m the Temperature of fFinter. 15 



Ei.it the best evidence of the true temperature of the 

 ehmate of Italy, and the course of the seasons, is that 

 which arises from the time of vegetation. This is infal- 

 hble evidence. 



Piiny relates, Nat. Hist. lib. 16. ca. 25. that spring 

 began with the blowing of Favonius. 'Jliis time is ex- 

 pressly fixed to have been the 8th of February. Pliny 

 calls it the " genial breath of the world." This author 

 informs us that some vegetables germinated on the first 

 blowino; of this w^ind. " Primo favonio s:erminat Cor- 

 nus, proxmius laurus, pauloque ante ..'Equinoctium tilia, 

 acer." The cornelian cherr}-- germinates on the first 

 blowing of the west wind ; afterwards the laurel, and a 

 little before the equinox, the lime tree and the maple. 



In the fifth chapter of the 18th book, he says, " some 

 persons prefer planting gourds about the first of March, 

 and cucumbers about the nones," or middle of the 

 month. In the 34th chapter of the same book, he says 

 " Favonius begins the spring ; it opens the earth, being 

 moderately cool and salubrious. It directs the husband- 

 man to prune his vines, to take care of his corn, to 

 plant trees, to graft apples, and tend his olives." 



Spring radishes, says the same author, are to be sown 

 after the ides of Februaiy ; but this plant, he adds, is 

 so fond of cold weather, that in Germany it grows to 

 the size of a little boy. Gardens are to be plowed, ac- 

 cording to the same author, about the ides, the 13th of 

 February. 



Horace, Ode 4th of Book I. expressly says, that 

 spring begins by the favor of Favonius, when the cattle 

 no longer seek their stalls, the husbandman his fire side, 

 nor are the meadows any longer whitened with frost. 



These facts indicate a moderate climate, like that of 

 the Carolinas and Georgia in America ; and they could 

 not be true of a climate where common winters were 

 long and severe. 



The real temperature of Italy is ascertained precisely 

 by the olive and other plants, that we know will not bear 

 severe frost, and will not thrive and come to perfection, 

 but in warm climates. 



