BOTANY. 
225 
new species from my collection of Fungi, but the examination of the 
sea-weeds does not reveal any that are absolutely confined to St. Helena. 
We know that plants are carried from place to place on the 
globe through the agency of birds eating the seeds, or conveying 
them in their beaks, or on their feet or feathers. Mr. Darwin gives 
many proofs of this. Also that the atmosphere wafts minute 
winged or feathery seeds over many miles of distance. And we see 
the oceanic currents daily taking their part in the transportation of 
seeds from place to place ; at this little Island itself, the large Entada 
and other seeds, borne on the surface of the sea, over thousands of miles, 
round the Cape of Good Hope, unharmed by exposure to the marine 
element, are still deposited on its southern shore, where they have 
been known to germinate and grow. 
But if we attempt to account for the indigenous Flora of St. 
Helena by any one or all of these means, we must look elsewhere 
for corresponding species j and these we do not find. Dr. Hooker 
has been able sufficiently to establish the fact, that, in its affinities, 
the Flora partakes slightly of a Southern extra- tropical African 
character ; still we do not find the same plants occurring in Africa. 
The exploration of the vicinity of the Congo shows that there no- 
thing is identical ;* while, on the other hand, we do not find what 
we seek for in South America. 
Other theories may he appealed to in order to account for the 
presence and position of this wonderfully curious little Flora. Conti- 
nental land at one time spreading over the South Atlantic Ocean, with 
its own peculiar Flora and Fauna, has been started as a plausible 
theory ; bujfc the geological investigation of St. Helena forbids us to 
look upon it as a remaining portion of some disappearing continent 
to which the last vestige of a Flora, still struggling for existence, 
may be clinging ; and the great depth of oceanf around it also seems 
to deny the possibility of its connexion at any time with either 
African or American land. Still we cannot tell what geological 
* “ It might perhaps have been expected that the examination of the vicinity of the Congo 
would have thrown some light on the origin, if I may so express myself, of the Flora of 
" ' Selena. This however has not proved to be the case; for neither has a single indigenous 
species, nor have any of the principal genera characterizing the vegetation of that Island, been 
°uud either on the banks of the Congo or on any other part of this coast of Africa.” — 
■ Brown , Appendix to Capl. Turkey's Narrative of the Congo Expedition, 1818, p. 476. 
t St. Helena is said to be separated from the Continents of Africa and America by a 
e pth nowhere less than 12,000 feet. 
Q 
