1856.] Effects of Frost on Dormant Vegetation. 203 



Vegetable Physiology teaches us that all plants possess an organization 



and structure to capacitate them for the objects of their existence; that 



this is always adapted to the soil, climate, and peculiar locations for 



which they were originally created ; that this remains unchanged in 



every essential point, throughout their existence. That they can not 



be subjected with impunity to extraordinary changes of temperature, 



without receiving more or less harm, though tJiese extraordinary changes 



may occur in their original location. There is no system of cultivation 



known to man, by which an individual variety of the peach, cherry, pear, 



or other varieties, can be changed in their individual character, so as 



to capacitate them to a greater endurance of temperature than they 



originally possessed. There is no such thing as acclimating, or that a 



plant may be made more hardy by cultivation, and a gradual exposure 



to a more rigorous temperature. Climates may, and do change, but the 



structure of plants in their normal condition docs not. No progress, in a 



thousand years cultivation of the fig, or the orange, has been effected 



in their hardiness. They remain the same, and will ahvaj^s freeze 



under the pressure of certain temperature. This has been proven a 



thousand times over. 



It is freely admitted, that climate and soil do affect under certain 

 circumstances, temporarily, the hardy woody plants, to a limited extent in 

 their growth, and from this cause they are sometimes in a better or less 

 favorable condition to resist sudden and low temperature. This is 

 especially the case with our partly hardy exotics, such as the peach, 

 cherry, pear, etc. ; but the same rule applies to all, and everywhere. For 

 example, the same plant grown in a moderately rich soil, under a less 

 exciting temperature to growth, having fully ripened up its wood, is in a 

 better condition to resist the effects of sudden and low temperature, than 

 if grown in a rich soil, under a continued exciting atmosphere and 

 warm temperature. To a late period of the fall, the wood of the latter 

 is less compact, more porous and soft, and is thus illy prepared to resist 

 the rigors of winter. Still, the character of the plant remains unchanged ; 

 It IS only brought under the effects of extraneous causes, which produce 

 only a temporary effect. It is not unfrequently the case that a temporary 

 suspension of the vegetable functions is produced by a drought in mid- 

 summer, and from which it is roused by rain and mild state of the 

 atmosphere in the latter part of summer, which continues until overtaken 

 by severe frost. In such cases, it requires no particular decrease of 

 temperature beyond the usual winters, to do much harm to such trees 

 and plants. 



While we, therefore, theorize on natural causes, operating in a natural 



