I 122 ] 



Tcded to placing them in proper foils and expofures. For, that 

 no region of the earth ftiould remain uninhabited, with a liberal 

 hand have the annual plants been diftributed ; from thefe do men 

 and animals derive their principal fupport, and of all the ve- 

 getable kingdom, they are beft adapted for naturalization. By. 

 bringing their feed to perfedlion in a fingle feafon, they are 

 capable of cultivation in a greater variety of climates than any 

 other vegetables. And the feed, being equally undeftroyed by 

 natural heat and cold, lies dormant, till genial weather calls 

 forth its latent powers, and urges it to vegetation, whether 

 among the frozen fnows of Siberia, or the burning fands of 

 Africa. The Refeda odorata "(Mignionette), a native of Egypt, 

 ■and Helianthus annuus (Sunflower), of Mexico and Peru, ripen 

 their feed, and are thereby perpetuated in our nor: hern latitudes. 

 St. Pierre * fays, the peafants of Fmland cultivate tobacco 

 (Nicotiana Tabacum), with fuccefs, beyond the fixty-firft degree 

 of latitude ; and that barley fucceeds in the very bofom of the 

 North. Amidft the rocks of Finland he faw crops of this grain 

 as beautiful as ever the plains of Paleftine produced f. 



When we endeavour to naturalize plants, that we may diftin- 

 guifh thofe which offer the faireft profped of fuccefs, a com- 

 parifon of the exotics with the natives of the foil will be our 



fureft 



• See '^St. Pierre's Studies of Nature, tranflated by Hunter, Dublin Edition, 

 Vol. I, page 604. 



•]■ See fame Work, page 667. 



