WINTER MEETING, 1879. 27 



Dr. John Lindley, in Morton's Cyclopa3dia of Agriculture, writes, ^'That 

 cases in support of this view are not numerous, however plausible the theory 

 may be, and it may be doubted whether in fact any one example of acclima- 

 tization, in any considerable degree, if at all, can be produced." 



The editor of the London Horticultural Magazine writes: '^ We deny that 

 a seedling can be rendered more hardy than the parents; although we do 

 admit that seedlings may be more hardy than their parents." Cases of some 

 seedling dahlias and potatoes are cited as examples; that is, some of the 

 seedlings will endure more frost than others." He adds : ''The question of 

 acclimatizing plants, therefore, is only tenable if we put another construction 

 on the word, and instead of using it as meaning the making a plant more 

 hardy than it naturally is, use it in the sense of proving how hardy a plant 

 naturally is, for such is all we can do." 



THE TERM DEFINED. 



*'A. K. W," probably A. E. Wallace, in the Encyclopedia Britannica, says: 

 "Acclimation is the process of adaptation by which animals and plants are 

 gradually rendered capable of surviving and flourishing in countries remote 

 from their original habitats, or under meteorological conditions different from 

 those which they have usually to endure, and which are at first injurious to 

 them. The subject is very little understood, and some writers have even 

 denied that it can ever take place. It is often confounded with domestication 

 or with naturalization. Perhaps in most cases of naturalization there is no 

 evidence of a gradual adaptation to new conditions which were first injurious, 

 and this is essential to the idea of acclimation." The author goes on to say 

 that '*Itis evident that acclimation may occur (if it occurs at all) in two 

 ways, either by modifying the constitution of the individual submitted to the 

 new conditions, or by the production of offspring which may be better adapted 

 to those conditions than their parents. The alteration of the constitution of 

 individuals is not easy to detect. Habit has little (though it appears to have 

 some) definite effect in adapting the constitution of animals to a new climate ; 

 but it has a decided, though still slight, influence in plants, when, by the pro- 

 cess of propagation by buds, shoots, or grafts, the individual can be kept 

 under its influence for long periods. In most cases, habit, however prolonged, 

 appears to have little effect on the constitution of the individual, and the past 

 has no doubt led to the opinion that acclimatization is impossible." 



TESTIMONY OF PROF. DARWIN. 



I next make some extracts from the writings of Charles Darwin. He calls 

 it "the much disputed subject of acclimation," and says: "The attempt to 

 acclimate either animals or plants has been called a vain chimaera. No doubt 

 the attempt in most cases deserves to be thus called, if made independently of 

 the production of new varieties endowed with a different constitution. Habit, 

 however much prolonged, rarely produces any effect on a plant propagated by 

 buds; it apparently acts only through successive seminal generations." On 

 the whole, he concludes that "habit does something towards acclimation," 

 even where the plants are propagated by budding, layers or cuttings. As an 

 illustration he mentions that vines taken to the West Indies from Madeira 

 have been found to succeed better than those taken directly from France. 

 This is the onlv example I can find. 



Darwin and Wallace, and the editor of Nature use the term acclimatization 

 in a broader sense than it is used by editors of the Gardeners' Chronicle,, the 



