(579 



I will here give only one example of the Iransport of seeds 

 across the sen, whicfa is l'nllv proved and which I already men- 

 lioned in 1887, in »Grønlands Vegetation« (p. 207), vi/.., the faet, that 

 fragments ol' piants, especially large quantities of fruit of Calluna, 

 were carried by a gale (Febr. 12, 1881) across the Cattegat, from 

 Sweden to the easlern eoasl of Jutland, a distance of al least 

 110 — 120 kilometres, where they were found on the snow-covered 

 ground, scaltered over an area, measuring from east lo west, at 

 least 4 kilometres. 



Another record, which appears to be reliahle, is contained in 

 »Comptes rendus de l'Academie des sciences«, Paris, 1891, 1. 113 

 (p. 100), where Mr. Stanislas Meunier tells us of a shower of 

 small pieces of chalk which fell in France during a violent gale, and 

 which must have been conveyed a distance of at least 150 kilo- 

 metres, in a straight line. If gales are able to transport such 

 heavy bodies so far, they must be able to carry much lighter 

 ones, such as seeds of piants, much farther 1 . On the whole I am 

 nnable to find an explanation for the different phenomena respec- 

 ting the distribution of piants, unless I adopt the theory that germs 

 of all kinds are being sown constantly and in every direction, 

 and that it is chielly by the agency of the wind that the sowing and 

 colonization of the earth is effected across longer distances. 



On p. 35 above we see that the south, south-east, and east 

 winds of the Færoes, all in all, amount to 28%; and from Knud 

 Andersen's notes (see p. 677 above) we learn that strong east 

 and south-east gales occur, by which large llocks of hirds are blown 

 out of their line of flight. 



I cannot follow Ostenfeld (p. 115 above) in his argument that 

 the shape of the fruits of the Færoese vascular piants speak against 

 a transportation across the sea. Even if the seeds of only 9 — 10% 

 of the piants, have flying apparatus, on the other hånd, so far as 

 I can see, there are not many species which have seeds large 

 enough, and heavy enough to prevent them being carried along by 



suchungen fiber das von der Atmosphåre unsichtbar getragene, reiche, organische 

 Leben« (Abh. d. Akad. d. Wissensch. zu Berlin, 1871). Showers of dusi which un- 

 questionably originated from Africa is recorded to have fallen over large an-as in 

 Switzerland, e. g. in 1901. See also Marshall: Dnst Storms in New-Zealand, »Na- 

 turec, July 9, 1903, p. 223. 



1 C. Reid has been investigating Oie size of Oie seeds of the flowcring piants 

 of the Arctic regions, and arrives at the conclusion that they are >small and 

 usually ver}' minute.« 



