AMSTERDAM ISLAND. - 14^ 
It was curious enough to observe that the greater part of the 
plants found on this new island were products of Europe ; and 
the question was equally difficult of solution, how any plants, 
European or Indian, should first have been brought upon two 
little specks of land, situated in the middle of the ocean, half way 
between the coasts of New Holland a nd Madagascar, at the dis- 
tance of two thousand English miles from the nearest shore. 
Were they borne on the wind, wafted by the waves, or carried 
by the fowls of the air ; or were their rudiments, after lying foi 
ages dormant in the bowels of the earth, thrown up, by the 
agency of subterranean fire, into a situation favourable for 
vegetable life to burst forth ? The mind of man, ever active 
in its inquiries, may be prompted to ask such questions, 
though without the hope of ever being furnished with a satis- 
factory solution. The natural historian, in contemplating 
facts like these, cannot fail, however, to be most forcibly 
impressed with the wise and benevolent designs of the great 
Author of the universe, which to him are so apparent in all 
the works of the creation, and in none more so than in the 
providential means he has thought fit to employ for the wide 
dissemination of plants. Some he will perceive to be supplied 
with such multitudes of seeds, others so completely protected 
against injuries, some so amply provided with hooks to hold 
with, and others with feathers to bear tliem through the air, 
that, by the assistance of the wind, rain, rivers, birds and 
insects, a single pair of plants of every species, according to 
the opinion of Linneeus, grov/ing on the first little island that 
may be supposed to have peeped out of the universe of wa- 
ters, will be deemed sufficient, without human aid, to stock 
the whole surface of the globe. This great naturalist tells us" 
that a single seed of poppy will in one year yield 32,000 seeds • 
