NOTES ON SOME SELECT ANNUALS. 



465 



ed before severe frosts. " Many kinds of 

 herbaceous plants and small shrubs," says 

 A. J. Downing,* " may be naturalized on 

 dry rock-icorh^ or aggregations of stones 

 mingled with soil, where they are found to 

 thrive perfectly. We observed in the Bo- 

 tanic Garden at Cambridge, an Azalea indica 

 and a species of Erica, that had braved the 

 exceedingly low temperature of 30 degrees 

 below zero, the past winter, having been 

 planted several years previously in a mass 

 of rock-work, where they had annually ma- 

 tured their wood in the most perfect man- 

 ner."! The succesful cultivation of the 

 peach and grape, on the gently swelling 

 hills called mounds, in the westeru prairies, 

 while the crops are destroyed by frost on 

 other lands, more fertile, affords another 

 example. In Lycoming county, Pa., on the 

 banks of the Loyalsock, a creek so rapid 

 that no muck is deposited, but fine dry soil, 

 peaches have been raised, though the cold 

 is often intense. 



It will be observed that in the preceding 

 remarks, the influence of large bodies of un- 



freezing water, in softening the severity of 

 the cold, in chilling the dangerous warm 

 air which starts the buds in winter, and 

 which afford great protection by the screen 

 of fog which they spread before the morn- 

 ing sun, has not been taken into accovmt. 

 This influence, where it exists, will, in 

 some cases, reverse some of the preceding 

 rules. J. J. Thomas. 



Mawdon^ 3 mo., 1S47. 



[We commend the foregoing sound ad- 

 vice to planters of fruit, in all districts of 

 country where the effects of frost are dis- 

 astrous. In traveling through part of this 

 State, in the summer of 1836, which follow- 

 ed the coldest winter known in New-York 

 for many years, we saw, continually, an 

 abundance of facts verifying Mr. Thomas' 

 observations. That season was one re- 

 markable every where for the failure of the 

 peach crop, in consequence of the excessive 

 cold of the previous winter — yet we noticed 

 that on t*he high ridges and mountain ranges, 

 the trees had escaped all injury, and bore 

 abundant crops. — Ed.] 



Notes on some Select Annuals. 



BY A DISCIPLE OF FLORA, NEW-YORK. 



Dear Sir — Just at this season, no doubt, 

 some of your readers, who may be novices 

 in floriculture, will be looking over the 

 seedsmen's catalogues, in the pleasing hope 

 of selecting something to give gaiety, bright- 

 ness and profusion of blossom to their flower 

 gardens. I remember how much I used to 

 be puzzled with fine botanical names, and 

 at last selected in a good deal the same way 

 that I suppose a person buys a ticket — trust- 



* In Hovey's Magazine- 



t The skillful cultivator will avoid all unnecessary depriva- 

 tion oi ftrtility, if he regards the size and ciualily of his fruit. 



59 



ing to good fortune a great deal, and to 

 knowledge of the matter in hand very little. 

 The result is often very similar in both cases. 

 It is by no means an uncommon occurrence, 

 when you think you have purchased the 

 seed of some new annual flower, the Latin 

 name of which gives you not even a glim- 

 mering notion of its character, to find that 

 the plants produced have coarse leaves, and 

 an insignificant bloom. I have, therefore, 

 thought I might use my little experience to 

 the advantage of those of your readers who 



