298 Chances of Life 



speaking, that is. And when it became dry land there 

 were few plants and no trees at hand to colonize it. 



There was abundant vegetation to the north, however, 

 and that of the most luxuriant kind, and most of the 

 early colonists came from there. But they were too 

 delicate to bear well the change to such much cooler 

 regions, and only a few managed to settle down and 

 really flourish; so that when the Europeans came, 

 strong and vigorous, they soon overpowered these 

 previous colonists, which had but scantily occupied the 

 ground, and themselves grew in a rampant manner. 

 Any delicate new-comers arriving after such sturdy 

 emigrants as these would naturally have no chance 

 at all. 



The air of Europe seems, indeed, to give its natives, 

 both men and plants, a wonderful power of pushing their 

 way and standing almost any climate, and they are to 

 be found in almost all parts of the world. 



The greater the distance to which seeds are trans- 

 ported, the greater usually the risk they run of meeting 

 with some difficulty in the way of their permanent 

 settlement.. 



They may find a vacant, or almost vacant, spot, 

 and they may like the soil and even the climate, but 

 if they are dependent upon any particular insect for 

 fertilization they will not be able to perfect their seed 

 without it ; and if they cannot do this they can never 

 become naturalized, and must needs in most cases 

 die out. 



The vanilla plant, introduced into the East Indies 

 from tropical America, thrives perfectly up to a certain 

 point, but cannot at present run wild ; for being unable 

 to fertilize itself, and finding no insects to do the work. 



