264 
HABITATIONS OF PLANTS. 
see that very many of our own wants are the result of habit. 
Did you never see the children of poor parents running about 
in the snow with bare feet, and apparently much more healthy 
than the little master or miss whom a servant must carry to 
school, for fear the winds of heaven may visit them too rough- 
ly ? Why does this difference exist between those of the same 
species? It is owing to habit. Thus we may- see lingering al- 
most upon the verge of a northern winter, the nasturtion ; but 
the same temperature which it bears without injury, would at 
once destroy those of the same species which have flourished 
only beneath a tropical sun. 
In changing the habit of a plant, or as it is frequently term- 
ed, naturalizing it, the temperature is the principal thing to be 
considered ; although the soil and the quantity of moisture 
should be rendered as similar as possible to those of its native 
habitation. 
Plants fiom warm climates are accustomed to a lower tem- 
perature by placing them in hot-houses, then in green-houses, 
and lastly in the open air. While the plant is going through 
with this kind of discipline, an opportunity is afforded of ob- 
serving the kind of soil most favorable to its growth, the quan- 
tity of moisture which it requires, the degree of light which 
seems necessary, and the kind of exposure as to wind which 
appears most favorable. 
Plants vary much in their susceptibility of naturalization. 
The horse-chesnut which is now common in the middle and 
northern United States, was originally brought from the tropical 
regions. In these regions however it usually grows in grounds 
somewhat elevated above the level of the sea, and therefore its 
habit as to temperature, renders it in some degree fitted for 
more northern countries. Orange and lemon trees cannot be 
brought to bear the roughness of our climate, without some 
protection. 
In many cases perennial plants, by this change of climate, 
are converted into annual ones ; that is, as if fearing the inclem- 
encies of a cold winter, they pass through their successive stages 
of existence with rapidity, and accomplish in one summer what 
they had been accustomed to require years to perform. The 
nasturtion was originally a shrub flourishing, without cultiva- 
tion on the banks of the Peruvian streams; 3-et transferred to this 
country it is an annual plant, which completes its term of exist- 
ence in a few months. 
The habits of some plants are with difficulty subdued ; and 
Remarks on tlieir habits — Their nourishment — Their habits — Instance, 
nasturtion — Temperature considered in the naturalization of plants — Ob- 
servations necessary in the process — Plants vary in susceptibility of natu- 
ralization — Some change from perennial to annual. 
