken up and dil- 
perled as before. Thefe floating i .(lands prefent a 
very entertaining profpedt : for although we behold 
an affemblage of the pr imary productions of nature 
only, yet the imagination feems to remain in fuf- 
penfe and doubt; as in order to enliven the delufion, 
and form a mofl piCturelque appearance, we fee not 
only flowery plants, clumps of fhrubs, old weather- 
beaten trees, hoary and barbed, with the long mofs 
waving from their fnags, but we alfo fee them com- 
pletely inhabited, and alive, with crocodiles, ferpents, 
frogs, otters, crows, herons, curlews, jackdaws, 
G 4 There 
