450 LETTEKS TO DARWIN, 1843-1859 



one, when carried to the length of supporting plants of cold 

 temperate regions, and I must confess that, much as I should 

 like it, I can hardly stomach keeping the tropical genera alive 

 in so very cool a greenhouse. Still I must confess that all 

 your arguments pro may be much stronger put than you have. 



I am more reconciled to Iceberg transport than I was also, 

 the more especially as I will give you any length of time to keep 

 vitality in ice, and, more than that, will let you transport 

 roots that way also. Many of these subjects which I never 

 myself studied for myself, I wanted put in the systematic 

 form you have put them, for proper appreciation. 



I think you might support your cause by making more use 

 of Gulf streams- and oblique lines of transport you appear 

 to dwell too much upon meridional lines of migration. This 

 mode of travelling at once suggested the query, are the 

 Arctic and Antarctic American genera more allied than the 

 Tasmanian and Siberian the former offering every possibility 

 in continuous land the latter none? It also makes you 

 appear to shirk the question of transport from East to West 

 or vice versa. You offer no explanation of the vegetation 

 (not littoral) of Abyssinia and India Peninsula being so 

 similar ; or of the Carnatic, Ava, and N.W. Australia being 

 in so many points alike ; of the curious parallels or represen- 

 tatives between Madagascar, Ceylon, and the Sunda Islands. 

 In short meridional migration alone occupies you. Nor do 

 I like putting Iceland, Faroe, and Spitzbergen out of the 

 category of the glacially peopled countries, and leaving 

 Shetlands, Orkneys, Scotland in it ; this is however a trifle. 

 Ch. Martins' 1 arguments seem to apply no more to these 

 islands than to any other area continental or insular. If 

 they presented any anomalies as the presence of Lapland 

 plants or Greenland ones, I might then believe them to be 

 peopled by accidental migration but if Icebergs are to be so 

 powerful why did they bring no Greenland, American, or 

 other plants to these islands which are so well situated for 

 the purpose ? 



Thanks for A. Gray's letter. I do rub my hands and 

 chuckle (like Lyell) at the happy idea of my being caught in a 



1 Charles Fran?ois Martins (1806-89), born at Paris; geologist and botanist. 

 He was Gorrespondant de 1'Institut, Hon. Professeur a la Faculte des Sciences at 

 Montpellier, where he was Director of the Botanical Gardens. He wrote on 

 the Creation of the World and on Topography. 



