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om their identity in the caterpillar, cocoon, and mature states;[763] yet they differ much in constitution: the Indian form "will flourish only in warm latitudes," the other is quite hardy and withstands cold and rain. Plants are more strictly adapted to climate than are animals. The latter when domesticated withstand such great diversities of climate, that we find nearly the same species in tropical and temperate countries; whilst the cultivated plants are widely dissimilar. Hence a larger field is open for inquiry in regard to the acclimatisation of plants than of animals. It is no exaggeration to say that with almost every plant which has long been cultivated varieties exist, which are endowed with constitutions fitted for very different climates; I will select only a few of the more striking cases, as it would be tedious to give all. In North America numerous fruit-trees have been raised, and in horticultural publications,--for instance, in Downing,--lists are given of the varieties which are best able to withstand the severe climate of the northern States and Canada. Many American varieties of the pear, plum, and peach are excellent in their own country, but until recently hardly one was known that succeeded in England; and with apples,[764] not one succeeds. Though the American varieties can withstand a severer winter than ours, the summer here is not hot enough. Fruit-trees have originated in Europe as in America with different constitutions, but they are not here much noticed, as the same nurserymen do not supply a wide area. The Forelle pear flowers early, and when the flowers have just set, and this is the critical period, they have been observed, both in France and England, to withstand with complete impunity a frost of 18deg and even 14deg Fahr., which killed the flowers, whether fully expanded or in bud, of all other kinds of pears.[765] This power in the flower of resisting cold and afterwards producing fruit does not invariably depend, as we know on good authority,[766] on general constitutional vigour. {307} In proceeding northward, the number of varieties which are enabled to resist the climate rapidly decreases, as may be seen in the list of the varieties of the cherry, apple, and pear, which can be cultivated in the neighbourhood of Stockholm.[767] Near Moscow, Prince Tro
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