120 
THE FLORIST. 
ACCLIMATISATION. 
Acclimatisation, or the art of acclimatisiDg plants and animals in 
countries to which they are exotic, is one of the most interesting 
branches of natural history. So far as plants are concerned, the past 
winter has taught us some useful lessons, both as to the great differences 
in hardiness which exist, in plants of the same species, and also as to 
the effect which cultivation. produces generally on the constitution of 
plants. 
Upon viewing the comparative peculiarities observable in different 
races of animals and plants, we are led to the conviction that one law 
is applicable to both, and that the domesticated classes in. both kingdoms 
are constitutionally more tender the farther they are removed from 
the original types of their race ; for instance, what appearance would the 
high-bred cultivated short-horn cattle of to-day present, if subjected 
to the same food and shelter as their Teeswater progenitors? or a 
prize Devon, or Hereford, if supplied with no food better than the 
aboriginal species subsisted upon from which they sprung? All our 
best breeds of domestic cattle are the results of a cultivation of greater 
or less duration; but with the refinement of breed, and improvement 
in what constitutes their superiority, they also inherit a tenderness of 
constitution which makes them dependent on the care of man for tneir 
preservation in their present state of perfection. We might support 
this analogy by a reference to other races of domesticated animals, 
and even man himself, did we not consider that sufficient has been 
stated to illustrate our opinion on this question. 
Arguing from the same premises, a similar law prevails with the 
vegetable kingdom. Long cultivation has made our Cauliflower and 
Celery, and many other garden plants, almost as tender as exotics, and 
they now require great protection to preserve them through our winters; 
and yet the genera from which their origin has been derived are amongst 
the hardiest of British plants. The same law applies to fruits and all 
cultivated plants generally. A friend of mine, who resides in the Cape 
Colony, being fond of plants, when on a visit to this country a few years 
back, took with him a large collection of Cape Heaths, intending to re¬ 
introduce the original Cape species, with the British varieties, now so 
numerous, of that charming tribe to the home of their family. Young 
healthy plants, on their arrival at the Cape, were planted in suitable earth 
in my friend’s garden, and tended with considerable care; but the greater 
part of them died within a year, and none of them continued long 
healthy, unable to withstand even the vicissitudes of their native climate 
with constitutions weakened by greenhouse treatment in England ; and 
yet the varieties taken over included all the original Cape species 
procurable, and of which also several similar kinds were growing indi¬ 
genous in the locality; and my friend informed me these latter, when 
placed under cultivation, grew with great luxuriance, under the same 
conditions which those planted from English gardens could not survive. 
The above teaches us an important fact as regards acclimatising plants, 
and that, as a rule, seedling plants, intended to be transported to a colder 
climate, should only be raised from parents growing on the most elevated 
