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feet in height, and the whole pond was in eveiy 

 part covered with them as thick as wheat grows 

 on a well managed soil." 



"Here," adds Sir Joseph, "we have an ex- 

 periment which proves, that an annual plant, 

 scarcely able to endure the ungenial summer of 

 England, has become, in fourteen generations, as 

 strong and as vigorous as our indigenous plants, 

 and as perfect, in all its parts, as in its native 

 climate ;" and certainly it is unquestionable that 

 it is to the influence of culture, in varying and 

 improving the natural qualities of vegetables, that 

 we owe many of the luxuries of the table and 

 dessert, nay, man could scarcely have been 

 civilized but for this power of culture over the 

 vegetable kingdom. The present state of society 

 depends for its existence on the production of 

 grain ; but grain in its natural state is not worth 

 producing. Wheat, before it has been subjected 

 to the influence of cultivation, is an insignificant 

 and worthless seed ; yet to this same seed, when 

 improved by culture, and to others as trifling, 

 when subjected to the same process, do we owe 

 all the comforts of civilized life. Culture has on 

 the brute creation analogous effects ; the colour, 

 shape, size, flavour and very habits of plants, 

 are altered by cultivation, and precisely the same 

 effects are produced upon animals. Man him- 

 self varies in colour, size and habit, according to 

 the circumstances in which he is placed ; and, 

 indeed, it seems a law throughout the whole ani- 

 mate creation, that each individual shall become 



