260 



ACCLIMATATIOX OF PLANTS. 



perished and putrid, two or three plants as 

 strong and healthy as if there had been no 

 frost ; we remarked at the time they were 

 valuable exceptions totlie desolation around, 

 and that their seed would pay more than 

 the Avhole crop would have done. All that 

 we could get out of the gardener was, that the 

 family must have those three heads, and he 

 could not save them ; and so it was, the i'ami- 

 ly, or some part of it, had noticed them, and 

 ordered them to be cut for dinner. The gar- 

 dener would have lost an excellent sort, or 

 rather three excellent sorts, for one was 

 completely sprouting, one a rather dark, 

 and the other a white head. Here was evi- 

 dently hardier offspring than the rest of the 

 seedlings appeared to be, and we can hard- 

 ly doubt that in every description of plant, 

 it is possible to obtain plants hardier than 

 the parent, though not very commonly so 

 ■without hybridizing, as it is called, that is, 

 impregnating or fertilizing a hardy kind of 

 plant with one of the tender, and so produc- 

 ing hardy plants W'ith the principal charac- 

 ters of the tender one. At all events, there 

 is no denying, that if seed be saved as care- 

 fully as possible, and seedlings raised from 

 it, there will be found differences in the 

 seedlings in foliage, in habit, in hardiness 

 and in other properties that render the 

 plants more valuable ; while, on the other 

 hand, there will be discovered many much 

 worse than the original. 



So long therefore as variation is to be 

 found in seedlings, as compared with the 

 parent plant, so long there must be allowed 

 a possibility for some to be more hardy than 

 their parents ; but we maintain, that prac- 

 tically there cannot be an alteration made 

 in the power of a plant to endure heat or 

 cold. The same plant that has been tried 

 down to the lowest degree of cold that it 

 can bear, will, by gradual increase of tem- 

 perature, be made to bear as much heat as 

 ever it did; and by the same gradual plan 

 of lowering the temperature, it may be 

 brought back again to bear all it ever did 

 bear of cold. 



Nobody can dispute the ill effects of sud- 

 den transition from heat to cold, and vice 

 versa ; but it applies alike to all plants, 

 hardy, half hardy, tender, and tropical. The 



sturdy oak Avould be victimised as readily 

 as the delicate orchidaceous plant, by the 

 sudden change of temperature, and its na- 

 ture would be nevertheless as little changed 

 as if it had remained in its native forest. 



We admit, however, that the constitution 

 of a plant may be injured, that is, that a 

 plant may be got into an unhealthy state, 

 and by no means sooner than by sudden 

 change of temperature ; that it may, in fact, 

 be so damaged as not to be recovered, but 

 to linger on in ill health a considerable pe- 

 riod, and perhaps eventually to die ; but 

 this does not make it a tender plant, it only 

 renders it a sickly one. We have seen the 

 constitution of a plant damaged by exces- 

 sive propagation, and with great difficulty, 

 some of the progeny by cuttings recovered, 

 but we have seen others that never recov- 

 ered, and their cuttings and layers continued 

 the same sickly, weakly character that dis- 

 tinguished the parent ; but still the fact had 

 nothing to do with the powers of the plant 

 to endure cold or heat. A plant, whether 

 tender or hardy, may be healthy, and it is 

 on healthy subjects alone that we can place 

 any reliance in the trial of what a plant can 

 bear. 



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 murt 

 hardy than it naturally is, use it in the 

 sense of pioving how hardy a plant natu- 

 rally is, for such is all we can do. 



The first Aucubajaponica that ever reach- 

 ed this countr}', would have stood out of 

 doors just as well as the last ; all that 

 had to be avoided was sudden change, and 

 which no plant will bear. Every day ex- 

 perience shows us, that sudden alteration 

 of temperature is mischievous. If we want 

 to force a rose or an American plant, we 

 dare not take it into a hot stove at once, 

 for they would fail ; but first in a cold pit, 

 then in a green house, next in a moderate- 

 ly warmed pit, and lastly in the stove, they 

 will do just as we wish them to do, and ac- 

 cording as we hasten them, so do they 

 come earlier ; but when they are in flower, 

 if they are brought suddenly into the cold, 

 they would irrecoverably fade, so that we 



