28 



PLANTS, SEEDS, AND CURRENTS 



There have also been recorded from European beaches such 

 tropical fruits as those of Anacardium occidentale (Cashew-nut), 

 Arachis hypogcea (Pea-nut), Caryocar nuciferum (Butter-nut of 

 Guiana), Cassia fistula, Cocos nucifera, Garcinia mangostana (Mango- 

 steen), etc., all of which, whether introduced or indigenous, are now 

 growing in the New World. The extreme probability of their 

 having been derived from ships in the vicinity is pointed out in 

 later pages. 



The South-West of England. — Respecting the occurrence of 

 West Indian seeds on the beaches of the south-west of England, the 

 following remarks may be made. Mr. Hamilton Davey, the author 

 of The Flora of Cornwall, tells me that he has often found on the 

 Cornish coast between St. Ives and Newquay large seeds which he 

 took to be those of Entada scandens, and that he had them sawn through 

 for the benefit of his students. It is well known that Gulf Stream 

 drift is not infrequently beached on the north coast of Cornwall. 

 The Great Western Railway Company, in advertising the climatic 

 attractions which the " Cornish Riviera " derives from the Gulf 

 Stream, informs the public that " many have been the instances of 

 West Indian drift cast upon the shores of St. Ives Bay." 



I noticed a seed of Mucuna urens from Cornwall in the Kew 

 Museum. There is also exhibited there a fruit of Sacoglottis amazonica 

 gathered on the South Devonshire coast by Mrs. Hubbard in Novem- 

 ber 1887. The find of the Sacoglottis fruit by Mrs. Hubbard had an 

 important result. The fruit was unknown at Kew, and the requisite 

 inquiry instituted by Sir D. Morris, Mr. Hillier, and others led to 

 the identification of this and other fruits of the same plant from the 

 drift of West Indian beaches, a matter dealt with in the discussion 

 on Sacoglottis amazonica. Sir D. Morris, when referring to these 

 drift fruits in Nature for November 21, 1895, gives Mrs. Hubbard's 

 Devonshire locality as Bigborough Bay. Evidently Bigbury Bay, 

 a few miles west of Salcombe, is here meant. 



On April 28, 1909, I found on the beach at Sewer Mill Cove, near 

 Salcombe, South Devon, two seeds lying within a few paces of each 

 other, both in a sound condition, one of Guilandina bonducella and 

 the other of the Mucuna species near M. urens. On January 18, 

 and April 2, 1912, I came upon solitary seeds of Entada scandens 

 at Moor Sands and at Sewer Mill Cove, beaches lying east and west 

 of Salcombe, one of them with the base of a B alarms shell still 

 attached. Though in both cases the seeds appeared sound, they 

 possessed rattling broken kernels, and neither of them could have 

 been germinable. The drift is sometimes carried far up the 

 English Channel. Thus a Mucuna seed has been picked up at 

 Portsmouth (Hemsley in Chall. Bot., IV., 291), and in the Kew 

 Museum there is a seed of the same genus, labelled " near urens" 

 which was found at St. Helens in the Isle of Wight. A seed of 

 Entada scandens, now in the Kew Museum, was given to me by Miss 

 M. Moseley, who found it in 1897 on the beach at Vimereux near 

 Boulogne. 



It is noteworthy that my discovery on the south coast of Devon 

 of seeds of Entada scandens in the middle of January and early in 



