ON THE ACCLIMATATION OF PLANTS. 
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that has not its own peculiar physical circumstances; and hy improving them, it is our opinion, formed 
from experience, that we can get many plants, now esteemed too tender, to stand the climate of 
Britain. 
Though we cannot change or alter the constitution of plants, still, hy cultivation, we exert a con¬ 
trolling power over their habits. Every garden furnishes a thousand facts to prove this. To acclimatation 
are we indebted for a great portion of the finest ornaments of our gardens, the greater part of the 
delicious produce of our orchards, and a considerable proportion of the most common and valuable 
productions of our fields. 
By acclimatation we have obtained many early varieties of vegetables. By this means have those 
early varieties of potatoes been produced, which are matured several weeks before other and later 
varieties. Here are acquired properties, brought about by cultivation. 
By cultivation we can make our commonest shrub, which we thought most hardy, so tender, that 
the slightest frost will seriously injure, if not kill them. 
We have seen Common Laurels and Hollies, when removed from a moist rich soil and sheltered 
situation to poor dry soil and exposed situation, linger for a very short time and die. And we have 
seen other Laurels and Hollies that were grown from cuttings in a poor soil and exposed place, when 
removed to the same exposed place where the others died, to grow and do very well. 
We have also seen some hundred acres of hilly land that had been planted with Larch and Firs, 
and some six or seven years after being planted one half were dead, and the other part little better than 
when planted. The work had been entrusted to a common labourer, who, in obedience to orders, got 
his trees from a warm sheltered nursery, where they had been growing close together, as comfortable 
as if they had been in a hotbed. Here there was immense waste of time, labour, money, and land, through 
ignorance of the plainest principles. Nor is this a mere isolated instance ; thousands such, though in 
a less degree, are to be seen daily. Much as has already resulted from acclimatation, we have strong 
reasons to expect much more important results. The thousands of beautiful trees which have been already 
ascertained to stand our climate, and which are now being so extensively planted through the length and 
breadth of the land, will, a century hence, give our Park scenery a grand and imposing appearance. 
We may ask, do we always take proper measures to insure favourable results, when we commit to 
the open ground a newly imported tree, of whose constitutional habits we know but little P 
In all cases we most certainly do not. For almost every new tree or shrub, no matter how hardy 
its constitution, is generally half killed with kindness. It is mostly planted in a “ snug corner,” 
where the soil is rich, deep, and moist, and well sheltered ; and the consequence is late autumn growth, 
which, never getting ripened, is killed by the first frost. The effects of radiation in such situations is 
highly prejudicial to tender plants. A valley surrounded with low hills is more liable to the effects of 
radiation than the tops and sides of the hills themselves; and it is a well-known fact that dew and 
hoar-frost are always more abundant in the former than in the latter situations. Places surrounded by 
lofty and precipitous hills are not included in this observation, for in such a contrary effect is produced. 
Gentle slopes, which break the undulations of the air without naturally circumscribing the heavens, 
are most efficient in promoting this action. Radiation goes on upon the declivities of hills, and the 
ah', which is condensed by the cold, rolls down and lodges at their feet. Their sides are thus protected 
from the chill, and a double portion falls upon what some people are apt to consider the more sheltered 
situation. From experience we know that the injurious effects of cold occurs chiefly in hollow places, 
and that frosts are less severe on hills than in the neighbouring plains. The general practice, (we will 
not say is—for, thanks to the spread of knowledge, sounder principles now prevail—but) has, been to 
plant newly imported trees in low sheltered situations in preference to hill sides, and the results have 
been that many plants perfectly hardy are in such places killed by the autumn frosts. We will men¬ 
tion one plant that is sufficiently hardy to stand the climate of Britain, yet this plant has been killed 
in many places by autumn, while in many other localities it has stood uninjured; this plant is 
Taxodium sempervirens. 
As almost every locality in Britain has its own peculiar physical circumstances, only general direc¬ 
tions can be given for acclimatation. The following course we have always found attended with 
eminent success.—We always choose, for newly-imported plants which we wish to acclimatize, a 
rather elevated situation, naturally dry if possible, and not exposed too much to sweeping winds; 
we endeavour to raise the temperature of the soil by drainage and keeping it open. Our chief aim is 
to get the wood well ripened and in good time, that is, as early in the season as possible; and this we 
accomplish by placing our pets under the circumstances we have just described. By this means we 
have had the pleasure of seeing many plants, that are generally denizens of the greenhouse, stand 
our severest winters without injury. 
