ON THE EFFECTS OF HIGH TEMPERATURE ON SOME PLANTS. 241 



expectations, this plant, a native of Jamaica, proved extremely impatient 

 of heat and light, and its young leaves always required to be shaded when 

 the temperature of the house exceeded 90. But with proper attention 

 to screen the leaves from the mid-day sun, till they acquired maturity, 

 the young trees of this species have succeeded as well as those of any of 

 the preceding species. 



Several other plants, part of them natives of temperate climates, grew 

 in my house through the whole summer, without any one of them being 

 drawn, or any way injured, by the very high temperature to which they 

 were occasionally subjected ; and from these, and other facts, which have 

 come within my observation, I think myself justified in inferring, that, in 

 almost all cases in which the object of the cultivator is to promote the 

 rapid and vigorous growth of his plants, a very high temperature, provided 

 it be accompanied by bright sunshine, may be employed with great 

 advantage ; but it is necessary that the glass of his house should be of 

 good quality, and that his plants be placed near it, and be abundantly 

 supplied with food and water. In the preceding experiments, water 

 was made the vehicle of food to the roots of the plants, in the manner 

 I have described in a former communication *, and with similar good 

 effects. 



My house contains a few pine- apple plants, in the treatment of which 

 I have deviated somewhat widely from the common practice ; and, I 

 think, with the best effects ; for their growth has been exceedingly rapid, 

 and a great many gardeners, who have come to see them, have unani- 

 mously pronounced them more perfect than any which they had previously 

 seen. But many of the gardeners think that my mode of management 

 will not succeed in winter, and that my plants will become unhealthy, if 

 they do not perish, in that season ; and as some of them have had much 

 experience, and I very little, I wish at present to decline saying more 

 relative to the culture of that plant. 



* See above, page 211. 



