It certainly cannot; and, accordingly, we find scarcely any vestiges of vegetation where a constant frost prevails.
CAROLINE.
One would imagine that, on the contrary, such spots would be covered with vegetables; for, since they cannot be decomposed, their number must always increase.
MRS. B.
But, my dear, heat and water are quite as essential to the formation of vegetables, as they are to their decomposition. Besides, it is from the dead vegetables, reduced to their elementary principles, that the rising generation is supplied with sustenance. No young plant, therefore, can grow unless its predecessors contribute both to its formation and support; and these not only furnish the seed from which the new plant springs, but likewise the food by which it is nourished.
CAROLINE.
Under the torrid zone, therefore, where water is never frozen, and the heat is very great, both the processes of vegetation and of fermentation must, I suppose, be extremely rapid?
MRS. B.
Not so much as you imagine: for in such climates great part of the water which it requires for these processes is in an aëriform state, which is scarcely more conducive either to the growth or formation of vegetables than that of ice. In those latitudes, therefore, it is only in low damp situations, sheltered by woods from the sun’s rays, that the smaller tribes of vegetables can grow and thrive during the dry season, as dead vegetables seldom retain water enough to produce fermentation, but are, on the contrary, soon dried up by the heat of the sun, which enables them to resist that process; so that it is not till the fall of the autumnal rains (which are very violent in such climates), that spontaneous fermentation can take place.
The several fermentations derive their names from their principal products. The first is called the saccharine fermentation, because its product is sugar.