ACACIA SEEDLINGS. 97 



its voyage, and it is not unlikely that some would have the 

 good fortune to survive the passage.'' 



Dr. Wood-Jones tested the ocean currents at Cocos- 

 Keeliog Islands by sending adrift several sealed bottles 

 each containing a note asking the finder to return it. After 

 a little more than six months, a bottle was found just north 

 of the equator, at Brava on the east coast of Africa, and 

 the author writes : — "My little note came back again none 

 the worse for its sea travel of over 3,000 miles." (p. 294). 



The question of the original home of Acacia Farnesiana 

 has been discussed by different writers 1 and must remain 

 difficult of final solution, but from inspection of a chart 

 showing the world's great ocean currents, it would seem 

 possible that the species may have originated in America, 

 from where it could have been transported by westerly 

 currents to Australia, Asia, Africa, and intervening islands. 

 This transportation may have been going on for many 

 thousands of years, and great quantities of seeds perished 

 in transit, and of those cast ashore only a small proportion 

 may have been subsequently removed to a position suitable 

 for growth. The period however, has been so vast during 

 which this dispersal may have been in progress, that only 

 the very smallest fraction of the numbers of transported 

 seeds need have germinated in a new country for the species 

 to have eventually become established therein. 



Descriptions of Seedlings. 



Pungentes — Uninerves. 



Acacia juniperina, Willd., " Prickly Wattle." Seeds from 

 Woodford, Cheltenham, and Ulladulla. (Plate VIII, 

 Numbers 1 to 5.) 



Seeds dull -black, oval-oblong, 4 mm. long, 3 mm. broad, 

 2 mm. thick. 



1 B. Fl. Vol. it, p. 420. 

 G— July 7, 1915. 



