By Professor Lindley. 



natural orders of plants affect particular and well marked climates ; 

 as palms, the plains of the tropics ; Cactacea?, the temperate and dry 

 regions of America ; and epiphytal OrchidaceaB, the hot and damp 

 regions of all countries near the equator. But even these cases 

 are not free from striking exceptions ; we have the fan palrn 

 (Chamcerops humilis) growing as far north as Rome, and the wax 

 palm (Ceroxylon andicola), flourishing on the mountain Quindiu, at 

 the height of nearly 9,000 feet above the sea, in bleak places where the 

 temperature falls to 44°. Of Cactaceae, a species of Opuntia, with 

 no other protection than a hand-glass, or occasionally in the most 

 severe weather a mat thrown over it, was able to sustain the late 

 winter at Owston, near Doncaster, where it must have endured a 

 temperature of 9° Fahrenheit ; Opuntia ferox stood unprotected 

 at Glasgow and Dropmore ; and according to Nuttall, Melo- 

 cactus viviparus and another are found in the elevated moun- 

 tainous regions of the Missouri, where they are exposed to " intense 

 frost." Finally, epiphytal Orchidaceae have been found at the ele- 

 vation of 14,000 feet on the Peruvian Andes, where the cold is 

 very considerable, in the case of Oncidium nubigenum ; Dendro- 

 bium denudans inhabits regions in the north of India, where it grows 

 upon oaks and is occasionally exposed to frost, according to Dr. 

 Royle ; and Mr. Hartweg met with a species of Laelia (?) in the 

 mountains of Leon in Mexico, on branches of oak trees, at an ele- 

 vation of 8,000 feet above the sea, where it sometimes freezes. 



Under these circumstances, speculation as to the laws which 

 govern such conflicting results, is in the present state of our know- 

 ledge premature, and the only useful information which can be 

 given consists of naked facts. These facts are, however, of the 

 utmost practical consequence, because they enable us to judge 

 whether it is probable, that a given species, which has been the 

 subject of actual experiment in one climate will succeed in another 

 or not. For this reason it has been thought advisable to go into 

 the numerous minute details included in this report. 



