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.
But seeds may be occasionally transported in another manner. Drift
timber is thrown up on most islands, even on those in the midst of the
widest oceans; and the natives of the coral-islands in the Pacific,
procure stones for their tools, solely from the roots of drifted
trees, these stones being a valuable royal tax. I find on examination,
that when irregularly shaped stones are embedded in the roots of
trees, small parcels of earth are very frequently enclosed in their
interstices and behind them,--so perfectly that not a particle could
be washed away in the longest transport: out of one small portion of
earth thus COMPLETELY enclosed by wood in an oak about 50 years old,
three dicotyledonous plants germinated: I am certain of the accuracy
of this observation. Again, I can show that the carcasses of birds,
when floating on the sea, sometimes escape being immediately devoured;
and seeds of many kinds in the crops of floating birds long retain
their vitality: peas and vetches, for instance, are killed by even a
few days' immersion in sea-water; but some taken out of the crop of a
pigeon, which had floated on artificial salt-water for 30 days, to my
surprise nearly all germinated.
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