STUDY V. 301 



lavender, the daify, the violet, and other plants of 

 our temperate climates. Alexander, who tranf- 

 planted whole nations at his pleafure, could not, 

 with all his efforts, make the ivy of Greece grow 

 in the vicinity of Babylon *, though he was very 

 ambitious of afting, in India, the character of 

 Bacchus in complete ftyle. 



I am perfuaded, however, that it might be pof- 

 fible to fucceed in effedling thefe vegetable tranf- 

 migrations, by employing ice, in the South, for 

 the propagation of northern plants as we employ 

 floves, in the North, in the propagation of the 

 plants of hot Climates. I do not believe there 

 is a fingle fpot on the Globe, in which we could 

 not, with a little addrefs and induftry, procure 

 ice, as eafily as we can procure fait. In tne 

 whole courfe of my travels, I have never met 

 with a temperature more fultry than that of the 

 Ifland of Malta, though I have twice croffed the 

 Line, and have pafled a confiderable part of 

 my life in the lile of France, where the Sun is 

 vertical twice a year. The foil of Malta confifts 

 of little hills of white flone, which refleft the rays 

 of the Sun with fo much force, that the eye-fight 

 is fenfibly affefted by it ; and when the wind from 

 Africa, known by the name of Syroco, which iffues 



* See Plutarch and Pliny. 



from 



