210 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



ttis country a smart yisitation of frost, lasting but a short while, and 

 attended generally witli very marked benefits. It is one of the peculiari- 

 ties of our climate ; it makes a finish of the fall of the leaf, for down they 

 come as soon as the rising sun melts the ice about their axils on the mom- 

 in"- after one of these night frosts, and the under-gardener sees the end of 

 his -wearisome sweep, sweep. It stops the growth of trees that have pushed 

 soft autumn shoots, puts herbaceous plants to bed for the season, and 

 causes roses to harden off at once all their green wood, to be ready for the 

 winter, and for sprouting freshly in the spring. But it is very likely to 

 kill whatever vegetable fabrics are full of moving sap, and the chrysanthe- 

 mums generally catch it in a style that makes the growers shudder. It 

 has always been so, but was never noticed as a calamity imtil chrysanthe- 

 mum-growing had been brought to high art principles, and the plants were 

 too costly, reckoning the labour invested in them, to be left to chance it, 

 as the old friends of the border and trellis were. As we never prophesy 

 — not even after having pondered for hoiu's over the works of Dr. Cum- 

 jning — -^e will not predict a frost of four or five degrees about the 25th 

 of this present October ; but the cautious cultivator would do well by 

 himself to prepare against it by placing his plants imder shelter at once, 

 and in such a way that they may enjoy all wholesome night dews, all 

 beneficial rays of sunshine, and yet be made safe from frost at a moment's 

 notice. If we had done no more than establish a safeguard for chrysan- 

 themums . in advocating tiffany-houses, we should have done sufficient 

 service for one year's subscription from every one of our thousands of 

 readers. Whatever other uses these houses may be applied to, they are 

 just the right sort of places in which to bloom chrysanthemums, for if smaU, 

 and therefore the more liable to admit the tip of Mr. John Frost's nose, or 

 a film of his foggy breath, as he prowls about in the gardens, bent on mis- 

 chief, still for such frosts as may be anticipated at the season of chrysan- 

 themum bloom, the protection will be quite sufficient. The larger these 

 houses are the safer they are, so those who need large houses and can erect 

 them, will be best off, and may enjoy the bloom of their flowers in neat 

 sightly structures, at very little more expense than the common awnings of 

 sailcloth, tarpaulin, and prepared calico, with none of the mess and bother 

 attendant upon the use of make-shifts. There is now plenty of time to 

 make all right, but remember the old enemy of the gardener is prepared for 

 action. Procrastination is the thief of time; let him not steal the moments 

 that remain for setting all to order, and preparing against the worst, to 

 insure the best that can be accomplished. 



"When the last fatal winter had passed over, what gloomy tales were 

 told of trees and shrubs killed outright by the grip of the frost on their 

 vital juices. Mr. F. Chitty, one of our keenest observers of causes and 

 events in gardening, pointed out in these pages the real cause of the 

 fatality, which he said was not the severity of the fi'ost solely, but the 

 frost combined with the gorged state of the sap-vessels, which burst like 

 water-pipes when attacked by it. Mr, Chitty was right, the frost fol- 

 lowed a cold, wet summer, and the trees were unable to bear it. IS'ow it 

 may seem superfluous to reiterate this fact at the close of one of the finest 

 seasons of this century, but it is not so. There are thousands of potted fruit- 

 trees in private gardens, not half ripe enough 5'et in the wood of the year 

 to stand a severe frost without injury ; and many of them that will not 

 be apparently hurt by the severest winter, will give no fruit next spring, 



