112 On the Acclimating Principle of Plants. 



and that of N. Carolina now promises to be better than that of 

 more southern countries. The grape has reached 50°, and pro- 

 duces good wine and fruit in Hungary and Germany. The 

 orange, lemon, and sugar-cane, strictly tropical, grow well in 

 Florida, and up to 31i°, in Louisiana, and the fruit of the former 

 much larger and better than under the equator. 



Annual plants grown for roots, and vegetables, and grain, go 

 still farther north in proportion, than the trees and shrubs, be- 

 cause their whole growth is matured in one summer ; and we 

 know that the developenicnt of vegetation is much quicker when 

 spring does open in countries far to the north, than in the tropics. 

 In Lapland and on Hudson's Bay, the full leaf is unfolded in one 

 or two weeks, when spring begins, although it requires six or 

 eight weeks in the south. Nature makes up in despatch for the 

 want of length in her seasons, and this enables us to cultivate 

 the annual plants very far to the north, in full perfection. The 

 beans, puYnpkins, potatoes, peas, cabbages, lettuce, celery, beets, 

 turnips, and thousands of others, seem to disregard climate, and 

 grow in any region or latitude where man plants and cherishes 

 them. The fig is becoming common in France ; the banana, pine- 

 apple, and many other plants, have crossed the line of the tro- 

 pics, and thousands of the plants valuable for food, clothing, and 

 medicine, and such as are cultivated for their beauty, fragrance, 

 or timber, are extending their climates, and promise much com- 

 fort and resource to man. Plants lately introduced, whose cul- 

 tivation has not run through many ages or years, have acquired 

 but little latitude in their growth, and show but little capacity 

 to bear various climates, because time has not yet habituated 

 them to such changes, and human cares have not imparted to 

 them new habits and new powers. 



Nothing can be effected by suddenness in acclimating plants ; 

 too quick a transition would shock them ; it must be a very gra- 

 dual process, embracing many years, and many removals. The 

 complete success that has attended the plants first named, the 

 earliest companions of man, proves this. In the more recent 

 plants success is exactly in proportion to the length of time that 

 a plant has been in a train of experimental culture. 



The most striking method of testing the effect of climate on 

 plants, is to carry suddenly back to the south, such as have been 

 extended far, and become habituated to a northern climate. 



