The natural convection from upward and downward facing horizontal isothermal plate immersed in water is studied numerically. The temperature of the plate is from 0.0 .deg. C to 8.0 .deg. C and the ambient water temperature is from 1.0 .deg. C to 10.0 .deg. C. Numerical results are presented for the velocity profiles, temperature profiles, local heat transfer coefficients, and average Nusselt numbers over the entire flow fields. Flow patterns are shown in the upward and downward facing surfaces at different ambient water temperatures. For the upward facing surface, there are upflow and unsteady flow. And the regions of the ambient water temperatures which give rise to the upflow are more extensive as the temperatures of the isothermal surface become more distant from the density extremum temperature. For the downward facing surface, only the downflow region is shown. For the upward facing horizontal isothermal surface, the average Nusselt number(= N $u_{1}$$^{*}$) is 28.86(Ra)$^{0.01}$. And for the downward facing surface, the average Nusselt number(= N $u_{2}$$^{*}$) is $C_{2}$(Ra)$^{0.2}$ and the values of $C_{2}$ are enlarged in the range of 0.785 .leq. $C_{2}$ .leq. 1.250 as increasing of the temperatures of the isothermal surface.ace.ace.