84 DR. V. MARTIUS 



Munich, in June and July, is 13° 38 R., and 14° 55 R. respec- 

 tively, it is at Port Macquarie 4° 91 and 5° 98; and while our 

 December and January indicate 1° 29 and 1° 07 ; they are at 

 that place 14° 32. The practical gardener may derive many 

 valuable hints from tables of this nature. He will avoid crowding 

 together in one house natives of both hemispheres, for it is 

 obvious, that those from the northern will better endure the 

 diminished winter temperature than those from the southern, 

 which at that very period experience their warmest summer; 

 they will even benefit to a certain extent by such a diminution, 

 provided it does not greatly exceed in degree that of their 

 native place. In all cases where quiescence of vegetation and 

 winter-rest are caused, not by want of moisture, but by a low 

 temperature, we may apply it during winter to plants from the 

 northern hemisphere. But the plants of the other half of the 

 globe require very great nicety of adjustment on account of the 

 reversed seasons to which they are accustomed. Experience 

 teaches us, that plants possess, to a certain degree, the power of 

 accommodating themselves to modifications in the ordinary course 

 of seasons, even in their own countries. The same plant will 

 submit to a shortened period of vegetation, the more it approaches 

 the pole or ascends mountains. In his paper entitled "Observa- 

 tions upon the Temperature to which plants are naturally 

 exposed in New Holland," contained in tlie journal of the 

 Horticultural Society of London, vol. iii. (for 1848) p. 282, 

 Dr. Lindley furnishes us with most important information upon 

 the subject before us, and which I strongly recommend to 

 careful study.* 



I cannot entertain a doubt, but that in the distant future, the 

 cultivation which is now carried on in plant-houses — those sub- 

 stitutes for tropical zones — will acquire a degree of perfection 

 which it is almost impossible to anticipate even in imagination. 

 Not that we can ever expect to see the pine-apple growing in our 

 fields, or our streets and squares lined with bananas, coffee-trees, 

 or palms ; but some mighty potentate or wealthy people will im- 

 prove upon the wonderful Crystal Palace at this moment rising at 

 Sydenham, and bring us in bodily contact with the luxury and 

 magnificence of a tropical world. All sciences will combine to 

 produce such results, and posterity will look back on us with the 

 proud humility of a Watt, or a Konig — the discoverers of the 



* As the above Journal is not generally known in Germany, the author 

 {rives here an extract from the memoir. 



