ON THE DISPERSAL OF PLANTS. 303° 
observations in an account of his travels in the Indian archipelago. 
As regards frigate birds not bearing seeds, of course, I only hold 
that they do so very rarely, perhaps one in a thousand, but several 
people showed me the seeds, Cwsalpinia Bonducella, and I think that 
there is no doubt about the mode of their conveyance. When I was 
cruising in H.M.S. “ Lark” in the South Atlantic we caught a 
Cape pigeon and found a small seed inside it. We were 700 
miles from the nearest land and these birds followed us across 
the Indian ocean, in fact, they go round the globe. Of course 
the subject of the dispersal of plants is one which we are 
only beginning to know something about, and therefore there must 
be a good deal of guess work in respect to it,and the only way is 
to investigate by experiment whenever we can. Most of the 
specimens I have here are very common in the Coral Islands. 
One is Barringtonia speciosa, another is Pangiwm edule, which is 
eaten in Java, and it is often carried to the Keeling Islands, but 
never germinates, for the crabs eat the kernel. 
The Meeting was then adjourned. 
REMARKS ON THE FOREGOING PAPER. 
Professor T. Rupert Jones, F.R.S., &c., writes :—‘‘ I was unable 
to attend the meeting and hear Dr. Guppy’s paper, but I 
have read it with much pleasure and advantage. 
“Ttis full of fact and good inferences relative to the struggle for 
existence among plants and animals, and will be a rich source for 
philosophical scientists to gather notions from in the future. 
The scientific care and precision of the observations, experiments, 
descriptions and conclusions are very noteworthy, and make the 
paper highly worthy of any Society that takes up the subject.” 
Mr. Joun Morray, of the “‘ Challenger” expedition, writes :—‘‘ I 
have read, with very great pleasure, Dr, Guppy’s paper, and I do not 
think J can speak too highly of it as a solid contribution to the 
history of a coral island. His explorations and observations are 
well known; his experiments and the way he has worked up his 
collections will, I am sure, be fully appreciated by all naturalists 
who take an interest in the distribution of organisms over the 
face of the earth, and in a very special manner by all who are 
interested in oceanic islands.” 
