88 PLANTS, SEEDS, AND CURRENTS 



as far as I know, they have not been recorded from European 

 beaches. They are characteristic of West Indian beach-drift, and 

 have been known to germinate in the Bermudas after having been 

 brought there by the Gulf Stream. 



The complete list of West Indian drift seeds and fruits known to 

 me as stranded on the Azores would be as follows : — 



Entada scandens. 

 Mucuna urens 

 Mucuna near M. urens. 

 Guilandina bonducella 

 Sapindus saponaria. 

 Astrocaryum (Palmacece). 



Note. — Of these the first four have been recorded from European 

 beaches. As in Europe, of the two kinds of Mucuna seeds that of 

 the true M. urens is least common, two-thirds of the seeds belonging 

 to the allied species and one-third to M. urens proper. The 

 fruit of Juglandece, being of doubtful origin, has not been included 

 in the list. 



It is highly probable that these seeds reached the Azores from the 

 West Indies by the circuitous Gulf Stream route. The intervention 

 of the Sargasso Sea (20°-35° N. lat. and 40°-70° W. long.), where 

 there is little or no surface circulation, bars the direct route from the 

 West Indian region. As indicated by the bottle-drift data dealt 

 with in Note 12 of the Appendix, this seed-drift must have been at 

 first carried northward past Cape Hatteras towards the Nova 

 Scotian and Newfoundland coasts, which would involve a tedious 

 drifting passage of at least a year's duration. 



Amongst the other constituents of Azorean beach-drift are lanthina 

 shells, Portuguese men-of-war (Physalia), a little dead Sargasso 

 weed, and pumice, the last often abundant, and as shown in Note 23 in 

 great part of local origin. The Sargasso question is treated in Note 

 29 of the Appendix ; but it may be here stated that living specimens 

 did not come under my notice on the Azores beaches, the dead 

 fragments, which are well incrusted with polyzoa, having been 

 derived, not directly from the Sargasso Sea to the south-west, but 

 by the circuitous route to the northward, past Cape Hatteras, which 

 is taken by the West Indian seed-drift. 



The Canary Islands and Madeira. — The writer has come upon 

 no record of West Indian seeds stranded on these islands ; but from 

 the indications of bottle-drift discussed in Notes 27 and 28 of the 

 Appendix it is evident that seeds from the tropics of the New World 

 must be at times carried there. Although he spent several days 

 in examining the north coasts of Teneriffe, no seed-drift that he 

 could recognise as hailing from the New World came under his 

 notice. The shores of this island are as a rule not well suited for 

 catching drift; but there are localities, as in the cases of beaches 

 east of Orotava and on the east side of Point Hidalgo, where a con- 

 siderable amount of oceanic drift is cast up, as shown in the abundance 

 of Spirula shells, Portuguese men-of-war (Physalia), etc. It may 



