ACCLIMATIZATION OF FOREIGN TREES AND PLANTS. 529 
ufaetured products ; while many gardeners' flowers, such as 
the Pelargonium and the Tulip, differ so widely from their 
ancestors as, in some cases, to obscure their parentage. The 
term acclimatization has been objected to by some scientific 
men, on the ground that the descendants of any animal or 
plant which has been transported from one climate to an- 
other have no more power than their ancestor of adapting 
themselves to that climate, unless the principle of Natural 
Selection has come into play to eliminate the individuals 
least able to adapt themselves to the new climate, those only 
surviving which, from some cause or other, are most suited 
to the fresh conditions. Be this as it may, there is no ques- 
tion about the fact that the farmer and the gardener have it 
in their power to naturalize plants foreign to our climate and 
our soil. 
But the conditions of this naturalization are by no means 
so simple as might at first sight appear. It might naturally 
be supposed that all we have to do is to introduce those 
plants which grow spontaneously in a climate and a soil sim- 
ilar to our own, and that they will necessarily flourish, and 
will scarcely be aware of the change. Or, if they come 
from a warmer country that all that is needed is to protect 
them by glass and artificial warmth from the inclemency of 
our winters. But in practice this is not found to be the case. 
A plant will frequently obstinately refuse to become natural- 
ized in a country, the climatal and geological conditions of 
Which are similar to those that occur in the region where it 
is indigenous. Our commori daisy, a native of almost every 
country of Europe, is said to have resisted all attempts to 
introduce it even into the gardens of the United States. 
Some plants seem to have an unconquerable aversion to the 
` fostering hand of man, even in their own country. A well- 
constructed and carefully kept fernery will contain speci- 
mens, more or less luxuriant, of nearly all our native ferns; 
the polypody and hartstongue from shady banks and tree- 
stumps ; the so-called male and female ferns from the woods ; 
AMER. NATURALIST, VOL. IV. 67 
