450 LETTERS TO DARWIN, 1843-1859 
one, when carried to the length of supporting plants of cold 
temperate regions, and I must confess that, much as I should 
like it, I can hardly stomach keeping the tropical genera alive 
in so very cool a greenhouse. Still I must confess that all 
your arguments pro may be much stronger put than you have. 
I am more reconciled to Iceberg transport than I was also, 
the more especially as I will give you any length of time to keep 
vitality in ice, and, more than that, will let you transport 
roots that way also. Many of these subjects which I never 
myself studied for myself, I wanted put in the systematic 
form you have put them, for proper appreciation. 
I think you might support your cause by making more use 
of Gulf streams and obhque Hnes of transport — ^you appear 
to dwell too much upon meridional lines of migration. This 
mode of travelling at once suggested the query, are the 
Arctic and Antarctic American genera more alHed than the 
Tasmanian and Siberian — the former offering every possibihty 
in continuous land — the latter none? It also makes you 
appear to shirk the question of transport from East to West 
or vice versa. You offer no explanation of the vegetation 
(not Httoral) of Abyssinia and India Peninsula being so 
similar ; or of the Carnatic, Ava, and N.W. Australia being 
in so many points ahke ; of the curious parallels or represen- 
tatives between Madagascar, Ceylon, and the Sunda Islands. 
In short meridional migration alone occupies you. Nor do 
I like putting Iceland, Faroe, and Spitzbergen out of the 
category of the glacially peopled countries, and leaving 
Shetlands, Orkneys, Scotland in it ; this is however a trifle. 
Ch. Martins' ^ arguments seem to apply no more to these 
islands than to any other area continental or insular. If 
they presented any anomahes as the presence of Lapland 
plants or Greenland ones, I might then beheve them to be 
peopled by accidental migration — but if Icebergs are to be so 
powerful why did they bring no Greenland, American, or 
other plants to these islands which are so well situated for 
the purpose ? 
Thanks for A. Gray's letter. I do rub my hands and 
chuckle (Hke Lyell) at the happy idea of my being caught in a 
1 Charles Fran9ois Martins (1806-89), born at Paris; geologist and botanist. 
He was Correspondant do I'lnstitut, Hon. Professeur a la Facvdte dcs Sciences at 
Montpellier, where he was Director of the Botanical Gardens. He wrote on 
the Creation of the World and on Topography. 
