THE ■PLOEAL WOELD AND GAEDEN GUIDE. 19 



themselves as hit rather haixl iu the clause which says, '-'stands coiitainiug 

 mutilated blooms will be disqualified." In the chrj'santhemum classes, 

 "preference will be given to plants trained in the bush-like or pyramidal 

 form," so we may look on pyramids as the fashion for 1861. 



That cruel frost of Christmas Eve liad very much its own way among 

 the collections in private gardens. People were so heartily enjoying the 

 society of their friends, and so many gardeners Avere occupied among holly 

 and mistletoe, that fires went out, the thermometer underwent an awful 

 depression, and soft- wooded plants literally melted as if boiled, and made 

 the winter gardens into muck-heaps. When looking round among our 

 neighbours next morning, we found that many nurserymen and gardeners 

 had been up all night looking after fires, while their friends Avere leaving 

 the frost and the geraniums to measure pace with each other, and the 

 relative merits of heating appliances were tested in a way we are not used 

 to. If Ave could then have dropped a word of counsel into the ears of our 

 readers — but Ave could not, for the Flokal AYorld had gone to press — we 

 should have said: "Whatever is touched with frost keep dark and cool, 

 and damage will be lessened if not entirely obviated." The effect of frost 

 on plants depends considerably on the state it finds them in. 8oft- wooded 

 greenhouse plants are killed instanter if they are in a moist atmosphere 

 and groAvdng temperature with full enjoyment of light; but if moderately 

 dry, and well covered so as to be almost in total darkness, very many even 

 of the tenderest Avill bear a few degrees with impunity. This advice may 

 be of use now, for we may have a smart time of it yet, l)cfore the coavs- 

 lips blossom. If frost gets into a house and makes its mark on the 

 minimum thermometer, draAV down the blind, if you have one, at once, 

 or cover the lights Avith tarpaulin, straw, or Avhatever may be at hand, 

 to exclude the light, and be particularly careful not to get up the heat in 

 a hurry. To raise the temperature is, of course, essential, but it Avill be 

 Avell to keep it at about 33' for a day at least, that thaAving may take place 

 slowly. A few degrees of frost met in this way will do much less harm 

 than is generally inflicted Avhere the terrified cultivator heaps on the fuel, 

 in the mistaken notion that fire is the proper antidote to freezing. The 

 same remark holds good as to fruit. The frost got into part of our store 

 of apples and pears, and some were frozen hard. They Avere alloAved to 

 thaw slowly and in the dark, and are now not a whit the worse for the 

 A-isitation. If thawed in full daylight, they would probably have melted 

 in the operation. 



In regard to temperature, the mean of the year 1860 in the neighbour- 

 hood of London, was 46-26. On an average of sixteen years the mean 

 temperature in the same district has been 49-2o. In the January 

 number of "Recreative Science," Mr. Lowe gives 49*09 as the mean of 

 thirty-one years, and 48-78 as the mean of fifty-eight years. But mean 

 temperatures are not to be relied on in connecting the records of the 

 weather with the pi'ogress of vegetation. During hot seasons the night 

 temperatures arc often very Ioav, so that the mean is not much disturbed, 

 and during the past year there was less difi'erence between maxima and 

 minima than usual. The only month in the year during Avhich the mean 

 temperature was above the average Avas Januarj-, and the excess aniounted 

 to 1-81. In mean maximum temperatures, January, May, and October 



