ANOMALIES OF DEVELOPEMENT. CHAP. V. 



SECTION IX. 



Physical Virtues. 



WHEN plants are removed from their native soil 

 and taken into a state of culture, it alters not only 

 their habit but their physical virtues. Thus the 

 sour Grape is rendered sweet, the bitter Pear 

 pleasant, the dry Apricot pulpy, the prickly Lettuce 

 smooth, and the acrid Celery wholesome. Pot- 

 herbs are also rendered more tender by means of 

 cultivation, and better fitted for the use of man ; 

 and so also are all our fine varieties of fruit. 



SECTION X. 

 Duration. 



PLANTS are either annuals, biennials, or peren- 

 nials, and the species is uniformly of the same class. 

 But it has been found that some plants which are 

 annuals in a cold climate, such as that of Sweden, 

 will become perennials in a hot climate, such as that 

 of the West Indies. This anomaly has been ex- 

 emplified in Tropceolum, Beet- root, and Malva 

 arborica ; and on the contrary some plants, which 

 are perennials in hot climates, are reduced to annuals 

 when transplanted into a cold climate ; this has 

 been exemplified in Mirabilis and Ricinus.* 



* Phil. Trans. 216. 



