32 



FLORA 1NDICA. 



and development of resinous qualities. Thus the wood of 



hardness, and odour : and the Swiss 



greatly 



when planted in England, yield very inferior timber compared 

 to what they do in their native forests. The wood of the 

 English Oak grown at the Cape of Good Hope is worthless, 

 as is that of the American Locust-tree, and indeed of most 

 American timber-trees, in England. The varieties of Oak* 

 wood in our own climate are no less notoriously different; 

 and the endless discussions that have arisen as to the relative 

 properties of timber-trees, and the specific differences between 

 the plants that produce them, may to a great extent all be 

 traced to the same cause. 



With regard to the development of medicinal properties 

 they vary extremely in the same species. Of this the most 

 conspicuous Indian examples are presented by the Opium 

 Poppy, Mudar (Calotropis) , and the Cannabis sativa, the com- 

 mon Hemp of England, which yields Bhang and Chirris in 

 varying quantities, and of different quality, very much in pro- 

 portion to the humidity of the soil and climate it grows in. 

 The Digitalis grown in the Himalaya is said to have proved 

 almost inert, and so with other plants which have been cul- 

 tivated for medical and economic purposes, as the Tea and 

 many English fruits and vegetables. 



We have reserved habit as the last point to which we shall 

 allude in connection with this subject, though we believe it 

 to be of all others the most deceptive, as indicating specific 

 difference. Habit is a thing which every one thinks he ap- 

 preciates, but which no two persons similarly appreciate ; each 

 individual's conception of it depending on his own knowledge 

 and experience, usually on first impressions, and often on pre- 

 conceived ideas which become dominant. Like all other vague 

 terms, it is used with as much confidence by a gardener to 



* We do not here allude to the difference between Querent pedmnculata and 



species 





grown in different climat 



