233 
rowest straits. But they have a character still more general: they swim in 
their state of maturity, which is not the case with seeds destined to grow 
on the plains, such as pease and lentils, which sink to the bottom. Some 
species of these, however, such as the French bean, sink, at first, to the 
bottom, and rise to the surface when penetrated with water. Others, on 
the contrary, float at first, and sink afterwards: such is the Egyptian Bean 
(Nymph m a Nelumbo), which grows in the waters of the Nile. In order 
to sow it, you are under the necessity of rolling it up in a ball of earth, and 
in that state it is thrown into the water. Without this precaution, not one 
would remain on the shores where you wish it to grow. * 
The natability of aquatic seeds is undoubtedly proportioned to the length 
of the voyages which they have to perform, and to the different gravity of 
the waters in which they are destined to swim. There are some that float 
in sea water, and sink in fresh, which is lighter than sea water by one thirty- 
second part: such is the precision of Nature in adjusting the weight of bodies 
to each other! This is the case, I believe, with the fruit of the Indian Chest¬ 
nut (iEscuLus Pavia), which thrives on the shores of the salt creeks of Vir¬ 
ginia. In a word, I am so fully convinced of all the relations which Nature 
has established between her works, adds St. Pierce, that I am persuaded 
the time when the seeds of aquatic plants drop, is regulated, in most cases, 
by that of the overflowing of the rivers near which they grow. 
It is a speculation highly worthy of the philosophic mind, to trace those 
vegetable fleets sailing along streams night and day, and arriving, undirected 
by any pilot, on unknown regions. There are some which, by the over¬ 
flowing of the waters, now and then, lose themselves in the plains. I have 
seen them sometimes accumulated in the beds of torrents, presenting, around 
the pebbles where they had germinated, waves of verdure of the most beau¬ 
tiful sea-green. Others, more fortunate, issuing from the sources of some 
rivulet, are caught by the current of the large rivers, and carried away to 
embellish their distant banks with a verdure not their own. 
There are some which cross the vast ocean; and, after a long navigation, 
are driven, by the very tempests, to the shores, which they adorn and en- 
* What is very remarkable in this seed, is, that it vegetates in a receptacle, and expands its lobes 
before it quits its parent plant, and in that state is wafted by the waters to some distant shore. 
Vide our superb Plate of the Nelumbium, in the ‘ New Illustration of the Sexual System/ 
3 W 
