| → wood in 1859 1860 1861 1866 1869 |
| the roots of 1872 |
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| → seeds of many kinds 1859 1860 1861 1866 1869 |
| many kinds of seeds 1872 |
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even on those in the midst of the widest oceans; and the natives of the coral-islands in the
procure stones for their tools, solely from the roots of drifted trees, these stones being a valuable royal tax. I find
that when irregularly shaped stones are embedded in the roots of trees, small parcels of earth are
frequently enclosed in their interstices and behind them,— so perfectly that not a particle could be washed away
the longest transport: out of one small portion of earth thus
enclosed by
→wood in
an oak about 50 years old, three
plants germinated: I am certain of the accuracy of this observation. Again, I can show that the
of birds, when floating on the sea, sometimes escape being immediately
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
immersion in sea-water; but some taken out of the crop of a pigeon, which had floated on artificial
for 30 days, to my surprise nearly all germinated. |
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| Living birds can hardly fail to be highly effective agents in the transportation of seeds. I could give many facts showing how frequently birds of many kinds are blown by gales to vast distances across the ocean. We may
safely assume that under such circumstances their rate of flight would often be 35 miles an hour; and some authors have given a far higher estimate. I have never seen an instance of nutritious seeds passing through the intestines of a bird; but hard seeds of fruit
pass uninjured through even the digestive organs of a turkey. In the course of two months, I picked up in my garden 12 kinds of seeds, out of the excrement of small birds, and these seemed perfect, and some of them, which
tried, germinated.
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