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Show DEFINITE ACTION OF THE C IIAP, XXlJI. 274 ·t . varieties of this plant all prove and he adds that in some seasons cor ai~ d. hilst exactly the reverse o·ood and the next season all prove845 ath' weditor of the ' Gardener's b ' . t' In 1 e 1 . happens with other vane I_es. . 't was that this year many Calceo anas Chronicle '6 remarked how srngular ~·th Heartsease 7 the blotched_ sorts do tenJed to assume a tubular form. 1 til hot weather sets in; whilst other not acqm.r e t h er· r prop er character un < k soon as this occurs. Varieties lose their beautiful mar s as l 'th leaves: Mr. Beaton asserts a Analogous facts have be en obs. ervec. WI ars twenty thousand see dlm' gs that he raised at Slrrubla~d, du~~gn~~o~: h~d variegated leaves; but at from the Punch Pelargonn~m, a greater proportion, of the seed-s urbiton in Surrey, one-thnd, or even ea or· less variegated. The soil of ' . t were mor . lings from this same vane Y . tendency to cause variegatiOn, as another district in Surrey ~as a shonsg· F Pollock. Verlot 9 states that appears from informar l OTI gi ve.n m'et byh arrra cte· r as long t'.S grown m· a dr y:J·s 1 1 the varieo-ated strawberry retmns 1 sdc. fr·esh and humid soil. Mr. Salter, b ·t hen plante m · c soil but soon loses I w . lt'vating variegated plants, m1orms ' ., h. success m cu 1 . 9 . th who is well known !Or IS . re lanted in his garden m 185 ' m e me that rows of strawbernes_we p . one row several plants simulta-d t . · us distances m ' d:i usual way; an a _vano d what made the case more extraor nary, neously became vane~ated, ~n l th same manner. These plants were all were variegated m preciSe Y e ding years other plants in the same d b t d ·ing the three succee a· . . remove , u UI . . tance were the plants in any a JOmmg row became variegated, and m no ms row affected. . . rs and tissues of plants are often modified The chemical qualities, odou •1~ ht The Hemlock is said not to yield hi h seems to us s 1g · . by a cha~go w c . t f the .Aconitum napellus becomes mnocuo?s conicine m Scotland. The 100di0 . . . 1 pr.·opertios of the Digitalis are eas1ly 1- t The me cma ' in fng1d c 1ma cs. Rh b b flourishes in England, but does not affected by cultu~·e: The bsta~c:r which makes the plant so valuable in produce the medicmal sup. . l t•scus grows abundantly in the South . T ta As the ~stac~a en " . L Chmese ar ry.. . it but it yields no mastic. The aurus of France the chmate must smt ' t ·t · North .America.10 ~ j loses the odour proper o 1 m . sr1ssajras m Europe . d they are remarkable because 1t Many similar facts could be gtlvdenfi, ~ten chemical compounds would have . h b thought tha e m might ave_ een either in quality or quantity. been little hable to chan?e L t-tree (Robinia) when grown in England The wood of the Ame~JCan t ~~u:he Oak-tree when grown at the Cape of is nearly worthless, as lS tha I hear from Dr. Falconer, flourish and Good Hope.U Hemp andhflaxj ~s f India but their fibres are brittle yield plenty of 8eed on t e p ams o ' 6 'Gard. Chron.,' 1845, p. 660. 7 ILid., 1863, P· G28. , s 'Journal of Hort., 1861, pp. 6 4 ' 309. .,. 9 ' Des Varietes, &c., P· 76. . 10 Engel, ' Sur Jes Prop. M:ediCales cles Plantes.' 1860, PP· 10, 25· On rhanges in the odours of plants, see Dalibert's Experiments, quoted by Beckman, 'Inventions,' vol. ii. P· 344 ; and N ees, in Fcrussac, ' Bu~l. des Sc. Nat.' 182-.1: tom. i. p. 60. WJth respect to tl;c rhubarb, &c., see also' Gardener's Chronicle,' 1849, P· 355 ; 1862• p. 1123. ' 11 HnokE'r, 'Flora Inrlira, P· R2. CIIAP. XXII[. CONDITIONS OF LIFE. 275 and useless. Hemp, on the other hand, fails to produce in England that resinous matter which is so largely used in India as an intoxicating drug. The fruit of the Melon is greatly influenced by slight differences in cultme and climate. Hence it is generally a better plan, according to Naudin, to improve an old kind than to introduce a new one into any locality. The seed of the Persian Melon produces near Paris fruit inferior to the poorest market kinds, but at Bordeal].x yields delicious fruitP Seed is annually brought fr·om Thibet to Kashmir,13 and produces fruit weighing fr·om four to ten pounds, but plants raised from seed saved in Kashmir next year give fruit weighing only fr·om two to three pounds. It is well known that American varieties of the Apple produce in their native land magnificent and brightly-coloured fruit, but in England of poor quality and a dull colom. In Hungary there are many varieties of the Kidneybean, remarkable for the beauty of their seeds, but the Rev. M. J. Berkeley 14 found that their beauty could hardly ever be preserved in England, and in some cases the colour was greatly changed. We have seen in the ninth chapter, with respect to wheat, what a remarkable effect transportal from the North to the South of France, and reversely, produced on the weight of the grain. When man can perceive no change in plants or animals which have been exposed to a new climate or to different treatment, insects can sometimes perceive a marked change. The same species of cactus has been carried to India from Canton, Manilla, Mauritius, and from the hot-houses of Kew, and there is likewise a so-called native kind, formerly introduced from South America; all these plants are alike in appearance, but the cochineal insect flom·ishes only on the native kind, on which it thrives procligiously.15 Humboldt remarks 16 that white men "born in the torrid zop.e walk barefoot with impunity in the same apartment where a European, recently landed, is exposed to the attacks of the P ·ulex penetrans." This insect, the too well-known chjgoe, must therefore be able to distingujsh what the most delicate chemical analysis fails to distinguish, namely, a difference between the blood or tissues of a European and those of a white man born in the country. But the discernment of the chigoe is not so surprising as it at first appears; for 1 2 Naudin, 'Annales des Sc. Nat.,' 4th series, Bot., tom. xi., 1859, p. 81. 'Gardener's Chronicle,' 1859, p. 464. 13 Moorcroft's 'Travels,' &c., vol. ii. p. 143. 14 ' Gardener's Chronicle,' 1861, p. lll3. 15 Royle, 'Productive Resources of India,' p. 59. 16 'Personal Narrative,' Eng. translat., vol. v. p. 101. Tbis statement has been con£rmed by Karsten (' Beitmg zvr Kenntniss der Rhynchoprion :' Moscow, 1864, s. 39), and by others. 'f 2 |
