April, 1836. transport of seeds. 



543 



that country, the seeds, before germinating, must have 

 travelled between 1800 and 2400 miles. 



Chamisso,* when describing the Radack Archipelago^ 

 situated in the central part of the Western Pacific, states 

 that, The sea brings to these islands the seeds and fruits 

 of many trees, most of which have yet not grown here. 

 The greater part of these seeds appear to have not yet lost 

 the capability of growing.^^ It is also said that trunks of 

 northern firs are washed on shore, which must have been 

 floated from an immense distance. These facts are highly 

 interesting. It cannot be doubted, if there were land-birds 

 to pick up the seeds when first cast on shore, and a soil 

 more adapted for their growth than the loose blocks of 

 coral, that such islands, although so isolated, would soon 

 possess a more abundant Flora. 



The fist of land-animals is even poorer than that of plants. 

 Some of the islets are inhabited by rats ; and their origin is 

 known to be due to a ship frorii the Mauritius, which was 

 wrecked here. These rats have rather a different appearance 

 from the English kind ; they are smaller and much more 

 brightly coloured. There are no true land-birds ; for a snipe 

 and a rail (Rallus phillippensis), though living entirely among 

 the dry herbage, belong to the order of Waders. Birds of 

 this order are said to occur on several of the low islands 

 in the Pacific. At Ascension a rail {Porphyrio^) was shot 

 near the summit of the mountain ; and it was evidently a 

 solitary straggler. From these circumstances, I believe, 

 the waders are the first colonists of any island, after the innu- 

 merable web-footed species. I may add, that whenever I 

 have noticed birds, which were not pelagic, very far out at 

 sea, they always belonged to this order; and hence they 

 would naturally become the earliest colonist of any distant 

 point. 



Of reptiles, I saw only one small lizard. Of insects, I took 

 pains to collect every kind. Exclusive of spiders, which 



* Kotzebue's First Voyage, vol. iii., p. 155. 



