Jeff Steinport

The initial experiment.—The proportion of littoral plants.—The two great principles of buoyancy.—The investigations of Professor Schimper.—The investigations of the author.—The great sorting process of the ages.—Preliminary results of the inquiry into the buoyancy of seeds and fruits. In the previous introductory chapter some of the numerous questions affecting insular floras were briefly referred to. I will now ask my reader, if he has had the patience to read it, to consign that chapter for the time at least into oblivion, and to proceed with me to our Pacific island with the intention of investigating its flora from the standpoint of dispersal. We will together take up the subject de novo , after banishing from our minds all preconceptions that we may have possessed. After having been over the island gathering specimens of all the seeds and fruits, we return to our abode on the beach. But we are puzzled where to begin. The problem presents itself as a tangled skein, and our ...

PREFACE Although this volume contains a great amount of original material, I am largely indebted to the labours of my predecessors for its present form; and a scheme that at first was limited only to my own observations in the Pacific has gradually extended itself to the general subject of plant-dispersal. The farther I proceeded in my work the more I realised that the floras of the Pacific islands are of most interest in their connections, and that the problems affecting them are problems concerning the whole plant-world. Deprived of the writings of Seemann, Hillebrand, Drake del Castillo, and other botanists, several of whom have lived and died in the midst of their studies of these floras, and without the aid of the works of Hemsley and Schimper, generalisers who have mainly cleared the way for the systematic study of plant-distribution and plant-dispersal, it would not have been possible for me to accomplish such an undertaking. My interest in plant-dispersal dates back to...

INTRODUCTION. The ancient Armies of England were composed of Horse and Foot; but the feudal troops established by William the Conqueror in 1086, consisted almost entirely of Horse. Under the feudal system, every holder of land amounting to what was termed a "knight's fee," was required to provide a charger, a coat of mail, a helmet, a shield, and a lance, and to serve the Crown a period of forty days in each year at his own expense; and the great landholders had to provide armed men in proportion to the extent of their estates; consequently the ranks of the feudal Cavalry were completed with men of property, and the vassals and tenants of the great barons, who led their dependents to the field in person. In the succeeding reigns the Cavalry of the Army was composed of Knights (or men at arms) and Hobiliers (or horsemen of inferior degree); and the Infantry of spear and battle-axe men, cross-bowmen, and archers. The Knights wore armour on every part of the body, and...