Chances of Life 297 



transport. The seeds also find vacant spots on which 

 to ahght, 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 favour. 



Plants travelling east and west have a much better 

 chance of finding a cHmate 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 ad- 

 vantages. 



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 not natives, but colonists. The father- 

 land of the artichoke family, to which this ' thistle ' 

 belongs, is on the shores of the Mediterranean, and 

 from thence ' thistles ' and clover were probably intro- 

 duced by the Spaniards. And they not only found the 

 soil and climate suitable, but, a still greater point in 

 their favour, they found the ground very scantily 

 occupied by native vegetation. 



There had not been time to plant this corner of the 

 world's farm thoroughly, for it had been under water 

 until comparatively recent times — recent, geologically 



