XXIX BEACH AND RIVER DRIFT 431 



tion which seem to occur over much of the temperate regions of the 

 globe, very httle remains of an interesting character. As in the 

 south of England and in other regions, the empty stones of the 

 cherry, plum, and peach, the empty nuts of the oak, hazel, &c., 

 together with the spiral pods of Medicago figure largely in the 

 drift ; and here and there we come upon the seeds of littoral plants, 

 such as Convolvulus soldanella and Euphorbia paralias. 



I have found Medicago fruits in all these localities on the beaches. 

 They often contain seeds, which, it may be added, have no buoy- 

 ancy, the seeded pods themselves floating from two to five days. 

 The pods of several kinds of Medicago form the great feature of 

 Sicilian drift and are often indications in other places of the vicinity 

 of cultivated districts. A small hairy species thrives on Letojanni 

 beach near Taormina, and I observed its seeds together with those 

 of Euphorbia paralias germinating in the drift stranded on the same 

 beach. Arcangeli, in his Flora Italiana, enumerates as many as 

 thirty-three species of Medicago. Many of the species grow in 

 maritime districts, and their fruits must often get into the beach 

 drift independently of cultivation. I noticed the pods amongst the 

 drift brought down by the Alcantara, a river near Taormina, a fact 

 which goes to explain their presence in beach drift. . . . On the 

 beach of Trogilus Bay, near Syracuse, I gathered several fruits of 

 a Vitex, apparently V. agnus castus. After being kept afloat for 

 six weeks in sea-water some were placed in soil, when they soon 

 germinated and reproduced the plant. 



The beach drift of temperate Chile is described in Chapter 

 XXXII. There, as in other beaches of cool latitudes, it is not easy 

 to find seeds amongst the rubbish ; but amongst the scanty seed- 

 drift may be recognised much of what we are familiar with in the 

 Old World, such as the seeds of Convolvulus soldanella, bits of the 

 fruiting stems of Salsola kali, as well as the rubbish indicating the 

 white man's presence, such as empty stones of cherry, plum, and 

 peach, Medicago pods, &c. In addition, we find the seed-vessels 

 of plants like Franseria and Nolana that are peculiar to American 

 beaches ; and now and then, the seeds of Sophora tetraptera, a tree 

 of the immediately adjacent hill-slopes, come under our notice. 



Before quitting this subject of the beach seed-drift of temperate 

 latitudes, it may be observed that when at San Francisco I visited 

 the beach running south from the Golden Gate. With the excep- 

 tion of the fruits of Cakile maritima, a plant growing on the beach, 

 few other seeds or fruits were observed in the drift. 



The inference that there is very little effective dispersal by 



