126 PLANTS, SEEDS, AND CURRENTS 



the Black River, where they occur in numbers, and obtained these 

 results — 



Fresh-looking seeds with seemingly 



sound kernels . . . .10 per cent. 



Seeds with decaying kernels . . 20 ,, 



Empty seeds . . . . 45 „ ,, 



Seeds represented by the separate 



halves of the shell . . . 25 ,, ,, 



100 



By comparing the above results with those before given for the 

 floating drift of the Black River, we see at a glance that the proportion 

 with sound kernels or embryos has fallen from 50 to 10 per cent., 

 which is by no means a promising sign of fitness for ocean transport. 



The seeds came also under my notice on the beaches of other 

 parts of Jamaica, as at St. Anne's Bay and at the mouth of the 

 White River, but with unsound kernels or merely as empty shells. 

 It should be mentioned in this connection that Mr. Hemsley, speaking 

 of the seeds gathered by Mr. Morris on the sea- shore off Kingston 

 in the same island, says that they " look quite sound " (Chall. Bot., 

 IV., 302). It may, however, be surmised that, as the seeds were 

 collected for transmission to Kew, only the soundest specimens 

 would have been selected. Only the empty seeds came under my 

 notice on the Trinidad beaches, the plant according to Hart's list 

 growing on the island. 



The next stage in the progress of the seeds in crossing the ocean 

 would be presented in the stranded drift of one of the outlying 

 groups of the West Indies, where the plant does not grow, as in the 

 Turks Islands. To reach these islands the seeds would have to 

 traverse usually some hundreds of miles of sea in their journey by 

 the prevailing surface drift-currents from the islands to the eastward 

 and southward. Now the following was the state in which these 

 seeds presented themselves to me as they lay stranded on the beaches 

 of the Turks Islands, and their testimony goes to emphasise their 

 unfitness for ocean transport. 



1 Seeds with seemingly sound kernels 5 per cent. 

 1 Seeds with kernels of doubtful 



soundness . . . . . 15 „ „ 

 Seeds with decaying or decayed 



kernels . . . . . 30 ,, ,, 

 Empty seeds. . . . . 30 ,, „ 

 Seeds represented by the separated 



halves of the shell . . . 20 „ ,, 



100 



Similar indications were offered in the results of flotation experi- 

 ments conducted in England during the summer on seeds that had 



1 It is extremely doubtful whether any of the seeds were germinable. 



