164 



NATURE 



\yune 27, 1872 



issues continually, but not in equal abundance, the fissures 

 below being partially choked up, whereas those in the 

 circular basin are carefully kept open by the peasants. 

 Here, too, the rock around is stained with bright red 

 streaks of iron deposit. Also, carefully observing the 

 torrent itself, which flows in a parallel direction a few 

 feet distant, I noticed that bubbles of gas kept rising here 

 and there from between the stones in its bed, and that the 

 water, though tasteless higher up, here partook to a certain 

 extent of the mineral acidity so strongly marked in the 

 springs. 



The analysis of the ingredients of the " Shdna" water, 

 as supplied me by M. Marengo, was not quantitative, 

 but merely qualitative. I give it as follows, apologising at 

 the same time for any technical inexactitude m my trans- 

 lation from the letter of the Italian document now before 

 me : — 



Inguedients 

 IIyflrosul|iliur!c Acid . . . Abundant 



C.nibonic Aci.l Almmlant 



.Sul[.huric Acid Not much 



Chlorine Scanty 



Oxide of Iron Very abundant 



l.ime Abundant 



Magncs'a Abundant 



Alumina Scanty 



Soda Scanty 



Potash Trace 



Silica Trace 



Iron, free carbonic acid, sulphur, and magnesia, are the 

 chief characteristics of this spring. 



Among the Mahometan and Turkish-speaking popula- 

 tion of the neighbourhood, the source goes by the name 

 of " 'Ilijeh," or " Healing, ' a term which they apply to 

 almost every mineral spring of whatever description. As 

 for this one in paiticular, the natives ascribe to it almost 

 every sanatory virtue that a Holloway's advertisement 

 could claim. In reality it is tonic, and, if its use be 

 persevered in, alterative ; the magnesia which it contains 

 renders it at first slightly lu.xative. A considerable 

 quantity of the water is brought in jars or bottles, which 

 are filled and closed on the spot, to Trebizond, where it is 

 much esteemed. The supply is unaffected by change of 

 weather or season ; only in summer the water is a few 

 degrees cooler, as in winter warmer, than that of the 

 torrent close by, which is often, during the severity cf a 

 Black-Sea February, changed into ice ; whereas the little 

 circular basin, in spite of its shallowness, never freezes. 



The so-called " Greeks," who have a small peasant 

 colony in the neighbourhood, have christened the source, 

 in their modern corrupt dialect, " liisma," the correct 

 word being 'Ayino-fiH, or " sanclification," and have erected 

 on an over-hanging rock close by, a small chapel, dedi- 

 cated to I know not what saint, the supposed patron of 

 the waters. The Turks, on the contrary, attach to it no 

 religious idea \vhate\cr. 



The peasants report the existence of another ferrugi- 

 nous spring some miles farther on among the moun- 

 tains, ; but the precipitous character of the paths leading 

 to it and the density of the forests, render it practically 

 inaccessible to all but themselves. 



Tiebizond, May 28 W. GiFFORD Palgrave 



THE DISPERSION OF SEEDS B V THE WIND 



IN the very interesting notice of Grisebach's " Vege- 

 tation der Erde," which appeared in a recent number 

 of N.\TURE,* reference is made to a paper by Kerner of 

 Innsbri.ick, " On the Influence of the Wind on the Dis- 

 tribution of Seeds in Mountain Regions." As this paper 

 was presented' to the German Alpine Club, and no trans- 



* Vol. V. p. 458, .'\pril II. 



lation, as far as I am aware, has appeared in this country, 

 with the exception of an abstract in the Gardcnci^s 

 Cliroiticlc, it is probably almost unknown to English 

 readers, and a short epitome of its most interesting 

 features may not be unacceptable. 



The idea that the wind performs a very important part 

 in the distribution of plants, by the extensive dispersion of 

 their seeds, is a very prevalent one. Mr. Bentham has, how- 

 ever, pointed out in his Anniversary Address to the Lin- 

 nean Society in 1S69, that this popular belief rests on 

 insufficient data. If that portion of thistle-down which 

 has been carried to a considerable distance by a high 

 wind is carefully observed, it will generally be found to have 

 left its seed behind it ; and in the same order of Com- 

 positiB, several species of Ecl/p/a, Elephaniopiis, An- 

 ilieniis, and Lapsana, which have no pappus, have a 

 much more wide-spread distribution than the majority of 

 Seiiecios, for instance, with their light and broad pappus. 

 The rapid spread of our common thistle, Cardinis arrcn- 

 sis, in any new country where it once gains a foothold, is 

 probably as much due to the persistent vitality of its 

 roots as to the dispersion of its seeds. If the individuals 

 in the same field are examined, they will generally be 

 found to be all of one sex, showing that they must have 

 been propagated by the division of the same individual. 

 Of the extr.^ordinarily rapid power of dispersion possessed 

 by some plants independently of their seeds we have a 

 familiar instance in the suddenness with which the 

 Canadian water-weed, Elodca canadensis, filled up all our 

 canals and water-courses within a few years of its first 

 introduction ; and yet up to the present time the male 

 plant is entirely unknown in this country, and indeed in 

 Europe : and it is probable that the whole of the stock 

 now in England may have sprung by sub- division from the 

 first imported specimen. 



M. Kerner conceived the idea that a careful examina- 

 tion of the plants growing on moraines, and of the seeds 

 found on the surface of glaciers, would throw considerable 

 light on this interesting subject, since it is evident that 

 they could only have arrived in those localities by the 

 agency of the wind ; and the results of an ciabor.^te series 

 of investigations are recorded in the pamphlet alluded to. 

 Firstly, with regard to the moraines : — A list of five of 

 these floras, from as many different moraines, consisting 

 of limestone, schist, and gneiss, included 124 species, the 

 following orders being the most largely represented : — ■ 

 Composite, 23 per cent.; Caryophyllea:, 10 per cent.; 

 Graminea;,8 percent.; Mosses, Saxifragea;,and Salicaceae, 

 6 per cent. ; Crucifera;, 5 per cent. ; Ferns and Rosacea;, 

 4 per cent.; ScrophulariacciE, 3 per cent. Of the smaller 

 families, the genera Valeriana, Epilobium, a.ndju?ic!is, oc- 

 curred the most frequently. The investigation of these 

 lists, with a view to trace the origin of the plants, shows 

 that the larger number of those which constitute the 

 moraine flora are species widely distributed over the 

 higher mountain regions in immediate proximity to the 

 glacier. Less frequent are those plants which belong to 

 the grassy plateaux of the lower elevaions ; and still less 

 common species belonging to the meadow or wood flora 

 of the lowlands, which maintain only a short and pre- 

 carious existence. 



The absence of this latter class of plants might, how- 

 ever, be due to the inability of the seeds to germinate 

 under such unfavourable circumstances ; and in order to 

 determine this point, M. Kerner carried his researches to 

 the surface of the glacier itself, examining both the 

 animal and vegetable productions found thereon, with the 

 following results : — 



The animals found were entirely dead or benumbed in- 

 sects belonging to the orders Lepidoptera, Hymenoptera, 

 Coleoptera, and Diptera, and consisted of forty-three 

 species, a considerable portion of which are found only 

 in the highest mountain regions in the immediate vicinity 

 of the glaciers ; more than half the species wei'C of veiy 



