On the Origin of Species By Means of Natural Selection: Or, the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for LifeDarwin, Charles
Science
On the Origin of Species By Means of Natural Selection: Or, the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life
Darwin, Charles
Evolution (Biology); Natural selection
28 days; and as 18/94 plants with ripe fruit (but not all the same
species as in the foregoing experiment) floated, after being dried, for
above 28 days, as far as we may infer anything from these scanty facts,
we may conclude that the seeds of 14/100 plants of any country might be
floated by sea-currents during 28 days, and would retain their power of
germination. In Johnston’s Physical Atlas, the average rate of the
several Atlantic currents is 33 miles per diem (some currents running
at the rate of 60 miles
per diem); on this average, the seeds of 14/100 plants belonging to one
country might be floated across 924 miles of sea to another country;
and when stranded, if blown to a favourable spot by an inland gale,
they would germinate.
Subsequently to my experiments, M. Martens tried similar ones, but in a
much better manner, for he placed the seeds in a box in the actual sea,
so that they were alternately wet and exposed to the air like really
floating plants. He tried 98 seeds, mostly different from mine; but he
chose many large fruits and likewise seeds from plants which live near
the sea; and this would have favoured the average length of their
flotation and of their resistance to the injurious action of the
salt-water. On the other hand he did not previously dry the plants or
branches with the fruit; and this, as we have seen, would have caused
some of them to have floated much longer. The result was that 18/98 of
his seeds floated for 42 days, and were then capable of germination.
But I do not doubt that plants exposed to the waves would float for a
less time than those protected from violent movement as in our
experiments. Therefore it would perhaps be safer to assume that the
seeds of about 10/100 plants of a flora, after having been dried, could
be floated across a space of sea 900 miles in width, and would then
germinate. The fact of the larger fruits often floating longer than the
small, is interesting; as plants with large seeds or fruit could hardly
be transported by any other means; and Alph. de Candolle has shown that
such plants generally have restricted ranges.
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