192 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



Prof. Mapes. — Will it give more heat than a similar consump- 

 tion of gas in the open air ? 



Mr. Pardee. — Yes; twenty times. 



Prof. Mapes proceeded to state facts tending to show that when 

 gas burns with a blue flame it gives out very much more heat 

 than when it burns with an ordinary bright yellow flame. 



SUBJECT FOR NEXT WEEK. 



On motion of Mr. Pardee, Mr. Fuller was invited to address 

 the club next Monday, at one o'clock, upon the subject of " Cut- 

 tings." 



ACCLIMATION. 



Prof. Mapes. — For the purpose of bringing up the question, I 

 will take the ground that there is no truth in the doctrine of 

 acclimation. That is, I shall maintain that plants being carried 

 from a certain country to different places, and acquiring various 

 peculiarities in those places, will, when carried back, all produce 

 alike. The same vine will produce Madeira wine in the island of 

 Madeira, and Hock wine in the Hock district, as often as it is 

 carried back and forth. The Gossypium Arboreum, at 40 deg. 

 10 min. south, in Chili, is a long, fine staple. At 15 miles en this 

 side of Baltimore it produces a cotton like that of Chili. The 

 same tree grows in Peru, Honduras, Borneo and in other places. 

 As you approach the Equator it becomes a short staple ; and as 

 you recede from the Equator it becomes a long and fine staple, 

 finer even than that of Edisto island. Now I contend that if you 

 take the seeds from any one of the localities and carry them to 

 any other, they will produce the quality of cotton now produced 

 there. In other words, the plant maintains its integrity, and 

 when carried back to its original locality it will produce as it 

 did before. We are all familiar with the facts about the Ber- 

 muda potatoes. Western reds, peach blows and Carters all go 

 to Bermuda and come back Bermuda potatoes, which we know to 

 be such from their appearance. Plant those potatoes here, and 

 back they go to w^estern reds, peach blows, &c., as they were 

 before. The Havana orange carried to Florida becomes a Florida 

 orange. There are grapes which gentlemen have taken much 

 pains to acclimate, and Avhich after some time they have placed 

 in the open air ; but unfortunately they did not try the experi- 

 ment of placing them in the open air in the first place. I have 

 no evidence that any plant has changed its integrity from removal 



