300 LAWS OF VARIATION. Chap. XXIV. 



"beans (Pliaseolus vulgaris) in a bed were killed except about 

 one in thirty, which completely escaped. ^^ On the same day of 

 the month, but in the year 1864, there was a severe frost in 

 Kent, and two rows of scarlet-runners (P. multifiorus) in my 

 garden, containing 390 plants of the same age and equally 

 exposed, were all blackened and killed except about a dozen 

 plants. In an adjoining row of " Fulmer's dAvarf bean" 

 (P. vulgaris)^ one single plant escaped. A still more severe 

 frost occurred four days afterwards, and of the dozen j)lants 

 which had previously escaped only three survived ; these 

 were not taller or more vigorous than the other young plants, 

 but they escaped completely, with not even the tips of their 

 leaves browned. It was impossible to behold these three 

 plants, with their blackened, withered, and dead brethren all 

 around, and not see at a glance that they differed widely in 

 constitutional power of resisting frost. 



This work is not the proper place to show that wild plants 

 of the same species, naturally growing at different altitudes 

 or under different latitudes, become to a certain extent accli- 

 matised, as is proved by the different behaviour of their seed- 

 lings when raised in another country. In my ' Origin of 

 Species ' I have alluded to some cases, and I could add many 

 others. One instance must suffice : Mr. G rigor, of Forres,'^*^ 

 states that seedlings of the Scotch fir (Pinns sylvestris), raised 

 from seed from the Continent and from the forests of Scotland, 

 differ much. " The difference is perceptible in one-year-old, 

 " and more so in two-year-old seedlings ; but the effects of 

 " the winter on the second year's growth almost uniformly 

 " make those from the Continent quite brown, and so damaged, 

 " that by the month of March they are quite unsaleable, 

 " while the plants from the native Scotch pine, under the 

 " same treatment, and standing alongside, although consider- 

 " ably shorter, are rather stouter and quite green, so that the 



«» Loudon's * Gard. Mag.,' vol. xii., plants, which he cultivated in 



1836, p. 378. England alongside specimens from 



■<"Gardeuer'sChron.,*1865, p. 699. northern districts; and he found a 



Mr. G. Maw gives ('Gard. Chron.' great difference not only in their 



1870, p. 895) a number of striking hardiness during the winter, but in 



cases ; he brought home from south- the behaviour of some of them 



ern Spain and northern Africa several during the summer. 



