THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 561 



Certain islands, which everything proves were formed 

 after the great continents near them, owe the principal 

 elements of their colonization solely to birds. This is par- 

 ticularly the case with Iceland, which has been observed 

 to be furnished with plants brought to it from Greenland 

 and Northern Europe, carried thither by the innumerable 

 birds which annually migrate in these latitudes. 



It is also to birds that the varied flora seen in the in- 

 terior of the Coliseum at Rome is owing. In fact the 

 entire vegetation which covers these celebrated ruins, from 

 the fig-trees, the powerful roots of which cleave its aiches, 

 to the humble grass that blooms upon its fallen stones, 

 has only been introduced into the vast structure by means 

 of animals.^ 



In like manner some mammals even of the most car- 

 nivorous kind eat sundry fruits of which their digestive 

 organs, though possessed of great energy, only attack the 

 pulp, and as they wander about they deposit the seeds 

 intact along with their excrements. In this way a species 

 of civet in Java and Manilla takes an active part in dis- 

 seminating the coffee-tree. It greedily eats the fruit, and 

 the pulp being like that of the cherry is easily acted upon 

 by the intestines, which afterwards expel the seeds still 

 in a fit state for germination." 



Man himself ought to be considered as one of the most 

 active agents in the dissemination of plants. His vessels 

 and caravans, traversing the ocean and the desert, trans- 



' According to Sebastiani, an Italian author, the number of species of phmts 

 growiug in the CoHseum of Rome which have been transported thither by the 

 birds is not less than 261. 



'"' In Java it is the civet called Viverra Musanga which effects the dissemina- 

 tion of the coffee, bj' scattering it here and there with its excrement. Karl 

 MUller, following the authority of .Junghuhn, relates that this coffee which has 

 passed through the digestive organs of this mammal is even considered by the 

 Javanese as of superior quality, and that they do not disdain to collect it for 



