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many species common in the south and south-east of England fail to 

 reach the northern counties or Scotland, and even become rare or ex- 

 tinct in the west of England and Ireland on the same parallel ; and 

 that, therefore, because a plant does not evince itself indubitably wild 

 in the northern, western and even midland parts of Britain, we can- 

 not safely predicate the same of it in the southern and eastern coun- 

 ties, but must be guided by what we see of its condition there in 

 settling the question of spontaneity, without allowing our opinion to 



season of that name, as till then we have seldom any cold worth speaking of, and 

 snow has been for several years of very rare occurrence. But the cold winds of 

 spring are not so injurious to vegetation here as farther north, because not accom- 

 panied by so much moisture, and because the longer and warmer summer ripens the 

 wood of tender trees and shrubs, enabling them to resist their ungenial influence. 

 Hence we see, in the Isle of Wight and along the opposite coast of Hants, the myrtle 

 and the fig luxuriant as standards in the gardens even of tbe cottagers, the former 

 ripening its berries abundantly, and the latter growing to trees of great stature and 

 girth, and producing most abundant crops of large and luscious fruit every season. 

 Noble fig trees, as large as most I have seen in Italy, and bearing figs fully equal in 

 size, but perhaps somewhat less saccharine in general, to those grown abroad, may 

 be seen about Portsmouth and elsewhere along the coast, as well as in this island. 

 St. John's garden, near Ryde, is full of old standard fig trees, most prolific bearers, 

 that yield a good return to the proprietor yearly at the fig season (August, September) 

 for the trouble of gathering, as this tree needs no pruning or attention, and indeed 

 thrives best when most neglected. I have never known the fig suffer from our se- 

 verest winters ; even in the extraordinary one of 1838-9 the trees here escaped with- 

 out the slightest injury, but at any considerable distance inland the ends of the 

 branches are liable to suffer from the spring frosts, and the protection of a wall be- 

 comes advisable to ensure a crop of fruit. The varieties of the fig grown at Ryde are 

 the brown Ischia, purple Ischia, white Genoa, and a large, green, late fig, the name 

 of which I cannot learn, and which often fails to ripen in this climate. Figs of three 

 quarters of a pound weight have been gathered at St. John's, and fruit weighing half 

 a pound is not uncommon, but the average is under this last amount. Although 

 abundantly cultivated all over the county, in every garden and against almost every 

 farm-house and cottage, the vine succeeds but indifferently in the Isle of Wight and 

 along the coast line in ordinary years, as, although clusters of large size are frequently 

 and copiously produced, they do not arrive at proper maturity before the damp wea- 

 ther of autumn sets in and spoils the grapes. More inland, however, the vine comes 

 oftener to maturity, and even in this island well-ripened and heavy crops of grapes are 

 procured at intervals of about three or four years at furthest. This last autumn, I 

 remarked the vines in most places along the south coast from Arundel westward to 

 Christchurch, loaded with fine well-grown clusters of black and white grapes, which, 

 although of full size and well coloured, in few instances had their proper flavour. The 

 vine succeeds better and more constantly in our dry eastern counties, at some dis- 

 tance from the sea, as in Kent, Cambridgeshire and the western parts of Suffolk. 



