PROCEEDINGS OF THE FARMERS' CLUB. 193 



to a different climate, or lias become better capable of standing 

 the severity of a climate from exposure to it. 



Mr. Carpenter. — I think we should make a distinction between 

 plants propagated by cuttings or eyes and those propagated from 

 seed. I have no doubt that we can alter the character of vege- 

 tables produced from seed, and that they can be acclimated ; but 

 I think those produced from cuttings or tubers cannot. Bring a 

 muskmelon from Persia, and by planting the seed each year of 

 the first melon that ripens, we may get it to ripen some weeks 

 earlier, and by following it up we may obtain a permanent 

 advance. 



Prof. Mapes. — That does not meet the point, because the same 

 thing might be done in Persia. It is the particular selection of 

 seed that makes the difference, and not the change of climate. 



Rev. Mr. Weaver. — As I understand acclimation, the statements 

 of Prof. Mapes prove it. I do not understand it to mean such 

 a change that the plant will not return to its former character, 

 but such an adaptation to the climate that the plant becomes 

 able to live there, as a person going to Africa, and having the 

 fever several times, becomes acclimated and is able to live there. 



Prof. Mapes. — I admit it as to the fever, but not as to plants. 



I hold that if we should raise seed from the Gossypium Arbo- 

 rium here, and procure seed fresh from Chili, and plant them 

 together, the result would be the same. It is sometimes the case 

 that a larger or older plant will bear more cold than a smaller 

 one, and a young plant brought from a warmer climate may be 

 unable to bear the cold, and j^et the same plant when a few years 

 older may seem to have become acclimated. 



Dr. Holton said that it was his opinion that the external force 

 of the climate might so prevail over the internal force of the 

 plant as to develope a new interior power. If Cretins, from the 

 goitrous district of Switzerland, are carried to other countries, 

 the children will retain a goitrous tendency, although that disease 

 is produced by the climate. After some generations that ten- 

 dency may be overcome. So plants, after some generations, will 

 probably return to their original character, but not immediately. 



Prof. Mapes. — That is the true issue, for I claim that they will 

 return the first year. But the illustration is not quite fair, for 

 diseases may become hereditary, and it must be shown that the 

 changes in plants are from disease to establish any analogy. 



Mr. Pardee. — Mr. Peabody supposed that by his mode of treat- 



[Am. Inst.] M 



