UNCLE IN ENGLAND. HI 



iere ; that of Carolina will not thrive at all, 

 and Italian seed but indifferently, being destitute 

 of that power of withstanding cold, which the 

 German rice has acquired by habit. 



Another example of the gradual effect of habit 

 on plants my uncle learned from the late Dr. 

 Walker. The Brazilian passion-tree is, you 

 know, an evergreen in its native country ; but 

 when the Doctor was a boy in 1773, some plants 

 of it near Edinburgh annually lost their leaves. 

 During his life, however, they became gradually 

 enured to the climate ; and he says that in his 

 latter years, in sheltered situations, they have 

 retained their foliage through the whole winter. 



I asked my uncle whether those plants, which 

 have come from a warmer region, and are na- 

 turalised here, flower later in this climate than in 

 their own. 



" The times of the appearance of vegetables in 

 the spring seem," said he, " to be influenced by 

 early acquired habits, as well as by sensibility 

 to heat. That same Dr. Walker, whom I men- 

 tioned a few minutes ago, had some very singular 

 ideas on this subject : his opinion was, that plants 

 removed from one climate to another, generally 

 observe their original season of flowering, unless 

 prevented by some powerful cause. The climate 

 of Spain and Portugal in December and January 

 suits the flowering of the laurestinus; and you 

 have seen that the cold of Gloucestershire in 



