THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 71 



THE DISPERSION OF SEEDS AND PLANTS. 



In a letter to Nahire, Consul Layard, of Noumea, writes as 

 follows : — 



"Thousands of acres of pasturage have been destroyed in 

 this island by the distribution by birds of the Lantana, which 

 was, unfortunately, introduced here by the first Roman Catholic 

 missionaries, to form a hedge for their property at St. Louis or 

 Conception. The ' Gendarme plant ' (an Asclepiad) was 

 brought here in a pillow by a gendarme from Tahiti. It was a 

 seed attached to a wing of silk cotton. The gendarme shook 

 out his pillow ; the wind carried the seed to a suitable spot, and 

 now it vies with the Lantana in destroying our pastures. 



"I have shot the great fruit pigeons of Fiji and this island 

 with several seeds of the Canarium (? ) in their crops, as Mr. 

 Morris says, as big as hen's eggs. The seeds of water-plants 

 are conveyed, with the eggs of fresh-water mollusca, to vast 

 distances, adhering to the hairs and feathers of the legs of 

 water birds — ducks, herons, and waders of all sorts. In London 

 the basins of the fountains in Trafalgar Square were peopled 

 by Lymnea brought thither from the Serpentine, attached to the 

 feathers of the sparrows who bathed first in one and then in the 

 other. 



" Another plant which occurs to me as being largely indebted 

 to man for its distribution is that known as the ' Cape goose- 

 berry,' which is a native of South America. I forget its 

 botanical name. The Kaffirs call it the ' white man's plant,' 

 and say it follows the white man everywhere. I know it is 

 found in India, Ceylon, Africa, Fiji, New Caledonia, and New 

 Hebrides. I really believe boiling it into jam does not destroy 

 the vitality of the seeds. We have just got a plant here, bear- 

 ing a lovely flower, but whence it comes no one knows. It has 

 hard wooden seed capsules, each furnished with two hooks as 

 hard as steel and as sharp as needles. These, hooking into the 

 hide of any animal, would be carried for days until forcibly 

 dislodged. 



"The 'Bathurst burr' (Xanthiuvi spinosiwi) was introduced 

 into the Cape in a cargo of wool wrecked at Cape Lagulhas, 

 and spread out to dry, first there and then at Simon's Town, at 

 both of which places the 'burr' sprang up. I believe and hope 

 I destroyed the first and last plant of it that sprang up in New 

 Zealand some twenty-five years ago. The seed had been 

 brought in the living fleece of a fine merino ram. The owner 

 of the pasture was cherishing the 'wonderful new plant,' and 

 was not a little horrified when I took out my knife and carefully 

 cut it down. He was more horrified when I told him what 

 it was. 



