ON B TANY Arri.IED TO HORTICULTURE. 225 



is (he case with some of our beautiful Alpines whose winters in their 

 native habitat is passed beneath the snow, and are, therefore 

 shielded from those sudden, and I may add, injurious changes of heat 

 and cold, which they are necessarily subjected to in a climate so 

 extremely variable as ours. So also a plant may be indigenous to a 

 more southern country than this, and still find the full influence of 

 our summer's sun too much for it. The Nemophila will serve as an 

 example. I have seen a bed of N. insignis this summer dwindle 

 away in a southern exposure where it last summer grew beautifully. 

 And this is easily accounted for, and might have been prevented had 

 its natural conditions of growth been studied. Every plant is 

 adapted to grow in its own peculiar habitat ; that of the Nemophila is 

 a moist and shady one. Therefore, if it be compared with that of 

 the bed alluded to, it will be perceived that the failure was no more 

 than might have been anticipated ; and the circumstance of its having 

 done well in the same situation the preceding summer was the mere 

 work of chance, resulting from the humid and general sunless 

 character of that season, nearly resembling the character of its native 

 locality. 



More examples might be adduced in illustration of the utility of 

 this department of botany (which is termed geographical) to the 

 pursuits of the amateur, but it may be perceived from what has been 

 said, that the careful study of it could nut be other than highly 

 advantageous, inasmuch as it would furnish him with a knowledge of 

 those incidental circumstances which, under certain modifications, 

 influence the growth of his plants ; and the attentive observance of 

 which would, in a great measure, obviate those failures and dis- 

 appointments which are too often the only reward of his diligent 

 though misdirected labours. 



Should it not be thought inconsistent with the nature of the 

 Cabinet, in my next and two succeeding papers, I intend treating 

 of Physiological or Structural Botany, with remarks touching its ap- 

 plication to horticulture. 



