20 On the Acclimating Principle of Plants. 



avoid even the different seasons of the same year, and could 

 not, with all their versatility of constitution, exist without it. 

 We may infer, then, that plants, which, alter having rooted 

 themselves, cannot migrate at all, should be endowed with 

 faculties to bear all the changes of the seasons, and even of 

 climate, in the same dull place of their existence. They are 

 so endowed, and can often bear more changes, and support 

 more disasters of storms and ravages of insects, than animals ; 

 and often continue to flourish under violent and sudden chan- 

 ges. 



Human care, and the providencies of nature, have given to 

 many plants a great extent of climate and latitude, an enlarg- 

 ed growth, and an increased and improved product. Let us 

 bring together such instances as are within the knowledge of 

 all, and which ought to stimulate our cultivators to greater 

 efforts. 



The valley of the Euphrates was doubtless the native re- 

 gion of all those fine and delicious fruits which enrich our 

 orchards, and enter so largely into the luxury of living. We 

 thence derived all the succulent and nutritious vegetables 

 that go so far to support life ; and even the fiirinaceous grains 

 appertain to the same region. The cereal productions began 

 in that same valley to be the staffs of life. 



Our corn, our fruit, our vegetables, our roots, and oil have 

 all travelled with men from Mesopotamia up to latitude 60°, 

 and even farther, in favorable situations. The cares of man 

 have made up tor the want of climate, and his cultivation 

 atoned for this alienation from tlicir native spot. The Scan- 

 dinavians of Europe, the Canadians of North America, and 

 the Samoides of Asia, are now enjoying plants which care and 

 cultivation have naturalized in their bleak climes. Melons 

 and peaches, with many of the more tender plants and fruits, 

 once almost tropical, have reached the 45° of latitude 

 in perfection, and arc found even in TO-. Rice has travelled 

 from the tropics to 36°, and that of N. Carolina now promises 

 to be better than that of more SwUthcrn countries. The grape 

 has reached 50°, and produces good wine and fruit in Hun- 

 gary and Germany. The orange, lemon and sugar cane, 

 strictly tropical, grow well in Florida, and up to 31^°, in 

 Louisiana, and the fruit of the former much larger and better 

 than under the equator. 



Annual plants grown for roots, and vegetables, and grain, go 

 still farther north in proportion, than the trees and shrubs, 

 because their whole growth is matured in one summer ; and 

 we know that the developement of vegetation is much quicker 



