110 On the Acclimating Principle of Plants, 



Birds also convey the seeds of plants in their crops over a wide 

 extent, before they become triturated and digested ; and when 

 these winged carriers die, or decay, fronr accident or age, the 

 seeds are deposited, and take root in some distant land. Animals 

 also convey them in their stomachs to a considerable distance, 

 and pass them unipjured by the powers of digestion. 



Man, more provident than all, to whom plants are necessary, 

 whose support, whose comforts, and whose pleasures connect him 

 with them, carries their choice seeds, slips, and scions, far and 

 wide. His interests foster their growth, his attentions enrich 

 their products, and his skill and science preserve their existence, 

 and adapt them to their new condition. In an improved com- 

 munity, man's wants multiply: he has occasion for the more varied 

 and rich fruits ; more abundant and luxurious clothing, and fur- 

 niture of vegetable growth ; odours to regale his senses, vegeta- 

 ble flavours to pamper his appetites, and all the medicinal plants 

 to heal his various diseases, and invigorate his shattered constitu- 

 tion. He attaches himself to agriculture and horticulture : plants 

 become his companions ; he carries a creative resource into those 

 departments, and by his attentions, forms new varieties and ex- 

 cellences, unknown to the wild state of vegetable existence. 

 Such are the means nature has provided for the propagation and 

 extension of plants ; such are the indirect locomotive powers they 

 possess. We must no longer, therefore, consider vegetables such 

 inert and sluggish beings. 



We will now treat plants as having a kind of locomotive exist- 

 ence. We know that they are very perfectly organized, have sen- 

 sibility, and sexual intercourse. We know that they have lungs, 

 by which they breathe, and are connected with the air. We 

 know by abundant experience, how easily they are affected 

 by the elements, by heat and cold, moisture and drought. We 

 know how radically soil affects their productiveness, how imme- 

 ^ diately they are stinted or stimulated by the nature of the ex- 

 traneous circumstances with which they are surrounded. Beings 

 therefore, that have such perfect organization, that although 

 they are fixed in their places, are deeply changed by every 

 shower, and every breeze, and every stroke of the cultivator — 

 beings, so necessary to the wants, and very existence of animat- 

 ed nature — should possess, in a high degree, the faculty of chang- 

 ing their climate, and of accommodating themselves to circum- 



