53i 
home as to become naturalised. But this is no valid argument 
against what would be effected by occasional means of transport, 
during the long lapse of geological time, whilst the island was being 
upheaved, and before it had become fully stocked with inhabitants. 
On almost bare land, with few or no destructive insects or birds 
living there, nearly every seed which chanced to arrive, if fitted for 
the climate, would germinate and survive.”—(Origin of Species. 
PP- 329-30.) 
In this passage Mr. Darwin asserts that there is but 
little chance of a seed falling on favourable soil and 
coming to maturity. He implies that, if such a seed or 
animal drift to a well-stocked island like Great Britain, it 
might find the space preoccupied. Even if the island 
were not so well-stocked as Great Britain, perhaps not 
more than one out of a hundred would become naturalised. 
But in an uninhabited island, on almost bare ground, every 
seed might germinate and survive, “ if fitted for the 
climate.” On this point Mr. J. Ball adduces some striking 
evidence to show that even on almost bare land the result 
is not what Mr. Darwin anticipates. 
“Northern Patagonia and a portion of the Argentine region have 
been raised from the sea during the most recent geological period. The 
only quarters from which the flora could be recruited were the range 
of the Andes to the west and the sub-tropical zone of South America 
to the north. Everything goes to prove that the forms of plants are 
far more slowly modified than those of animals—or, at least, of the 
higher vertebrate orders. The new settlers are unable quickly to adapt 
themselves to the new conditions of life, and, as a result, we find that 
the indigenous flora of the region in question is both numerically poor 
in species, and that these have been unable fully to occupy the 
ground.”—(Notes of a Naturalist in South America, pp. 164-8.) 
In rocky islets just emerging from the sea, there would 
have to be insects before insect-eating birds could colonise 
them ; and other animals before the carnivora could settle 
there. 
The foregoing facts have been cited to show that if 
geographical distribution has taken place by certain