108 BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 
Cardiospermum Halicababum, Begonias, many Unubelliferous plants, 
grasses, &c., where the entire fruit is winged; of all Bignoniacee, as 
Oroxylum indicum and Heterophragma Roaburghi, the horse radish 
tree, Moringa pterygosperma and many Sterculiacee, as Pterospermum 
acerifolium, P. suberifolium, Melochia velutina, &c., and in several 
other plants, where the seeds are winged. Occasionally the fruit is 
enclosed by a withering calyx or bracts, that serve as appliances 
for flight, as in Physalis and Bougainvillea. Very small seed 
which are of frequent occurrence and the spores of cryptogamous 
plants are also largely distributed by the wind. Finally, the actual 
force of the wind materially assists other plants in dropping their 
heavy fruits, which on account of their often round shape then 
continue their fall for some distance. In the case of the famons 
Rose of Jericho, Anastatica hierochuntica, and afew Selaginellass, 
the entire shrivelled plant, with seed and all, is carried away by 
the wind. 
The action of water in regard to distributing seeds is of less im- 
portance now than in former periods. But in the times of the 
great physical revolutions which our globe has undergone, before 
assuming its present shape, and long before the existence of man, 
the great majority of plants must have been distributed through 
the agency of water,—it is at least very difficult otherwise to explain 
the wide range of distribution for certain species, which have been 
preserved and identified in a fossil state. It is moreover pro- 
bable that the sea of those periods has been free of salt, and 
consequently not so injurious to plant life as it at present is. This 
theory has, however, been severely disputed. It is remarkable to 
notice that adaptation of fruits and seeds for distribution by water 
is now-a-days mostly found in such plants that are nearest allied to 
the gigantic herbs of former periods, asin the fruits and seeds of 
several palms, and in the spores of many cryptogamic plants. The 
structure of the cocoanut is a good example of such fruits. Under 
the hard shell is found a thick layer of fibre, which is evidently 
intended for keeping the nut afloat, while the kernel abounds in 
fatty substances, which further protect the germ against the in- 
jurious effects of water. In other palm fruits, as in the African 
oil palm, Elais guineensis, the fibro is replaced by a layer of fat or 
solid oil, which may bo regarded both as an adaptation for floating 
and as a protection against water. Tho largo distribution of 
especially the cocoanut palm in all tropical countries, as also the 
