DISTRIBUTION OF PLANTS. 



279 



at least, the highest mountain ridges may, in general, be re- 

 garded as the birth-places of the vegetable world, as Will- 

 denow asserted ; and whether, therefore, plants have been dis- 

 tributed from single stations, by their own migrations, and by 

 other means, which nature provides, — these are questions which 

 ought to be examined and answered with the greatest care, 



405. 



We are not disposed altogether to deny the migration of 

 plants in similar climates, because we know from experience^ 

 that the Datura Stramonium, Erigeron Canadense, and 

 jEsculus Hipjpocastanum, are not natives of Germany ; but 

 that the first was imported, as it is said, by the gypsies, — the 

 Horse-Chesnut, by the Austrian embassy which was sent to 

 Constantinople at the end of the sixteenth century, — and the 

 Erigeron Canadense^ in consequence of some commercial re- 

 lations which we had with North America ; — as this latter 

 country has also probably received from us, in the course of 

 commerce, the Jgrostis Spica Venti, Trichodium caninum, 

 Anthoxanthum odaratumj Alopecurus fratevisis, Poatrivialis^ 

 Bromus secalinus, mollis, Dactylis glomerata, Hordeum 

 mdgare, Dipsacus sylvestris, and many other plants, (392.) 

 We know that a great many plants have passed from India 

 into Italy, along with the cultivation of rice : we know that 

 the West Indian negroes have introduced into the western 

 world a great many plants from Africa, which at present 

 grow wild there, as the Cassia occidentalism and Chrysobala^ 

 nus Icaco. 



It is certain, that sea plants have been brought by ships, 

 from the southern into the northern sea, as has been the case 

 with Fucus cartilagineus. Turn., Fucus natans, and hacci- 

 ferus. West Indian fruits are every year driven upon the 

 coasts of Norway, and of the Faroe Islands, during storms 

 from the south-west; as Cocoa Nuts, Gourds, the fruit of 

 Acacia scandens, Piscidia Erythrina, and Anacardium occi- 

 dentale. But after all this has been granted, we are still far 

 from being in a condition to maintain the migration of plants 



