The Middlebury galaxy. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1848-1850, 1848-07-18

principles, have denied that any such change
whatever can be effected. It is not very oh
Vlous why a change in this particular, which ig
would seem might be brought about without
any appreciable transformation or crganiza-
ton, should be more impracticable than the
apparently greater notifications, which we
see cultivation every dav produce in the habits
and even structure of plants, and there are
certainly some instances which, so far rs those
particular cases are concerned, seem to be
completely successful experiments. SO far as
we are informed, no botanist has ever doubted
or denied that all the numerous varieties Of
our common Indian corn are specifically one
and the same plant; yet the seed which is
grown within the tropics Will not ripen in lat
Itude forty-hvc. If You transport it even two
degrees TO the north, 1t is doubtful whether it
will arrive at maturity if you carry it four or
five, it is certain. that it will not. Yet by a
very gradual process of successive slow remov-
ais from the South to the North, there is no
doubt that the maize of Carolina may he made
to grow in Canada. The case of Indisn corn
is not an unique example Of acclimation, though
VIC are aware of 10 other instance equally
striking and successful. The removal Of q
plant from a higher to a lower latitude is asu-
ally accompanied with an increase in size and
the ANIMALS of the North sometimes become
biennial or even perennial when transit rrcd to
a mildcr sky but this latter change may be
Affected or reversed, ut least in the bread stuff
grains, (spring and winter wheat, for example,
being convertible into each other) without re-
moval, and 1t appears To be in general true,
that cultivated plants which grow through =
wide range Of latitude, undergo no modifica-
ton from change of climate. The seed Of
wheat which has been cultivated in Egypt ever
since t G rcigns o II elha' a lhs. or from the time
of the conquest, on the table lands of Mexico,
where it has but twelve hours of light and
heat, will thrive as well in Canals. where TIE
summer sun shines for sixteen hours, as if it
had been brought over from Normandy by the
fishermen 81 ST. Malo. There are indeed Va
rictics Of the ccrealia, or brcad-stufi g%raius, as
well rs Of almost all other vegetables that en-
ter into the food of man, varying in their Pc
RODS OF growth and time of ripening, but these
often ~co-cxist in the sam latitude, and seem
to be independent Of climate. In general, the
grains OF Vermont ard Virginia, of the shores
Of the Mediterranean and those of the Baltic.
thrive INTERCHANGEABLE, and the occasional in
creased rapidity Of growth, which sometime,
occurs upon transfer from a lower TO a highc=
latitude, is due rather TO Il charge Of c0ndi.
tons than Of habits, to an increase of stimulus
from long continued light and heat, rather
than to Il modified organization.
Connected with this inquiry is another, Of
even greater interest, which is, how far caa
vegetables, without change of climate, be ac-
celebrated in growth, improved in quality, or
increased in prOductiveness Of fruit, by srtih-
cial means? 1t has been supposed that all do
meSticate1 plants were originally wild, and
that they have been changed and improved
BY cultivation, through successive ages, and
under different conditions, hut this seems to hu
a hasty assumption. That certain vegetables.
especially those of recent introduction into
husbandry, have been considerably amcii0ra-
ted, il known with reasonable certainty. The
potato, when first brought TO England. !. dcs-
cribed by contemporary writers rs resembling
the artichoke III size and consiStcncc, and rs
being scarcely superior in favor to that insiP-
id root. We know too, that the average yield
of many plants has been greatly increased,
and that bv the careful selection of seeds OF
accidental varieties, their maturity has often
been considerably fastened, but to infer from
these and other like facts the broad PROPOSE
ton, that all cultivated plants are wild vegcta-
bles reclaimed, cnnoblcd, and, as it were, CIV
ilized by human ant, is IN unwarrantsLla gen
eralizaiion. What Lo,anist has proved, upen
scientific principles, the identity of wheat, or
". VI y nus VIII an kuOOA llisilA u
spontaneous growth What experimental
Psychologist has succeeded in Transforming" any
Of the wild gramincous vegetables into the like
ness Of the c~crealia, or has she wn that these
latter, If left to themselves, will 20 on if-pro-
ductive, but degeneratin. at every remove,
and finally relapSing into their supposed orig
inal condition Of unfruitlul grasses? Some
botanists, indeed, identify the rsSch with the
almond, and the apple with the nedlar, nndjt
is confidently stated, that the native habitat OF
the potato has been not long since discovered.
and the rudimental germ and primitive type
of our Indian corn quite lately detected, in
the wilds of South America. But we are not
yet in possession of the requisite data Tor de-
termining this interesting question, though tho
known fact. that wheat which has lain three
thousand wears in the catacombs of Egypt, will
terminate and produce seed precisely rcscm-
bling both itself and the grain now commonly
grown in the same locality, certainly tends to
prove that the c~ercalia of the old world under
90 no change from long continued cultivation
I have already noticed the fact, that
our only indigenous cereal grain, Indian
corn. is an exception TO the general rule, that
these plants are unaffected BY change of eli
mate. Does this Indicate an essential diiler-
cnce in character, or is IT the result fits later
reclamation, and consequently more incom-
pletc adaptation to the uses Of a migratory an
imal like man.
1t is a characteristic distinction between do
mesticatcd and unrcclaimed plants and ami
mails, that the latter are much more constant
in form and dimensions, and much less liable
to what are called accidental varieties, than
those whose original properties have been
more or less modified by domestication.-Cn-
restricted nature works with infinite variety Of
type, but il general in close conformity with
her appointed models, and if the influences of
cultivation are Withdrawn for a few genera
lions from a plant or-an animal which has been
transformed by domestication, 1t will resume
its wild native uniformity of properties and
shape. Wild plants of a given species, grow
ing under similar circumstances, resemble
each other SO closely as hardly to be distin-
guishable, while the varieties of the same
plant, when reclaimed, are so numerous, and
so aberrant both from each other and from
H. Dr,D,itiva tuna that tbov- eaam IN have