1836.] DISPERSION OF SEEDS. 447 



different g^enera, and these again to no less than sixteen 

 families ! * 



In Holman'sf "Travels" an account is given, on the 

 authority of Mr. A. S. Keating, who resided twelve months 

 on these islands, of the various seeds and other bodies 

 which have been known to have been washed on shore. 

 *' Seeds and plants from Sumatra and Java have been 

 driven up by the surf on the windward side of the islands. 

 Among them have been found the Kimiri, native of 

 Sumatra and the peninsula of Malacca ; the cocoa-nut of 

 Balci, known by its shape and size ; the Dadass^ which 

 is planted by the Malays with the pepper-vine, the latter 

 intwining round its trunk, and supporting itself by the 

 prickles on its stem ; the soap-tree ; the castor-oil plant ; 

 trunks of the sago palm ; and various kinds of seeds 

 unknown to the Malays settled on the islands. These 

 are all supposed to have been driven by the N.W. monsoon 

 to the coast of New Holland, and thence to these islands 

 by the S.E. trade-wind. Large masses of Java teak and 

 Yellow wood have also been found, besides immense trees 

 of red and white cedar, and the blue gum-wood of New 

 Holland, in a perfectly sound condition. All the" hardy 

 seeds, such as creepers, retain their germinating power, 

 but the softer kinds, among which is the mangostin, are 

 destroyed in the passage. Fishing-canoes, apparently from 

 Java, have at times been washed on shore." It is interest- 

 ing thus to discover how numerous the seeds are which, 

 coming from several countries, are drifted over the wide 

 ocean. Professor Henslow tells me, he believes that nearly 

 all the plants which I brought from these islands, ar& 

 common littoral species in the East Indian Archipelago. 

 From the direction, however, of the winds and currents, 

 it seems scarcely possible that they could have come here 

 in a direct line. If, as suggested with much probability 

 by Mr. Keating, they were first carried towards the coast 

 of New Holland, and thence drifted back together with the 

 productions of that country, the seeds, before germinating, 

 must have travelled between 1800 and 2400 miles. 



Chamisso,! when describing the Radack Archipelago, 

 situated in the western part of the Pacific, states that "the 



p. 3 

 \ 



•These plants are described in the "Annals of Nnt. Hist.," vol. i. i88.?, 



Holman's " Travels," vol. iv. p. ;}78. 

 Kotrebue's First Voyage," vol. in. p. 15? 



