118 DARWINISM STATED BY DARWIN HIMSELF. 



to another of the Arctic and Antarctic regions, and during 

 the Glacial period from one part of the now temperate 

 regions to another. In the Azores, from the large num- 

 ber of plants common to Europe, in comparison with the 

 species on the other islands of the Atlantic, which stand 

 nearer to the mainland, and (as remarked by Mr. H. C. 

 Watson) from their somewhat northern character in 

 comparison with the latitude, I suspected that these 

 islands had been partly stocked by ice-borne seeds during 

 the Glacial epoch. 



THESE MEANS OF TRANSPORT NOT ACCIDENTAL. 



p » 329 These means of transport are sometimes 



called accidental, but this is not strictly cor- 

 rect ; the currents of the sea are not accidental, nor is 

 the direction of prevalent gales of wind. It should be 

 observed that scarcely any means of transport would carry 

 seeds for very great distances : for seeds do not retain 

 their vitality when exposed for a great length of time to 

 the action of sea- water ; nor could they be long carried 

 in the crops or intestines of birds. These means, how- 

 ever, would suffice for occasional transport across tracts 

 of sea some hundred miles in breadth, or from island to 

 island, or from a continent to a neighboring island, but 

 not from one distant continent to another. The floras of 

 distant continents would not by such means become min- 

 gled ; but would remain as distinct as they now are. The 

 currents, from their course, would never bring seeds from 

 North America to Britain, though they might and do bring 

 seeds from the West Indies to our western shores, where, 

 if not killed by their very long immersion in salt-water, 

 they could not endure our climate. Almost every year, 

 one or two land-birds are blown across the whole Atlantic 



