1G8 THE FLORIST. 



vegetable kingdom, we shall find that certain causes produce certain 

 effects. Anything that tends to interfere with Nature's performing her 

 systematic action necessarily involves to a certain extent imperfect or- 

 ganisation. If Nature's laws are infringed, her machinery, if i may be 

 allowed the expression, is thrown out of gear, and her perfect action 

 impeded, if not absolutely destroyed.- 



There is such a word to be found in "Johnson" as accidental, and 

 what does that one word imply? why, a whole host of unforeseen 

 events and vexatious disappointments. 



We are the creatures of circumstances. Is there no analogy between 

 plants and animals? most assuredly. A man leaves his happy do- 

 mestic hearth in full vigour in the morning, and in the evening per- 

 haps returns a mutilated mass. A plant may to-day be hi most 

 beautiful condition, but alas — the Ice-king and the morrow — and its 

 beauty is faded and gone. 



A gardener may be proud of the healthy fruit-promising condition of 

 his trees, but if he does not efficiently protect, his pride, in all proba- 

 bility, will result in mortification. I hope this is not the case with Mr. 

 Saul. At page 106 he states that he hopes to have the pleasure in a 

 few weeks of thinning many quarts of young fruit. Has this been 

 verified? If sO; he must have well covered up his trees the last week 

 in March, i.e., if the frost was as intense at Stourton as it was in the 

 neighbourhood of London. I very much question if in this part of the 

 country there will be any occasion to thin ^le Apricots, having been 

 subjected to eight or nine degrees of frost, unless the trees were well 

 protected. I can scarcely conceive it possible that any one at all con- 

 versant with the physiology of plants should presume for a moment that 

 such very tender and succulent orgar.s as the stamens, pistils, and the 

 stigmas, &c., could escape hijury if exposed to the biting blast. Is it 

 not of the greatest importance that no obstacle presents itself to prevent 

 the full development and maturation of the flower ? As to the para- 

 mount importance of this part of nature's work, who so well convinced 

 as the hybridiser, the raiser of new and choice seedlings ? We cannot 

 and must not expect successful results except under circumstances purely 

 conditional. 



I have had and have seen excellent crops of wall fruit without pro- 

 tection, although the season may have been frosty ; and I account for 

 it in this way : the atmosphere was dry, the days clear, no clouds to 

 intercept the warming influence of the sun's rays, the walls, the earth 

 absorbed heat sufficient during the day to keep the Ice-king under 

 subjection during the night, by radiation. Frost is at this season of 

 the year, generally speaking, the most severe, or its intensity more 

 sensibly felt, just before the rising of the sun at dawn of day ; this is 

 in my humble opinion on account of the radiating powers of the earth, 

 &c., having become, if I may so speak, exhausted. When fruit trees 

 are blooming, I much prefer two or three degrees of frost, with a fine 

 light atmosphere, to wet ; as a wet, dripping season is the worst, de- 

 cidedly, as regards the fructification of the fruit blossoms. 



Trees may be ever so well managed by the most skilful manipu- 

 lator, they may be in the most robust condition possible, yet for all 



