LINDLEY'S VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 



39 



for a long time, under glass, the Fuchsia, the Clc- 

 rotlenilron, the ftlailagascar Periwinkle, the Helio- 

 trope, atu! a hundred other j)lants, the moment we 

 consig'n them entirely to the open air, they all 

 perish. There is that magnificent tree the cicada 

 Jiilibiissin, which w-e used to admire at Paris, but 

 which we now rarely see. Our climate is a few de- 

 grees too cold for it; and therefore, until it is possi- 

 ble for man to change the nature of vegetables, or 

 until Paris shall change its present mean tempera- 

 ture, we may rest assured that the Julibrissin will 

 never really thrive here. 



On the other hand, if many plants refuse to thrive 

 in the open air in our climate, there are still a 

 great many, though natives of distant countries, 

 which accommodate themselves very well to our 

 slcies and soil, and seem to do honor to the cause of 

 naturalization. But do we really perceive that they 

 have changed or modified their nature, or their 

 organization? Certainly not. They flourish in 

 our climate, because they find here nearly the same 

 temperature that they found at home. 



Some time ago I received a foreign seed, which 

 produced a tree. This tree I kept two j'ears in 

 the hot-house, because I had but a single specimen, 

 and I was fearful of losing it. But soon after, 

 finding that the shelter did not suit its habits, I 

 planted it in the open air. There it found a tem- 

 j)erature similar to that of its native countr)'. It 

 soon developed itself with great luxuriance. The 

 leaves became at least ten times larger than when 

 in the hot house, which was probably too warm 

 for it. Here it soon showed its flower and fruit, 

 and was in fact the fine tree from Japan to which 

 botanists have since given the name of Pauloivnia 

 imperialis. I am far from wishing to boast of 

 having naturalized or acclimated it, since we can- 

 not say that its nature has changed, or that it would 

 not have stood at first with the greatest facility in 

 our climate. But we can say that it finds at Paris 

 almost the same temperature as in Japan, and that 

 it thrives very well here. 



It is a common remark, when talking of this sub- 

 ject, (hat the Potato is an acclimated plant. But 

 the least frost always destroys it. Its seeds pro- 



duce a great variety of sorts, of greater or less size, 

 differently colored, and of better or worse quality; 

 but never any less susceptible to frost. There are 

 also many leguminous plants that we consider 

 acclimated or naturalized here. But these same 

 j)iants, whether multiplied by seeds or roots, always 

 fall a prey to the same degree of frost by which 

 they would have been destroyed the first year of 

 their introduction. 



If the naturalization of plants were possible, how 

 is it to be accounted for, that, notwithstanding the 

 Olive and the Orange have been cultivated for 

 centuries in the Dipartement du Var, they have 

 never atlvaneed in the least towards the interior of 

 France? 



Inilustry, the necessities of man, and the zeal of 

 the cultivator, have indeed made great eSbrts to 

 brealf down these natural limits drawn b)' nature; 

 and the want of success, ajiparent to all, is well 

 calculated to impress us with a belief that the natu- 

 ralization of plants is an Utopian scheme. 



There is however one mode upon which the ad- 

 vocates of naturalization have not touched, by 

 which to produce plants more hardy than their 

 parents. This means is hybridization. If, for 

 example, we fertilize the pistil of a tropical plant 

 with the pollen of a plant nearlj'' related, but a 

 native of a cold region, the seed which will be 

 afforded will yield a plant which will most proba- 

 bly be less sensible to cold than the mother plant. 

 I have already made some experiments which ap- 

 pear to confirm this opinion. Thus among some 

 seedling Rhododendrons, the product of a cro-s 

 between the Chinese Rhododendron and those of 

 North America, there are some which stand the 

 winter perfectly, and others which fail to do so. 

 One can even recognize by certain characters of 

 the leaf, etc., those seedlings, among the number, 

 which possess hardy properties, and those which 

 do not. 



The hybridization of plants, not having as yet 

 been studied in this point of view, I propose to 

 continue my experiments, and hope to ha\'e the 

 honor of laying the results before the Royal Soci- 

 ety of Agriculture. Neu.mann 



REVIEWS. 



The Vegetable Kingi-om: or the Structure, 

 Classification, and Uses of Plants ; illustrated 

 upon the natural system, by John Lindley, 

 Ph. D., F.R.S. & L.S., Professor of Botany in 

 ike University of London, ^-c, iviih upwards of 

 500 illustrations. London, Bradbury 4" Evans. 

 New-York, Wiley ^ Putnam. Price $8.00. 



We loolc upon this new volume of Dr. 

 Lindley's, as, in a popular sense, the great- 

 est botanical work of the age. The artifi- 

 cial system of Linnaeus, useful as it was in 



its day, is now laid aside by almost all mo- 

 dern botanists. It bears the same relation 

 to the natural system, that a mere word- 

 dictionary does to a profound work on the 

 philosophy of language. So long as almost 

 the whole vegetable world was yet to be 

 classified and named, the system of Linnaeus, 

 which aimed at little more than fixing the 

 generic and specific character of a plant, 

 and thus enabling the student of nature to 



