202 Effects of Frost on Dormant Vegetation. [April, 



and 1778." These experiments, it seems, unfortunately, are not correct, in 

 the main, and are not, therefore, reliable ; and of course they throw no light 

 on the subject. Yet he occupies time to show their falsity, leaving us in 

 the dark on the reliable experiments referred to in his introduction, and 

 then proceeds to say, " that the tree is actually frozen when the tempera- 

 ture is reduced a few degrees below freezing point, scarcely admits of a 

 doubt," etc. That "all the trees, vines, etc., even in our climate, must, 

 therefore, be completely frozen, every winter, and yet we know by experi- 

 ence that their vitality is not in any way injured or destroyed by it." 



What are the public to infer from the statement of this well-known, 

 and admitted fact? Are we to understand, that no degree of tempera- 

 ture, however low it may fall, will destroy the vitality, or vegetable life, 

 because it is not harmed by the usual exposure ? This would seem to 

 be the natural inference from the arguments and mode of your corres- 

 pondent's reasoning. If this be his position, I must take issue with it. 

 I do not so understand vegetable physiology. And while I perfectly 

 assent to the proposition, that " the native plants of any region, are, by 

 the wise direction of an overruling Providence, perfectly adapted to its 

 climate," I can not assent to the idea, that exotics, from a foreign 

 clime, or those on which the science of man has operated to enfeeble and 

 impair the health and constitution, from their original condition, are 

 capable of enduring any amount of cold, without perishing thereby, 

 because they pass unharmed through our usual winters ; or that even 

 native plants may not be destroyed by unusual and extraordinary low 

 temperature. Any other position than this, it seems to me, is unphilo- 

 sophical, and not worthy to consume time on. 



The fact, that " frogs, reptiles, and some species of fish, can be resus- 

 citated, after having been frozen for a long time," are not parallel cases, 

 or are so, only so far as re-animation is concerned, after the vital func- 

 tions had been suspended, by frost, in either case. This is their nature, 

 as much as it is for some animals, such as the bear, " to lay themselves 

 up in cq^ves or hollows for the winter, which they pass in a dormant 

 state, and without taking food." Yet, will your correspondent say, 

 that these and other animals do not sometimes freeze to death, and this 

 in their native climate, and, too, with their usual protection? Then why 

 say, that trees and plants are not, under the pressure of certain low 

 temperature, destroyed, or frozen to death. We might as well say, that 

 a man wdll not drown by the overflow of an unusual and extraordinary 

 flood, if he remains in the position which is not reached by ordinary 

 floods, though the water may surround and overwhelm him. The one 

 has about as much reason to sustain it as the other. 



