TERRESTRIAL RADIATION ON VEGETATION. 
53 
sustained by radiation, and the attempered influence of the 
sea breeze, which more than counterbalance the increase of 
warmth imparted by the sunbeams to a more southern clime: 
perhaps even the excellence of Monte Somma wine may have 
something to do with the acclivity on which the vineyards 
are planted. To my vision, fruit trees planted on terraces, 
and rising one above the other in amphitheatrical form appear 
beautiful; but this has become, I suppose, unfashionable, be- 
cause it happens to be a gem from the antique. Now, restless- 
ness in search of something new, however absurd, is incessant. 
The ancients appear, in this respect, to have known what they 
were about; and I must frankly confess that, in my estimation, 
they acted wisely, and had the better of us, and that we are 
decidedly in the rear. To this cause I attribute the remark- 
able fertility of the land of Judea in former times. Its suscep- 
tibility is sufficiently apparent, and there still remain exist- 
ing vestiges of this mode of cultivating the flanks of the valleys, 
or the sides of the diversified hills of Palestine, to a considerable 
altitude. It is still, however, very questionable, whether low 
walls, constructed of brick, or of stone and mortar, quite ver- 
tical, would succeed so well as the surface of a calcarious or 
sandy soil, at an angle, for example, of 45°. A sandy soil ab- 
sorbs heat, and continues heated, because sand is an indifferent 
radiator, and is, moreover, a non-conductor of caloric (heat;) 
so that vines, &c. in contact with such a surface, would be 
more than compensated for the temperature they would lose 
through the medium of radiation; which would also be attenua- 
ted from the inclination of the plane. 
At St Mary's Isle, the seat of Earl Selkirk, near Kirkcud- 
bright, I remember to have seen a beautiful illustration of my 
views, in the case of pear trees pinioned to trelliswork in such 
an inclined surface as I have described; and I have always un- 
derstood that the crops of fruit which these trees carried were 
remarkable both for quantity and quality; indeed it must be 
apparent that under such conditions, spring frosts can have lit- 
tle or no influence, because these frosts are entirely connected 
