ON NATURALIZING TENDER PLANTS. 



ing regularity with which certain plants affect 

 peculiar elevations, apparently unconnected with 

 the nature of the soil, but bearing a relation 

 alone to particular states of. the atmosphere, 

 which we have no means of appretiating. Simi- 

 lar facts are familiar to botanists in our own 

 country, in the very limited zones of elevation, 

 affected by our alpine plants. But perhaps of 

 individual instances, the strongest and best 

 known, is that of the Caper, Capparis spinosa, 

 whose delicacy of sensation has, I believe, hi- 

 therto precluded its cultivation in any other cli- 

 mate than its native one. Whatever this ob- 

 scure condition of a climate may be, it appears 

 that the island of which I have been speaking, 

 posesses requisites appertaining to it which are 

 not common, and which, to us at least, in the 

 present state of things, are elsewhere inaccessi- 

 ble. These considerations, therefore, should 

 stimulate us to make trials, which, in their re- 

 sults, may possibly prove useful as well as orna- 

 mental. Many of the fruits which are now too 

 tender to bear our climate, might be taught to. 

 produce seeds, which would give us products 

 equal in goodness to the original, and of hardier 

 character. It is not unlikely, for example, that 

 a variety of the Melon, from seeds produced in 

 Guernsey, might be made to grow without the 

 aid of glass in England. Perhaps, even the Ca- 

 per or the Orange might be naturalized through 



