30 PLANTS, SEEDS, AND CURRENTS 



Then again on November 17, 1914, I found washed up on Rickham 

 beach a nearly entire fruit of Passiflora and a portion of a second 

 fruit. The seeds of both were dead. On January 11, 1916, I picked 

 up on the same beach another entire fruit of the same species of 

 Passiflora, containing sound seeds from which I am now raising 

 healthy seedlings. It was lying amongst the dead Velellce that 

 had been thrown up in such quantities a few days before, and 

 doubtless arrived with them. The fruits reminded me of the 

 Water Lemon of Jamaica (P. laurifolia); but since Passifloras 

 are cultivated in England, and some grow almost wild in Ireland 

 and in the south-west of England, we can scarcely look to the 

 West Indies for the source of these drift fruits. Further details 

 will be found given in connection with Passiflora in the Turks 

 Islands. 



The South Coast of Wales. — West Indian drift seeds and fruits 

 are sometimes carried into the Bristol Channel and stranded on the 

 Welsh coasts. Several years ago Dr. A. Lloydd-Jones sent to Kew 

 a seed of Entada scandens, " said to be exactly like one picked up 

 in Swansea Bay" (Kew Bulletin, 1893, p. 114). On these coasts, 

 as on the shores of the English Channel, the buoyant portions of 

 edible tropical fruits thrown over from passing ships must often 

 be cast up on the beaches, and allusion has above been made to this 

 point with respect to the south coast of Devon. Thus in the Kew 

 Museum there is a perfect specimen of a Mango-stone (Mangifera 

 indica) from the coast of South Wales, which was probably thus 

 derived. As is shown in a later page, empty Mango-stones are of 

 common occurrence on West Indian beaches and elsewhere. There 

 is also in the drift collection of the Kew Museum a fruit from South 

 Wales which is labelled Caryocar nuciferum, the " butter-nut " of 

 British Guiana, sometimes imported into Great Britain. 



The West Coast of Ireland. — It is shown in the next chapter 

 that much of the bottle-drift which reaches the shores of the United 

 Kingdom from the seas of the West Indies, Florida, and the South- 

 eastern United States is stranded on the west side of Ireland. This 

 fact would lead us to expect that the Irish coasts would receive the 

 bulk of the West Indian seed-drift thrown up on our shores. But 

 I gather that though often found it has rarely been recorded. The 

 principal fact usually cited is that given by Sir Hans Sloane in his 

 book on the West Indies (II., 41) and in his paper in the Philosophical 

 Transactions (Vol. XIX.), which were written more than two centuries 

 ago. He there alludes to seeds of the " ash-coloured Nickar " and of 

 the " Cocoon " found on these coasts. There can be no doubt that the 

 seeds of Guilandina bonducella and Entada scandens are here indicated. 

 From a drawing made of a plant raised from a seed picked up on 

 the west coast of Ireland Robert Brown determined the species to 

 be Guilandina bonduc (Hemsley in Chall. Bot, IV., 277). Since, 

 however, the seeds of this species are not as a rule buoyant in the 

 West Indies and are not a frequent constituent of West Indian 

 beach-drift, it is more probable that the seeds in question belonged 

 to the allied species, G. bonducella, the seeds of which have been 

 found in almost every European locality where West Indian drift 



