ON THE INFLUENCE OF CLIMATE ON PLANTS. 
155 
or affords his plants an artificial shading from the sun, well knowing that the deli- 
cate seedlings require time gradually to accommodate themselves to their new 
position, before they can absorb sufficient liquid nutriment to counteract the profuse 
evaporation which would take place, were they not screened from the sun's rays. 
On such a subject, however, it is needless to expatiate, for after all, the plea- 
sures of gardening are not derivable from elaborate treatises, neither are they easily 
communicable. They must be sought after to be duly appreciated; and once 
tasted, the mind will never become satiated, but will rove as the bee from flower 
to flower in search of delicious and nutritive sweets, extracting fresh stores of wis- 
dom and pleasure from each successive object, till finally, it succeeds in amassing 
that which most truly constitutes man rich — a fund of knowledge of his Creator's 
works. 
REMARKS ON THE INFLUENCE OF CLIMATE ON PLANTS. 
ARTICLE III.— THE INFLUENCE OF LIGHT — {continued) . 
Having, in preceding articles, directed the attention of our readers to the 
influence of light upon the plants which are usually cultivated in the stove, as also 
upon those which are termed " succulent plants ;" and having, from the varied 
effect of such influence therein demonstrated, deduced a few practical inferences 
with regard to the culture and management of the more important members of 
these sections ; we proposed taking into consideration the effect of different degrees 
of light on the various tribes of greenhouse plants, and endeavouring to show how 
such plants may be improved and cultivated to greater perfection by the application 
of a correct knowledge of sound physiological principles, and the examination and 
investigation of their natural habits in this respect. 
As we intend on the present occasion to treat this subject solely as a practical 
question, we proceed at once to the matter under consideration ; and will premise by 
stating, that in the term "greenhouse plants" we include heaths, orange trees, camellias, 
pelargoniums, and miscellaneous plants requiring the protection of the greenhouse ; 
upon which five divisions we propose offering a few separate remarks, not however 
upon the whole system of their cultivation, but solely with reference to the subject 
now before us. There is perhaps no genus or tribe of plants in the whole vegetable 
kingdom, the cultivation of which is apparently attended with such great difficulty, 
and in which such numerous failures are constantly experienced, as the genus Erica; 
and although some eminent cultivators, who have written on the subject, deny that 
there is any difficulty in growing the plants of this beautiful genus, the very fact 
of their considering it necessary to lay down such a number of specific rules for 
their management, supplies their own confutation of such a statement. The 
difficulty, therefore, in cultivating heaths, as indeed any other plants, ceases to 
