278 THE VOYAGE OF H.M.S. CHALLENGER. 



enumerates are Cassia fistula, Anacardium occidentale, Cucurbita lagenaria, Mimosa 

 scandens, Piscidia erythrina, and Cocos nucifcra. This is the only record that has come 

 under our observation of the cocoa-nut being washed ashore in Europe, for Linnaeus merely 

 repeats this ; but it i3 probably of no rare occurrence, considering the vast quantities that 

 are brought hither ; and those found on the Norwegian coast were almost certainly from a 

 wrecked ship, or had been cast or washed overboard. Linnseus, too, mentions, among the 

 various means by which the geographical areas of plants are extended : " Oceanus, modo 

 nondum cuiquam cognito, semina Cassice fistidce, Anacardii occidentalis, Mimoste scan- 

 dentis [Entadce scandentis], et Cocos nuciferce ad littora usque Norvegise volvit, eaque, 

 quod miraberis, adeo vegeta, ut terrse mandata germinent ac crescant." ' The first of these 

 four plants was raised by Martins 2 from seed stranded on the shore of Montpellier in 

 1856; but, as that author observes, the seeds are in separate compartments, which are 

 apparently water-tight, and they are thus protected from the influence of the sea-water. 

 Several other instances might be cited of plants having been raised in Europe from 

 seeds which have traversed the Atlantic, but sufficient have been given for the 

 purpose. 



Chamisso seems to have been one of the first to record the fact :1 that foreign seeds are 

 cast ashore in a living state by the waves in various parts of the world. As cited by 

 Darwin, 4 he says of the Eadack Archipelago, North-western Polynesia : " The sea brings 

 to these islands the seeds and fruits of many trees, most of which have not yet grown 

 here. The greater part of these seeds appear to have not yet lost the capability of 

 growing." And in another place he speaks of the vast quantity of vegetable matter 

 observed drifting in the sea in various parts of the Malayan Archipelago, naming several 

 plants whose seeds or seed-vessels were prominent in this drift. As they are all included 

 or incidentally mentioned in the following enumeration, it is unnecessary to give further 

 particulars here. 



Gaudichaud is another botanical traveller who paid special attention to littoral vegeta- 

 tion and floating vegetable matter. In the Botany of the Voyage of the " Uranie " and 

 the "Physicienne," 5 he devotes nearly 150 pages to general observations on the nature and 

 composition of the vegetation of the various places visited during the course of the 

 expedition ; and, as already mentioned in the Introductory Notes of the Report on the 

 Botany of the Admiralty Islands, several islands were visited in the extreme west of 

 Polynesia and the east of the Malayan Archipelago, which still remain imperfectly known. 

 He dwells particularly on the magnificent vegetation of the Moluccas, which, he says, 



1 Colonioe Plantarum, Amoenitates Academic®, viii. p. 3. 



2 Experiences sur la persistence de la vitality des graines flottant a la surface de la mer, Bulletin de la 

 Societd Botanique do France, iv., 1857, p. 325. 



3 Kotzebue's First Voyage, iii. p. 155. 4 Journal of Researches, ed. 1884, p. 455. 



■' Voyage autour du monde, execute" sur les corvettes de S.M. I'TJranie et la Physicienne, pendant les 

 annees 1817, 1818, 1819, et 1820. Botanique, pp. 1-146. 



