NATURAL CONDITIONS OF PLANTS. 
13 
for the uncertainty which attends the growth and 
flowering of Cape bulbs in this country. 
There are some countries in which there are 
two fruit-bearing seasons ; where the vine, un- 
able to obtain rest, either from the cold of 
winter, or the dry heat of summer, is made to 
bear a second crop of fruit — the ingenuity of 
man, overcoming obstacles apparently insur- 
mountable. I am indebted to one, who, whilst 
he is dedicating his life to the holy cause in which 
he is engaged, does not, at the same time, dis- 
dain (to use the quaint but expressive language 
of Sir Thomas Browne), “ to suck divinity from 
the flowers of nature” — I mean the Bishop of 
Ceylon, for a knowledge of the fact that at 
Jafna, the artificial hybernation of the vine, 
necessary in a tropical country, is produced by 
laying the roots bare to the depth of two feet, for 
four or five days, by which time all the leaves are 
shed. This is done with those that have borne 
fruit during the first of the two fruiting seasons. 
They are then pruned, covered again with ma- 
nure, and constantly watered. In this way the 
vine is brought to bear fruit, small in size, but 
called, in the language of the Brazils, light-forests (Caa-tinga). 
What is extraordinary, if no rain falls, they can remain for many 
years without producing foliage; but when at last the showers 
descend, in the course of forty-eight hours they are clothed in the 
most delicate and tender green. 
