HETHaD OF PRODUCING NEW AND EARLY FRUITS^ 1(J| 



accustomed to the temperature of the open air will vegetate 

 strongly in December, whilst another plant of the same spe- 

 cies, and sprung from a cutting of the same original stock, 

 but habituated to the temperature of a stove, remains appa- 

 rently lifeless. It appears, therefore, that the powers of Pl^»<^3 from 



1, ,-... , 11- 1 11 T X col^^ climate* 



vegetable lite, in plants habituated to coid climates, are gj^^i^s^^ 



more easily brought into action than in those of hot cli- 

 mates; or, in other words, that the plants of cold climates 

 are most excitable : and as every quality in plants becomes 

 hereditary, when the causes which first gave existence to 

 those qualities continue to operate; it follows that their seed- 

 ling offspring have a constant tendency to adapt their habits 

 to any climate in which art or accident places them. 



But the influence of climate on the habits of plants, will Not theaggre- 

 1 11 1 ...[' 1 ^ • LI- gate quantity 



depend less on the aggregate quantity or heat m each ch- of heat butit« 



mate, than on the distribution of it in the different seasons distributioa 

 jof the year. The aggregate temperature of England, and Benson, the 

 of those parts of the Russian empire, that are under the chief point, 

 same parallels of latitude, probably does not differ very con- Ruf^^^! 

 siderably ; but, in the latter, the summers are extremely 

 hot, and the winters intensely cold ; and the changes of 

 temperature between the different seasons are sudden and 

 violent. In the spring, great degrees of heat suddenly ope- 

 rate on plants which have been long exposed to intense cold, 

 and in which excitability has accumulated during along pe- 

 riod of almost total inaction ; and the progress of vegetation 

 is in consequence extremely rapid. In the climate of Eng- 

 land, the spring, on the contrary, advances with slow and 

 irregular steps, and only very moderate and siowly-increaaino- 

 degrees of heat act on plants in which the powers of life 

 have scarcely in any period of the preceding winter been to- 

 tally inactive. The crab is a native of both countries, and 

 has adapted alike its habits to both ; the Siberian variety in- Siberian crab. 

 troduced into the climate of England retains its habits, ex- 

 pands its leaves, and blossoms on the first approach of sprin«-, 

 and vegetates strongly in the same temperature in which the 

 native crab scarcely shows signs of life ; and its fruit acquires 

 a degree of maturity, even in the early part of an unfavoura- 

 ble season, which our native crab is rarely or never seen to 

 attain. 



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