Fishing-canoes, apparently
from Java, have at times been washed on shore." It is interesting
thus to discover how numerous the seeds are, which, coming from
several countries, are drifted over the wide ocean. Professor
Henslow tells me he believes that nearly all the plants which I
brought from these islands are common littoral species in the East
Indian archipelago. From the direction, however, of the winds and
currents, it seems scarcely possible that they could have come here
in a direct line. If, as suggested with much probability by Mr.
Keating, they were first carried towards the coast of New Holland,
and thence drifted back together with the productions of that
country, the seeds, before germinating, must have travelled between
1800 and 2400 miles.
Chamisso, when describing the Radack Archipelago, situated in the
western part of the Pacific, states that "the sea brings to these
islands the seeds and fruits of many trees, most of which have yet
not grown here. The greater part of these seeds appear to have not
yet lost the capability of growing." (20/3. Kotzebue's "First
Voyage" volume 3 page 155.) It is also said that palms and bamboos
from somewhere in the torrid zone, and trunks of northern firs, are
washed on shore; these firs must have come from an immense
distance.
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