156 
INFLUENCE OP CLIMATE ON PLANTS. 
indulge in. It is scarcely needful to apply them to the common ornaments of the 
flower-garden and pleasure-grounds, since these are chiefly such as require no 
artificial treatment to render their flowers more profuse. Nor does the design of 
this Magazine admit of any particular reference to fruit-trees. Our remarks will, 
therefore, be wholly confined to the more tender kinds of exotic plants. 
In the naturalization of ornamental plants from warmer climates, one of the 
principal difficulties to be surmounted is, the bringing them to a productive state. 
Being planted in the open ground, the atmospheric elements cannot possibly be 
adjusted to them in the necessary manner and degree ; other measures must, 
therefore, be adopted, which will, as nearly as practicable, answer the same 
purpose. As the class of plants susceptible of acclimatation in this country 
comprises species which, upon the aggregate, are found in exposed situations, one 
of the chief designs of the cultivator should be to choose a spot for planting them 
where they can receive the full advantage of air and solar influence, and yet be 
partially or seasonably sheltered from cold winds. A position where the action of 
the sun during summer would be sufficiently strong to ripen the growth of that 
year, even though artificial protection should be requisite in the same situation in 
winter, is far preferable to one in which the shelter is permanent, because naturally 
afforded, and creating shade likewise. 
Where the heat, under prevailing climatic circumstances, is not intense enough 
to occasion a proper and perfect maturation, attention must be directed to the 
diminution of the sources of fluid sustenance, by remitting its application, or 
checking its imbibition. This latter may be effected in two different ways. A 
temporary covering to the soil around and above the roots during heavy or long- 
continued rains ; or a reduction in the number of absorbent spongioles on the roots, 
according to the vigour of the plant, and the amount of deficiency in solar supplies, 
will both fulfil similar ends ; and either, or both, of these methods may be prac- 
tised when necessary. That last named is, however, the most efficient, and can 
more easily be executed. 
It is somewhat singular that one or the other of the above systems has not 
been extensively acted upon in the management of plants of the description now 
under discussion, where flowers are desired. Their beneficial tendency cannot be 
doubted : particularly as the means thus employed to facilitate the expansion of 
the floriferous organs, are precisely those which would assist in rendering the 
plants impervious to frost ; ripe and indurated wood, and the almost total absence 
of juices, being a state in which frost can inflict little injury. 
Greenhouse or stove exotics, or such as are cultivated in pots in any situation, 
are far more fully beneath the gardener s surveillance, and can more readily be 
stimulated or restrained in the exercise of their functions, by modifying the condi- 
tions of the atmosphere in which they live. Plants which are required to flower 
freely, are never placed in pots of too large a size, and are watered with the 
utmost caution. This treatment produces the same effects as the reduction of the 
