105 
THE PERIODICAL REPOSE OF PLANTS. 
Plants, considered as animate substances, and endued with the power of exten- 
sion and enlargement, are supposed to require a certain period of complete torpidity, 
to enable them to mature their recently developed members for further elaboration. 
This axiom now forms a stated item in most works on practical botany, and the 
cultivators of plants are likewise beginning to regard it with some degree of 
requisite attention. In its support, it may be alleged, that the continual exercise 
of the growing functions is unnatural ; that plants are unable to endure an un- 
interrupted circulation and distension, without suffering debilitation ; and that an 
analogical reference to animals evinces and confirms its propriety. 
To the validity of the principle, per se, we can have no possible objection. 
Both nature and experience prove to demonstration, that, with existing circum- 
stances, rest is essential to all plants. "Writers on this subject (as far as our obser- 
vation extends) have, however, failed in tracing this principle to its legitimate 
and proper origin. It is therefore left for us to expose the fallacy of the general 
impression, and to attempt to establish the hypothesis on a rational and satisfactory 
basis. 
That plants require a season of repose to consolidate their newly acquired 
substance, perfect its mechanism, and concoct its juices, or slowly to prepare and 
distribute their resources for future growth, is, we humbly conceive, neither 
plausible nor demonstrable. Such an opinion, if entertained, would involve a com- 
plete inversion of natural order. Were we to admit any theorem of so questionable 
a character, we must also allow that variations of climate were created to suit the 
constitutions of certain plants : whereas, sense and reason concur to assure us that 
plants are distributed over those climates, the peculiarities of which are most favour- 
able for their sustenance and development. It must be obvious that plants are 
allotted to those districts the climate of which is most congenial to them ; and not 
that the climate of any region is modified and adapted to the wants and necessities 
of certain kinds of plants. The peculiar season of rest, therefore, its duration, and 
particular mode, or characteristics, are also regulated by climate. 
Perpetual excitement is, we concede, neither natural nor practicable with any 
degree of safety. But, to the notion that plants are incapable of sustaining it, if the 
necessary concomitant circumstances could possibly be furnished, we cannot so 
readily subscribe our assent. On the contrary, it appears highly probable that, by 
subjecting plants to a continuously high temperature, could this be accompanied 
with a due proportion of light and moisture, they might be maintained in a state 
of constant verdure and luxuriance, and that their produce, whether flowers or fruit, 
would not thereby be deteriorated, nor in the slightest degree prejudicially afi*ected. 
While, therefore, unintermittent stimulation is to be deprecated because it is contrary 
to nature in existing climates, the physiologist who is anxious to know why it is 
VOL. VI. NO. LXV. p 
