HISTORY OF THE 



farther side of these streams, we find Plantago arefiai'ia, Kit. 

 Anchusa Barrelieri, Vilm., FIcerJcia lilifolia, Angelica praten- 

 siSy M. B., Acer platanoides, Andromeda cdlyculata, Silene to- 

 tarica, DiantJiits serotiniis, Kit. (east from Cracow), Anemme 

 patens. Ranunculus cassubicus, Teucrium Laxmanni, Dra- 

 cocephalum Moldavica (east from Grodno and Jaroslaw), Bur- 

 nias orientalis (east from Lemberg), Isatis tinctoria (beyond 

 Warsaw), Astragalus Onohrychis, Melilotus polonica, Pen- 

 taphyllum Lupinaster, Hieracium coUmum, Bess., Orchis cu- 

 cullata (beyond the Niemen.) 



408. 



Had plants been distributed from single, and, as it is 

 thought, from elevated points on the earth's surface, the 

 Floras of contiguous regions would necessarily have been 

 confounded, and could not have been so distinctly appropria- 

 ted, as we see them to be. It must be added, that winds 

 and birds, rivers, and the waves of the sea, are far from be- 

 ing able completely to have effected the universal dispersion 

 of plants. There can be no doubt, that the wind is able to 

 diffuse to a certain extent some particular seeds, which are 

 furnished with crowns, hairs, and other appendages. But it 

 is not able to disperse to any distance the Cardmis cyanoides^ 

 which grows on a single grassy hill near Halle, and on the 

 steep banks of the Elb above Tochheim, although the seeds 

 «f this plant are furnished with a crown of bristly hairs. The 

 Syngenesious plants, too, the seeds of which can be so easily 

 transported by the wind, are by no means common in the 

 greater number of countries. If the wind favoured the mi- 

 gration of plants, we might determine their correspondence in 

 most countries from the distance. But we have already noticed 

 (S97.), that the most distant countries have common plants, 

 whilst the most dissimilar Floras are found in neighbouring 

 lands, and some plants grow quite insulated, (395.) The 

 dispersion of plants over large tracts of country has also been 

 ascribed to birds, because they devour the fruits, and often al- 

 low them to pass from them undigested. But no example of 



this can be produced except the Misletoe, and therefore this 



3 



