Chances of Life 253 



now, for meantime other changes have taken place which 

 have made it easier for plants to come from the West, and 

 they do come. New Western plants migrate, it is said, 

 almost every year into the Eastern states. 



And how do these new plants travel.? By rail, to be 

 sure, in accordance with the spirit of the age. They 

 come in the coats or in the food of cattle going to market, 

 and they take advantage of the bared railway borders, 

 which are such excellent nursery-grounds. The great 

 railroads run east and west, and as the prevailing winds 

 are westerly and very strong, the plants of the West are 

 now amply provided with the means of transport. The 

 seeds also find vacant spots on which to alight, and by 

 which they may break the journey, and finally they are 

 transported into a climate not greatly unlike their own, so 

 that they have much in their favor. 



Plants travehng east and west have a much better 

 chance of finding a climate to suit them than those which 

 travel north and south, except, of course, such as cannot 

 thrive without sea air, like the holly, which cannot live at 

 all more than a hundred miles from the coast. But of 

 the plants which travel north and south, those generally 

 have the better chance which travel from a cold climate 

 to a warmer one. Increased warmth is better borne than 

 increased cold, and the plants of temperate latitudes have 

 stronger and more vigorous constitutions, such as give 

 them great advantages. 



See, for instance, how they have thriven in the Pampas 

 district of South America, in some parts of which there 

 is hardly a native plant to be seen for miles, so completely 

 have the new-comers ousted them. For the giant 

 ** thistles" and the luxuriant clover, already described, are 



