The reason why : $b a careful collection of many hundreds of reasons for things which, though generally believed, are imperfectly understood. A book of condensed scientific knowledge for the million
John Stuart Mill · en
1. The impulsion of the atmosphere in its calmest state, is quite
sufficient to transport to considerable distances seeds furnished
with downy appendages or winglets, as is the case with many
plants, with the minute sporules of cryptogamia, which are light
as the finest powder. When ordinary breezes convey the sand-dust
of the Sahara a thousand miles or more from the desert, it may be
conceived that seeds, which are comparatively heavy, are borne far
from home by the hurricane. Two Jamaica lichens, which had never
been seen in France before, were found by De Candolle growing on
the coast of Brittany, the offspring of sporules which had been
swept over the Atlantic.
[Verse: "He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass, as
showers that water the earth."--PSALM LXXII.]
2. The mountain torrent washes down into the valley the seeds
that have accidentally fallen into it, or have been swept away
by its overflows; and hence the plants of the High Alps occur on
the plains of Switzerland, which are entirely wanting in France
and Germany. Rivers answer the same purpose more extensively, and
also the oceanic currents. The nicker-tree, one of the leguminous
tribe, has been raised from seed borne across the Atlantic by the
Gulf stream.
3. Animals of the sheep and goat kinds, with the horse, deer,
buffalo, and others, widely disperse several species of plants,
the seeds of which, furnished with an apparatus of barbs and
hooks, adhere to their coating. Seeds also of various kinds pass
through the digestive organs of birds, uninjured as to their
vitality. The little squirrel buries the acorn in the ground for
winter provender, and sows an oak, if prevented from returning to
the spot.