Origin of Species Variorum

what- ever the cause may be, confined ranges. Hence trees would he little likely to reach distant oceanic islands; and an herbaceous plant, which had no chance of successfully competing with the many fully developed trees growing on a continent, might, when established on an island, gain an advantage by growing taller and taller and overtopping the other herbaceous plants. In this case, natural selection would .. tend to add to the stature of the plant, ... to whatever order it belonged, and thus convert it first into a bush and then into a tree.

Absence of Batrachians and Terrestrial Mammals on Oceania Islands .

With respect to the absence of whole orders of animals on oceanic islands, Bory St. Vincent long ago remarked that Batrachians (frogs, toads, newts) are never .. found on any of the many islands with which the great oceans are studded. I have taken pains to verify this assertion, and .. have found it strictly true, with the exception of New Zealand, of the Andaman Islands, and perhaps of the Salomon Islands. ↑ But I have already remarked that it is doubtful whether New Zealand ought to be classed as an oceanic island; and this is still more doubtful with respect to the Andaman and Salomon groups. This general absence of frogs, toads, and newts on so many oceanic islands cannot be accounted for by their physical conditions; indeed it seems that islands are peculiarly well fitted for these animals; for frogs have been introduced into Madeira, the Azores, and Mauritius, and have multiplied so as-to become a nuisance. But as these animals and their spawn are known to be immediately killed by sea-water, there would be great difficulty in their transportal across the sea, and therefore