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of very curious discoveries might be made respecting the art of crossing 
currents of every sort; and I am persuaded, that the first men, who were 
much better observers than we are, took their different methods of voyaging 
from those models of Nature, of which, with all our pretensions to discovery, 
we are but feeble imitators. The Martynia is a complete Venetian barge. 
The maritime Vine (Pinus Pinaster) has its kernels inclosed in a kind 
of small bony shell, notched on the lower side, and covered on the upper 
with a piece resembling a ship’s hatch. The Walnut (Juglans), which 
delights so much on the banks of rivers, has its fruit contained in two small 
boats, fitted to each other. The Ha%el (Corylus), which becomes so bushy 
on the brink of rivulets, and the Olive (Olea), which loves the sea-shore 
to such a degree that it degenerates in proportion as it is removed from it, 
bear their seeds inclosed in a species of small casks, capable of enduring the 
longest voyages. The red berry of the Yew (Taxus), whose favourite resi¬ 
dence is the cold and humid mountains, near the margin of lakes, is hol¬ 
lowed out into a little bell. This berry, on dropping from the tree, is at 
first carried down by its fall to the bottom of the water, but it instantly 
returns to the surface by means of a hole, which nature has contrived, in 
the form of a navel, above the seed. In this aperture is lodged a bubble of 
air, which brings it back to the surface of the water, by a mechanism more 
ingenious than that of the diving-bell, as the vacuum of the latter is under¬ 
most, and that in the berry of the yew uppermost. 
The forms of the seeds of aquatic plants are still more curious; for 
Nature every where redoubles her skill and exertions in favour of the small 
and the weak. Those of the Fennel (Anethum), are real canoes in minia¬ 
ture, hollowed out in the middle, with both ends raised into a prow. 
There are others grooved into each other, like pieces of wood disposed 
for a float, as those of the horned Poppy (Chelidonium). Those destined 
to thrive on the brink of water, are wafted by sails, as is the case with the 
seeds of a Scabious (Scabiosa Maritima) of our own country, which 
grows on the sea-shore. Beside this difference from all the other species 
of Scabious, whose seeds are crowned with hooked hairs, in order that 
they may adhere to the hair of animals, which transplant them, the one 
last mentioned is overtopped by an open half bladder, which rests on its 
summit like a gondola. This half bladder serves it at once as a sail by 
water, and as a vehicle by land. These means of natation, though varied 
without end, are, in all climates, common to the seeds of aquatic plants. 
