WHAT IS A COLD? 801 



The Cambridge Botanic Garden and the Arnold Arboretum, adjoin- 

 ing the Bussy Institute, being well organized and both managed under 

 the auspices of Harvard College, would be perhaps the best repository 

 of reports on the relative hardiness of plants. 



The proper sources of these reports would be botanic gardens such 

 as those of Washington and Cambridge, and parks such as those of 

 New York and Philadelphia, the superintendents and gardeners of 

 which might be directed to make careful investigations and fill up 

 printed forms month by month on the behavior of plants in different 

 localities. Above all, private individuals and they need not be 

 trained observers all over the country should be encouraged to inves- 

 tigate in the same systematic way and report to the central repository. 

 Consider how valuable such records of actual hardiness would be, 

 coming from interested observers everywhere, if the resultant tables 

 were published in a compact form ! The perplexing question of the 

 behavior of rhododendrons, for instance, would probably be explained, 

 whereas twenty-five years of unsystematic observation has been very 

 barren of results. 



It may not be out of place in conclusion to say a word concerning 

 the so-called acclimatization of plants. The name seems to imply the 

 use of some peculiar treatment whereby a half-hardy plant is made 

 hardy. There are many people who really fancy that tender plants 

 may be rendered hardy by first protecting them carefully and then 

 exposing them more and more by degrees until they are taught to en- 

 dure a manifestly greater amount of cold than they did at first. Nat- 

 ural selection carried on for hundreds and thousands of years may 

 accomplish a change of nature of this sort, but, under ordinary limita- 

 tions of time, the attempt to acclimatize, in this sense, is practically 

 futile. 



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WHAT IS A COLD? 



bt a medical man. 



To enjoy life, one must be in good health ; and to remain free from 

 disease is the desire of all. Yet there are some ailments which 

 do not interfere very much with the pleasures of life, and therefore 

 are not dreaded in consequence nay, more, they are frequently treated 

 with neglect, although in many instances they are the precursors of 

 more serious disorders, which may in not a few cases have a fatal ter- 

 mination ! How often, to the usual greetings which one friend ex- 

 changes with another, is the reply given, " Very well, thank you, 

 except a little cold." A little cold, and yet how significant this may 

 be ! In how many cases do we find a " little cold " resemble a little 

 seed, which may sooner or later develop into a mighty tree ! A little 



VOL. XVIII. 51 



