68 On the Power of Habit in Vegetables. 



East-India Company. She was, during that voyage, 

 store-ship to the island ; and being by far the largest 

 ship in the employ, we carried out, by order of the 

 Company, a number of vegetables, in pots and boxes 

 of earth. Among the rest were Gooseberry and Cur- 

 rant bushes. But it happened, that the inhabitants, 

 and the Company's officers on the island, were bet- 

 ter acquainted with the nature of the climate, and its 

 effect upon these vegetables, than the Directors. 

 They remembered Currant and Gooseberry bushes 

 having been sent there, I believe oftener than once : 

 but they seldom ever produced any fruit after the first 

 year. They were luxuriant in foliage ; and turned 

 to evergreens, and got out of the habit of producing 

 buds, blossoms, or fruit, not having the vicissitudes 

 of season to bring about these changes, &c. (See 

 Note 1, at the end of this paper.) 



I remember an observation of the Marquis de Chas- 

 telux, when he was setting out from Williamsburg 

 to Monticello, that it appeared to be summer in the 

 heavens, and winter on the earth. This was in the 

 spring, and the heat was great, but no appearance of 

 vegetation had then taken place. When I was in 

 South-Carolina, in the spring of the year 1793, a 

 similar phenomenon struck mc very forcibly. The 

 heat was rather distressing, long before there was any 

 other appearance of vegetation than the Peach- blos- 

 soms ; and I have no doubt, that the same phenome- 

 non would be remarked by any European, the first 

 spring he should pass in the southern states : for in 

 Europe, vegetation begins with a very moderate de- 



