Native plant

“ The reason for this difference in reaction between native and culture formations seems evident. In harvesting, not merely the grain, but the stems and leaves, and in gardening often the root also, are removed, so that the plant makes little or no return to the soil. In nature, annual plants return to the ground every year all the solid matter of roots, stems, leaves, and fruits, with the exception of the relatively small number of seeds that germinate. ”

“ It is customary to speak of the British flora as consisting for the most part of species introduced into this country by natural means, while some plants owe their introduction to human agency or are 'escapes' from cultivation. It is by no means an easy task in some instances to decide whether a species is native or introduced, but in some cases, a few of which are mentioned, there is no doubt as to the alien nature of the plants. ”

“ Though our country’s vegetation has lost in scientific interest, it has gained vastly in both economic and æsthetic value by the introduction of useful and ornamental plants from all the Temperate regions of the world; and besides, a large number of species have followed in man’s footsteps, and, taking advantage of the disturbance of the native flora caused by his operations, endeavour with more or less success to establish a footing in the country. ”

“ To them we are indebted for our tulip-trees, our magnolias, our maples, our robinias, our western platanus, and a host of other noble trees, that already share the forest, and contest with our native species, the right to our soil.
At no period of the world has the number of plant-hunters been so great as at present. Will you believe it, hundreds of men are engaged in this noble and useful calling? ”

“ In its native or wild state the root is small, woody, and of very little value as an article of food. All of our so-called “root plants” in the wild state store up only sufficient food in the root to meet the wants of the plant the coming season. This tendency to accumulate has been developed under cultivation, and an excess is stored up, which is appropriated by man. The plant has enjoyed more favorable conditions for growth and been relieved in great part of the struggle for existence that is constantly going on among wild plants. ”

“ The old native growths, which afforded grand botanic specimens, have been ruthlessly destroyed, never to be restored, and a few of the most common pines of Europe occupy their place. Let no one expect in visiting these Gardens to find any plant either native, rare, curious, or attractive, worthy of notice. ”

“ Moreover, experienced men will even after many years’ cultivation be able to distinguish these various kinds of lands from one another.
Cogency of Conclusions based upon Native Growth.—Since the native vegetation normally represents the results of secular or even millennial adaptation of plants to climatic and soil-conditions, this use of the native flora seems eminently rational. ”

“ The native growth is a mixture of small oak and pine, while the hand of culture has interspersed the China tree, Grape, Myrtle, Rose, Laurel, Holly, Honey-suckle, Sensitive plant, and a multitude of beautiful shrubs, full of odors and rich colors. ”

“ In the intense tropical conditions in which the native plants grow they become small trees; but in the colder climate of China and Japan they become bushy, with smaller and tougher leaves. In cultivation the shrub grows to from three to six feet, is branchy, the leaves from two to six inches long. ”

“ You will, I trust, resemble a forest plant, which has indeed, by some accident, been brought up in the greenhouse, and thus rendered delicate and effeminate, but which regains its native firmness and tenacity when exposed for a season to the winter air. ”

“ It would be interesting to compare in the same manner with their cultivated forms Citrus, Persica, and the cardoon, naturalized in America, far from their original home, as also the Agave and the prickly pear, wild in America, with their naturalized varieties in the old world. We should know exactly what persists after a temporary state of cultivation.
7. A species may have had, previous to cultivation, a restricted habitation, and subsequently occupy an immense area as a cultivated and sometimes a naturalized plant. ”

“ Ornamental plants, or those commonly cultivated in flower gardens, will not stock the school gardens contemplated by the committee. Native wild plants, such as ferns, grasses, asters, goldenrods, violets, native shrubs, and economic plants, such as grains, vegetable roots, and leguminous and cucurbitaceous plants, must be the stock of the gardens. ”

“ God gives the seed a body "as it hath pleased Him, and to every seed its own body."
It is true that what are called "varieties" can be produced among cultivated plants, as among birds and animals, by change of food and climate, and by care and training. The same plant will soon look very different if taken from a dry, sunny spot, and placed in a damp, shady corner. I have heard that if plants are moved from their home on the seashore, and placed in a dry, hot place, their thick, fleshy leaves will in time quite change their character, becoming thin and hairy. ”

“ The Seed Plants, then, achieved their wonderful abundance and variety owing to the highly stimulating conditions offered by a terrestrial existence; we must assign to all the existing types a long terrestrial ancestry. How, then, about the water plants whose leaves and flowers so decorate our lakes? There seems no doubt [13] that they are species which have left the land to resume the aquatic habits of their remote ancestors. With few exceptions they retain the aerial mode of pollination which is the pride of the specialized land plants. ”

“ As the best marked varieties of a wild species occur on the confines of the area which it inhabits, so the best marked varieties of a cultivated plant, are those last produced by the gardener. Cabbages, for example, wall fruit, and cerealia, show no disposition, when neglected, to assume the characters of the wild states of these plants. Hence the difficulty of determining what are the true parent species of most of our cultivated plants. ”

“ These seeds, sown in a grateful soil, and nurtured by the native warmth and acumen of the Oriental mind, like indigenous plants sprang up at once with an almost rank and inexpressible fertility, and displayed, in their varied productions, whatever was peculiar and excellent in their nature, on a scale the most magnificent. ”

“ Our stock of European hardy plants (whether herbs or shrubs) is small, and consists of the commonest and oldest-fashioned things in cultivation. These, and every Californian, Oregon, and Texan plant of which you have duplicates to spare us (or seeds) , whether hardy or not,—these are the plants I am just now most desirous to accumulate. Greenhouse plants are scarcely less welcome, but of those I will write more particularly hereafter. ”

“ The Indian specimens described by the most trustworthy authors nearly all come from the herbaria of the East India Company, in which we never know whether a plant appeared really wild, if it was found far from dwellings, in forests, etc. For the localities in the Malay Archipelago authors often give rubbish-heaps, hedges, etc. We pass to a more particular examination of the two cultivated species. ”

“ Put in them the plants you like. Perhaps the greater part of them should be perennials that come up of themselves every spring, and that are hardy and reliable. Wild flowers are particularly effective. Every one knows that many of the native herbs of woods and glades are more attractive than some of the most prized garden flowers. The greater part of these native flowers grow readily in cultivation, sometimes even in places which, in soil and exposure, are much unlike their native haunts. ”

“ It is always an evidence of good soil where it grows, and the magnitude of the stem, which is often six or seven feet high, and the flowers four to five inches broad, measures the richness of that soil. Nowhere in nature do the flowers become so large and the seeds so abundant as in the cultivated variety, but the seeds have long been used for food by the Indians, and it is probable that the plant grew larger about their villages than we now find it in the dry and comparatively sterile regions of the Far West. ”

“ If the ground in old-established botanic gardens be dug much deeper than ordinary, it frequently happens that species which have been long lost are recovered, from their seeds being latent in the soil, as I have been assured by Mr. Fairbairn of Chelsea garden, and others.
The integuments of the seed, having fulfilled their destined office of protection, burst and decay. The young root is the first part of the infant plant that comes forth, and by an unerring law of Nature it is sent downwards, to seek out nourishment as well as to fix the plant to the ground. ”

“ It must not be forgotten that man not only introduced the weeds, he prepared the land on which they could establish themselves, and from thence spread to uncultivated ground where few botanists now suspect that they are anything but “native.” ”

“ About this time large numbers of European, American, Australian, and South African plants were imported, and many of these ran wild and increased so rapidly as to drive out and exterminate much of the relics of the native flora ”

“ A valuable quality of the plant is, that in any light soil it spreads freely, and it is quite hardy. For dry places between shrubs, for dry or sandy banks (either wooded or bare) , copses, or heathy places, this plant is admirable. I have noticed it thriving in the shade of fir trees. It is interesting as being a South American plant, thriving in any open soil.
Marsh Mallow, Althæa.—These are plants rarely seen out of botanic gardens now–a–days, and yet, from their vigour and showy flowers, they may afford unique effects in the wild garden. ”

“ Those species whose aboriginal distribution stopped short of the western limit of the land had no doubt a fluctuating western or northern or southern boundary to their range, dependent on temporary conditions. Thus, a hard winter might kill back a plant already at the limit of its natural range, or a warm summer, by ripening abundance of its seed, might result in its slight advance. ”

“ VI) that plants propagate by means of seeds. They also propagate by means of bud parts,—as rootstocks (rhizomes) , roots, runners, layers, bulbs. The pupil should determine how any plant in which he is interested naturally propagates itself (or spreads its kind) . Determine this for raspberry, blackberry, strawberry, June-grass or other grass, nut-grass, water-lily, May apple or mandrake, burdock, Irish potato, sweet potato, buckwheat, cotton, pea, corn, sugar-cane, wheat, rice.
Plants may be artificially propagated by similar means, as by layers, cuttings, and grafts. ”

“ Reproduction and the ultimate scattering of fruits and seeds are absolutely necessary in order that colonies of plants may reach new localities. It is evident that plants best fitted to scatter their seeds, or place fruits containing the seeds some little distance from the parent plants, are the ones which will spread most rapidly. A plant, if it is to advance into new territory, must get its seeds there first. Plants which are best fitted to do this are the most widely distributed on the earth. ”

“ The dominance of certain species of plants, such as grasses on a prairie, the fir and spruce in the coniferous forests of our North, the blue-gum trees in parts of Australia and the giant dipterocarp forests in the Philippines, are all based on the ability of individuals to spread from their point of origin. All species of plants must have one day been of very local distribution and confined to the region where they were born, but from their often very modest beginnings some of them at any rate have gone to the ends of the earth. ”

“ The conception that different tribes at different times and in distant countries would have used the wild plants of their native regions seems far more natural than that all should have obtained plants for cultivation from the same source or locality. ”

“ There are above thirty species, principally natives of Europe, consequently hardy there, and form a great ornament to their gardens, being very abundant and various in flower; but with us they will not stand the rigour of winter. We have no doubt, however, but, through time, some kinds may be grown that will withstand the greatest cold of the middle states; they are low shrubby plants of easy cultivation. ”

“ Oak and pine are prominent features of the native forest-growth, while wheat, barley, and all the European cereals and fruits flourish side by side with plantations of the indigenous maize, maguey, and cactus. ”

“ This order which is very generally distributed over the globe, being found in every quarter of it, and in almost every kind of soil and climate, abounds in species, but is very limited in the number of genera, the latter, standing in the proportion of only about 1 to 19 or 20 of the former, on whole order. Among its species every form of vegetation is found, from the very minute annual scarcely 3 inches high, up to large sized trees. Many of these are milky plants, with round stems, and ex-stipulate, scattered, simple, entire, sessile, leaves, or having the limb attenuated into a short petiol. ”

“ But the superior plant, when cultivated on a naturally rich soil, not impoverished by a previous heavy crop, attains a height of 5 ft., and grows with the greatest luxuriance. The plants intended for seed are raised in favourite spots, on the ridges of rice-fields in the neighbourhood of the villages, and the seed of one district is frequently exchanged for that of another. ”

“ In botany, an extensive and important natural order of exogenous trees and shrubs, found exclusively in the temperate and tropical parts of the Old World, and unknown in a wild state in America. The fruit is pulpy, succulent, sub-acid, and eatable, and separated into cells by membranous partitions, and is covered with a leathery aromatic skin or rind. Some of the genera embrace plants of great beauty and utility. A few of the Indian species are climbers. The genus CIT′RUS, which includes the orange, lemon, citron, lime, bergamot, and shaddock, is that best known in Europe. ”