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HEAT OF THE ARUM.
91

pretty Primula marginata, Curt. Mag. t. 191, if brought into a room with a fire when beginning to blossom, never opens another bud; while the American Cowslip, Dodecatheon Meadia, t. 12, one of the most hardy of plants with respect to cold, bears forcing admirably well.

Mr. Knight very satisfactorily shows, Phil. Trans. for 1801, 343, that plants acquire habits with regard to heat which prove their vitality, and that a forced Peach-tree will in the following season expand its buds prematurely in the open air, so as to expose them to inevitable destruction. See p. 56[errata 1]. A thousand parallel instances may be observed, by the sagacious gardener, of plants retaining the habits of their native climates, which very often proves one of the greatest impediments to their successful cultivation.

The most remarkable account that has fallen in my way concerning the production of heat in plants, is that given by Lamarck in his Flore Françoise, v. 3. 538, of the Common Arum maculatum, Engl. Bot. t. 1298, (the white-veined variety), the flower of which, at a certain period of its growth, he as-

  1. Correction: 56 should be amended to 65