32 ACCLIMATATION. 
The influence of soil and climate on many species of Coni- 
fere alters their character, even in one generation, and some- 
times produces as important a difference as that which exists 
between one species and another. I have sometimes observed 
a very marked difference in the hardiness of seedling arau- 
carias, which I believe they inherit from the situation or 
climate in which the seed was produced. 
I do not think that the influence of a hot climate is so 
readily impressed on our hardy deciduous trees as it is on the 
various species of conifers, yet I have observed it to some ex- 
tent, on plants grown from Continental seeds, of two of our 
hardiest deciduous native trees, the alder and birch, which 
are decidedly more tender than those from home-grown seed. 
I observe a paper presented to the Botanical Congress, on 
the raising of peaches, nectarines, and other fruits, from seed, 
by Mr. Thomas Rivers, Sawbridgeworth. He states that by 
repeated generations from seed they are produced “ of a more 
hardy nature than the old sort,” and that he has more than one 
proof of the fact. He adds, “I may be accused of enthusiasm, 
but I look to the future for new races of fruits with qualities 
far superior to the old, and the tree of so hardy a nature as to 
resist some of the unfavourable tendencies of our climate. I 
have formed this opinion on the solid basis of observation 
during a lifetime devoted to the cultivation of fruit-trees in 
all stages of their growth.” 
It is also worthy of notice that his late Majesty Leopold, 
King of the Belgians, entertained a sound opinion of the im- 
portance of acclimatation, and practically acted thereon.) In 
1 “Leopold of Belgium, whose loss we lament in this country almost as 
much as do his own subjects, had a character of shrewdness, which the 
subjoined extract from a pamphlet of our friend, Professor E. Morren, of 
Liége, will go towards justifying. Speaking of the progress of horticulture 
and botany, the good old King remarked on the benefits conferred on the 
world at large from the alliance of ,the two branches of science, and ex- 
pressed his opinion that we need not pay so much attention to the discovery 
of plants likely to be useful as food for man, as to those capable of being em- 
ployed as forage plants. The human race, spread throughout the world, must 
be in possession of nearly all the plants profitable as sources of food for man, 
but with reference to those indirectly useful there is more scope. Moreover, 
