ACCLIMATING PLANTS. 69 



and the production of seedling peaches, is here presented in a con- 

 densed form. 



Acclimating Plants. 



BY G. F. WATERS. 



It is well known that plants — I particularly refer to fruits, 

 grains, and vegetables — have spread over the earth, and become 

 able to endure great ranges of temperature, from circumscribed 

 local beginnings. How that has been brought about is, with man}', 

 a mooted point. It was early observed that habits of growth cor- 

 responded with local conditions, and that those habits appeared to 

 be fixed in each peculiar case. Improvement seemed for a long 

 time to be the result of accident, or of culture applied for some 

 other purpose. Very gradually, the food plants of the semi- 

 tropical regions became inured to the temperate climates, changing 

 their habits with changing conditions, until to-day the food plants 

 of southern Europe are perfected in our less genial climate. When 

 it was observed that nature gave to the seed of a plant wliich had 

 been removed to a climate more or less favorable for its develop- 

 ment, the power of imitating one whose period of growth would be 

 somewhat conformed to the changed conditions, and that succes- 

 sive plantings secured perfect acclimation, a new impetus was 

 given to acclimation, and change of aspect was soon found to 

 be almost, if not quite, the equivalent of change of climate. When 

 the causes operating to produce such results were considered, they 

 were ascribed to the accidental sporting of seeds under improved 

 culture, — to the tendency of vegetable life to be more excitable, 

 and to come earlier into activity in a cold climate, — to a natural ten- 

 dency of plants to adapt their habits or qualities to every climate 

 in which art or accident might place them, — to the modifying power 

 of climate over transmitted qualities or hereditary tendency, — to 

 the tendency of a prolonged season to give more complete matura- 

 tion ; and, as the process of maturation must be reversed before 

 germination can begin, it follows that those seeds which are 

 gathered before they are quite ripe, will, when planted under 

 favorable circumstances, germinate quicker than more thoroughly 

 ripened seeds. It was also noticed that seeds planted as soon as 

 rine, germinate quicker than if allowed to dry before planting. 



