30 
THE FLORIST'S JOURNAL. 
jungles, or forests of evergreen trees: as we retire from the 
equator, trees with deciduous leaves, pinus, &c., gradually ap¬ 
pear, rich pastures open to the prospect, mosses surround the 
trunks of old trees, and decayed and decaying vegetables are 
covered with fungi. As we approach the poles, trees wholly dis¬ 
appear, and lichens constitute the chief features of vegetation. 
Although a number of places may have the same annual tem¬ 
perature, yet they have not the same climate. There are the 
secondary constituents of climate : such are — the situation of the 
place, its distance from the sea, its proximity to mountains, its 
elevation above the level of the ocean, the nature of the soil, the 
cultivation of the lands in its vicinity, and the direction of the 
winds to which it is exposed,— these, and many other local phe¬ 
nomena, may so affect the results which would otherwise be 
produced by solar heat, as to prevent any hope of ascertaining a 
climate without experiment. Instances are frequent of the same 
plants being found growing as indigenous in Europe, Asia, 
Africa, and America ; but the most rational and ieasible way to 
account for it is to suppose that the plants must have been 
originally created where they now vegetate, the contingent cir¬ 
cumstances under which they were found having been favourable 
to the particular mode of vegetable development which was 
necessary for their formation. \V e also find, in geneial, tliat the 
habits and customs of men are influenced by the nature of the 
soil, and the climate which they inhabitthe unpolished and 
hardy mountaineer derives his character from that of his native 
hills ; the warm and luxurious plains of the south impart indolence 
and inactivity ; the cold and barren scenes of the north produce 
a brisk and persevering activity. 
I will now enter into the subject of the effect light has upon 
plants. Though some species of plants seem to derive their very 
existence from the direct and vivid rays of the sun, while there 
are many others unable to endure its more immediate influences, 
Orchideous plants, when exposed to the powerful blaze of a 
meridian sun, lose all that rich luxuriance for which they are 
remarkable ; their leaves become brown, and their growth is very 
much checked, if not entirely suspended. On the other hand, 
the ill effects of an insufficient quantity of light for those plants 
that require it more abundantly, are made manifest by their stems 
becoming elongated, etiolated, and consequently weak and slender. 
