DISTRIBUTION OF SEEDS. 8.1 



remember instances where the appearance of a species is in 

 no other way to be accounted for. 



Transportation by the currents of oceans, seas, and rivers, 

 is still another means of dispersing the seeds of plants. This, 

 it is true, would appear to us. a matter of entire accident, but 

 still there is no doubt that it was designed as one of the means 

 of accomplishing this great end. The benefits of this mode 

 of transporting seeds, have indeed to mankind, probably been 

 greater than any other natural means Thus we find that 

 certain kinds of tropical fruits, which are of the utmost im- 

 portance as articles of food to the inhabitants of many islands 

 in the torrid zone, are common to such islands, though situated 

 several hundred miles apart, or at such distances as to afford 

 no probability that their original inhabitants ever communi- 

 cated with each other. In these cases there is no doubt but 

 the seeds of these plants were carried from the main land, or 

 from one island to another, by the currents of the ocean. By 

 the same means, the fruits of America and of the West Indies, 

 are cast upon the shores of the northern coasts of Scotland, 

 the plants of Germany migrate to Sweden, and those of 

 southern Europe to England. 



The currents of rivers are a still more certain means of pro- 

 ducing similar effects, because, being of fresh water, more 

 vegetables grow on their banks, than on the shores of the 

 ocean. Rivers, also, being subject to overflow their banks, 

 there are more frequent opportunities for seeds to take root, 

 and during high freshets, a greater probability that a variety 

 of seeds would be thus carried away. In this manner, plants 

 growing at the highest sources of the great rivers of North 

 America, may not only be transferred to their banks in more 

 temperate climates, but having reached the ocean, may con- 

 tinue their migration to foreign continents. Thus seed from 

 the head waters of the Mississippi, may be carried to Africa, 

 or Asia, distances equal to the earth's diameter. 



All these circumstances tend to show, that what we call 

 nature, every where exhibits care and design, and that the 



What is said of the transportation of seeds by the currents of the ocean 7 

 What is said concerning the dissemination of seeds by the currents of 

 rivers ? What is it said that all these circumstances tend to show 1 



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