1802. ] 
and, although feven inches fhorter in the 
barrel, it carries as far as the other. 
This carabine primes itfelf, confequent- 
ly it can be loaded on horfeback at'{peed, 
or in the dark, or in tempeftuous weather. 
It never mifles priming ; can be eafily 
fired five times in a minute with the affift- 
ance of a fecond ram-rod, which, when 
the dragoon is mounted, hangs to his ca- 
Yabine-belt, or to a button placed below 
the right fhoulder. His Lordfhip alfo re- 
commends an alteration in the dragoon- 
faddle, which poffeffes every ufeful pro- 
perty of the common dragoon-faddle, is 
much ftronger, and weighs five pounds 
Jefs. 
ne ae 
The ROYAL IRISH ACADEMY. 
BOTANY. 
N Mr. TempLeton’s paper on the 
Naturalization of Plants, we meet 
with a great variety of curious obferva- 
tions: fome of the more important of thefe 
may claim the attention of evéry reader 
interefted in fuch fubjeéts. 
Heat being found to increafe or decreafe 
nearly in a regular progreffion, according 
to the degrees of latitude: if the latitude 
of the place where'a plant is found be 
known, we may find whether the tempe- 
rature nearly correfponds with our own. 
Or, fuppofing the mean annual tempera- 
ture of a place, as Dublin, Jat. 52° 
equal 50° of temperature ; by adding one 
for every degree of latitude fouthward, 
and fubtracting one for every, degree of 
latitude northward, the temperature is ob- 
tained accurately enough for practical pur- 
pofes. Great nicety is not required, as it 
is known that plants in general have a 
confiderable range of latitude; thofe which 
cannot bear the freft being found to ex- 
tend from the northern to the fouthern 
verge of the torrid zone; and many of 
thefe which grow on the fouthern limits 
of the temperature, to approach the bor- 
ders of the frozen zone. Thus three hun- 
dred Lapland plants are found in the en- 
virons of Paris, and many of them much 
farther fouth. 
In lat. 442 on the European, and 34° 
on the American, continent, it is not un- 
ufual for water to be frozen in January, 
and, as fome feafons are much more {e- 
vere than others, plants growing confide- 
rably farther to the fouthward would be 
liable to fuffer by cold in fuch feafons, if 
nature. had not provided a_ remedy 
dy their manner of growing, which ena- 
bles them to refit the cold of fuch rigorous 
feafons, and, on this account, many of 
Proceedings of Learned Societies. 527 
them will be found to thrive when tranf- 
planted nine or ten degrees further north 
than their native ftations. 
In conduéting fuch an experiment as 
the naturalization of plants from a fouth- 
_ern to a northern climate, great attention 
mult be paid to the chara&ters which tie 
plants themfelves prefent. By the ap- 
pearance of the roots and leaves, we may 
nearly determine in what kind of foil the 
plant is moft likely to thrive. Robuft 
roots and flefhy leaves require a dry foil ; 
flender, hard, and wiry roots require dry, 
fandy, and gravelly foils ; and extremely 
fine and hair-like roots muft have a foil 
whofe particles will not impede the fhoot- 
ing of their tender fibres. Plants in a 
warm climate perfpire more than in a cold 
one ; fo, in the former, they require much, 
in the latter little, moifture. ‘Therefore, 
when tranfplanted from a warm toa cold 
climate, they fhould have a dryer foil ; 
and, from a colder to a warmer, a moitter 
one than their native ftation. 
After having determined the moft fuit- 
able foil, we muft ftrive to give each plant 
a proper fituation: plants from a fhady 
will not thrive in an open, nor plants 
from an open if a fhady, fituation. Some 
plants, as the common myrtle, can only be 
naturalized in fituations contiguous to the 
fea. Plants which have the leaft fap in 
winter, or whofe fap is of a refinous or 
oily nature, fuffer leaft from cold ; and, it 
is known, that the principal caufe ef de- 
ftruction is the veflels being barit by the 
freezing of the fap. 
Few deciduous fhrubs thrive in the 
fhade ; their natural place is the funny 
outfkirts of the foreft; and when other- 
wile fituated, long and flender branches, 
with large thin leaves, fhew their unheal- 
thy ftate. The fhadeis the natural fitua- 
tion for young plants: by the parental 
fhade, they are protected from the drought 
of fummer, and the cold of winter. 
To proteét herbaceous plants from froft, 
mofs is the moft proper covering ; by re- 
maining alive through the winter, even 
after it is pulled up, it is not liable to 
heating ana putref.étion, as all dead fub- 
{tances are, by which they impart to the 
plant heat and moifture, and thereby put 
the vegetating powers in action, and fill 
the plant with fap at an improper fealon. 
In the culture of annuals, care is only 
necefiary to place them in proper foils and 
expofures; for, that no region of the 
earth might remain uninhabited, annual 
plants have been diftributed with a hberal 
hand: from thefe, men and animals de- 
“arecave 
