ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 



XIV. — Remarhs on Artificial Climate. By A. Scott, C.M.H.S., 

 Gardener to Sir Geo. Staunton, Bart., M.P., F.H.S., Leigh 

 Park, Havant, Hants. 



(Communicated January 29, 1849.) 



Ikt cultivating plants from warm latitudes, in this country, it is 

 obvious that our success will mninly depend upon the skilful 

 management of our artificial climate ; this renders the latter a 

 subject of importance to all interested in the higher branches of 

 horticulture. If I have nothing new to offer in the following 

 remarks, tliey may at least be relied on as the result of some 

 experience. 



To be successful in this department of gardening, to our know- 

 ledge of cultivation we ought to add a more or less intimate 

 acquaintance with the laws which govern the diffusion of heat, 

 light, and vapour, together with tlieir influences on vegetation ; 

 inasmuch as all varieties of climate mainly result from the amount 

 and relative proportions of these agents. But in order to main- 

 tain suitable climates for the various wants of all our in-door 

 plants, it is not necessarj' that we shoujd attempt to imitate all 

 the warm climates of the world : for it has been proved by expe- 

 rience that an exact imitation of every peculiarity that affects 

 plants in their native country is far from being necessary to their 

 well-being under glass : nearly all of them will thrive in an 

 atmosphere differing considerably from tliat which they experience 

 in a state of nature, in respect to both temperature and humidity. 

 This is a rule to which I know of no important exceptions ; even 

 the Mangosteen, which refuses to thrive on the continent of In- 

 dia, or indeed anywhere but in the heated and moist atmosphere 

 of the Indian Archipelago, succeeds in our artificial climate ; 

 plants of it in this garden have grown, in little more than three 

 years, 10 feet in height, bushy, and branchy in proportion. 

 Although we never expect to alter the nature of plants by artifi- 

 cial treatment, yet with a little management they submit to the 

 latter with docility. In warm countries plants usually experience 

 a considerable variation between the day and night temperatures, 

 independently of the difference between the wet and dry seasons : 

 when occasion requires it, therefore, as during our winters, we 

 find it a point of great importance to regulate humidity so that 

 we may safely adopt a minimum temperature considerably lower 

 than the natural one. At all seasons we shall also be acting cor- 

 rectly in supplying less of both heat and moisture to produce a 

 given result, owing to the altered circumstances respecting the 



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