390 



GEOGRArillCAL DISTEIBUTION AND 



[Ch. XL. 



as tliat of the Mimosa scandens, the cashew-nut^ and others, 

 have been knov/n to be drifted across the Atlantic by the Gulf- 

 stream, on the western coasts of Europe, in such a state that 



they 



might have vegetated had the 



climate and soil been 

 favourable. Among these the Guilandina BonduCy a legu- 

 minous plant, is particularly mentioned, as having been raised 

 from a seed found on the west coast of Ireland. "^ 



Sir Hans Sloane states, that several kinds of beans cast 

 ashore on the Orkney Isles, and Ireland, but none of Avhich 

 appear to have naturalised themselves, are derived from trees 

 which grow in the West Indies, and many of them in Jamaica. 

 He conjectures that they might have been conveyed by rivers 



stream 



mattei 



of seeds 



them com 



may be carried without detriment 

 ) nlants themselves would instan 



ly perish. Such 

 is their power of resisting the effects of heat, that Spal- 

 lanzani mentions some seeds that germinated after having 



t 



ood Hop 

 emained 



informs me that 

 the seeds of the 



water of 140° Fa-hrenheit, and they germinated far more 

 rapidly than nnboiled seeds. He also states that an emi- 

 nent botanist, Baron Lndwig, conld not get the seeds of a 

 species of cedar to grow at the Cape till they were thoroughly 



boiled. 



When, therefore, a strong gale, after blowing violently off 



the land for a time, dies away, and the seeds alight npon the 

 surftice of the waters, or wherever the ocean, by eating away 

 the sea-cliffs, throws down into its waves plants which wonld 

 never otherwise reach the shores, the tides and currents 



the dissemination of 



various classes of the vegetable kingdom. The pandanus and 

 many other plants have been distributed in this way over the 



islands of the Pacific. 



In a collection of 600 plants from the 



neighbourhood 



*■ Ero\vn, Append, to Tuckey, Nc. v. 



p, 481, 



^ 



t System of Physiological Botany 

 vol. ii. p. 403. 



J 



