May 8, 1866. ] 



JOUBNAli OF HORTICnLTTJBE AND COTTAGE GABDENEB. 



347 



grown and very healthy. Having experienced considerable 

 diflScalty in cultivating Cheilanthea on a former occasion, I 

 determined to try a plan of my own, which had answered with 

 another very tender Fern. I took a large pot, filling it for 

 about 2 inches with drainage ; in this I placed a smaller pot, 

 with about an inch of drainage, filling up both pots with peat 

 earth, mixed with a very little silver sand and a small, very 

 small, proportion of cocoa-nut refuse. I planted the Fern, 

 placing s. glass over it, the glass removed from the soil about 

 half an inch by broken bits of rock, so that air is admitted 

 at all times. I keep the Fern in the window of the drawing- 

 room, watering it every two or three days, taking off the glass 

 while the moisture evaporates from the fronds. Some ten or a 

 dozen new fronds have sprung up, and the whole plant looks as 

 fresh and healthy as possible. 



In the same window I have four pots of the Cyclamen enro- 

 piEum, which I brought last year from Florence, and which 

 have been in bloom several weeks. Both leaves and flowers are 

 considerably larger than they were when growing wild in Italy. 



Some Ixias (crocata), that I brought from Bologna are in full 

 bloom ; but the size of the flower is much smaUer and the 

 colouring far less briUiant than when I saw them in their royal 

 home at the Villa Beale. — Filix-fiemina. 



\\TNTER LINGERING IN THE LAP OF MA*Y. 



The past week has been one of the most severe I ever re- 

 member in the north of Ireland ; Pears, Plums, and Apples, 

 both late and early, are totally destroyed, although mostly 

 covered with spruce branches and hexagon netting, which ap- 

 pear to have been useless. Young growths of forest trees, 

 young Broccoli, Savoys, Cabbages, and all young seedlings are 

 very much injured. The following are the correct temperatures 

 taken by one of CasseUa's registering thermometers — viz., 

 April 29th, 9° ; 30th, 4° ; May 1st, 11° ; 2nd, 4° ; 3rd, 8°.— 

 E. Welch, Palace Gardens, Armagh. 



There was a fall of snow at Teignmonth on the 3rd instant. 

 At Chiswick, on that date, the thermometer fell to 26°, and in 

 the succeeding night to 25°, or T below the freezing point. 



FROST AMD PROTECTINO MATERIALS. 



I WISH it were in my power to say with Mr. Brehaut, " that 

 the winter is now happily past." We, who live amongst the 

 hills of Yorkshire, have been enduring for the last ten days a 

 most cutting wintry blast from the north-east. The distant 

 hills are still white with snow, and the frosts at night are most 

 severe. I shall never forget the destruction which the frost of 

 the night of the 29th and morning of the 30th of April worked 

 in my garden. The blossom on all the unprotected Plum trees 

 was completely destroyed, even the more forward buds of the 

 Morello Cherry were also killed. I do not, however, desire to 

 relate the injury my garden has sustained, but rather to make 

 known for the benefit of others the lesson which these frosts 

 have taught me. Three different kinds of protecting material 

 are used here to cover the fruit trees trained to the walls. 

 Frigi domo, the improved make, 3 yards wide, at 2s. 8d. per 

 yard, is used to cover Plums and Cherries and several Pear 

 trees. This material was in excellent condition, had not a 

 single hole in it, and was fastened against a south brick wall 

 under a stone coping, which projected about 6 inches. The frigi 

 domo hung down to the ground, and was prevented from press- 

 ing too close to the bloom by poles reared up against the wall, 

 and yet, notwithstanding this careful protection, a most abun- 

 dant crop of Plums has been almost entirely destroyed, and the 

 blossom of the Pears has shared the same fate. About two- 

 thirds of the bloom of the May Duke Cherry have also been 

 cut off. Fifteen Pear trees on another south wall, and which 

 were in full flower, were protected with stout harden. These 

 trees have suffered but little injury. The blossoms of Easter 

 Beurre and Fondante d'Automne, a delicious Pear, have been 

 injured to some extent, but the other trees have sustained no 

 damage worthy of mention. 



.\pricot3. Peaches, and a few choice Pears were protected 

 with a woollen material, a pattern of which I enclose for your 

 inspection. Under this covering all the fruit trees were pre- 

 served from injury, even the tender bloom of the Marie Louise 

 Pear has not a single mark of frost upon it. This is the eighth 

 spring that this material has been in use, and it has never 

 yet failed to resist the utmost severity of spring frosts. It 

 was purchased on the 6th of January, 1858, of Mr. Ashworth, ' 



wooUen manufacturer, of Haslingden, near Manchester. It is 

 IJ yard in width, and cost Is. Id. per yard. It is still in ex- 

 cellent condition, as the enclosed pattern will show, and will 

 in all probabiUty continue to be serviceable for several years to 

 come. I hope I am not out of order in mentioning the name 

 of the maker, for when I applied about two years ago to Messrs. 

 Ashworth for a further supply, I was informed that they had 

 ceased to make it ; still, it is possible, in the event of a good 

 demand for this material springing up, the firm might be in- 

 duced to resume the manufacture of this invaluable protecting 

 material. 



The frost, then, has taught me— First, That frigi domo is a 

 most ineflicient protecting material ; moreover, its cost is con- 

 siderable, and it does not wear well. Secondly, That stout 

 harden wUl exclude frost far more successfully than the frigi. 

 It is also cheaper, as it can be bought 6 feet in width for Is. 5d, 

 per yard. It will last much longer than frigi domo, and can ba 

 easily procured of different widths to suit the height of wall. 

 Thirdly, That the Haslingden woollen drugget is far superior to 

 either frigi domo or harden as a protecting material, and if 

 its efficiency and durability be taken into consideration, it 

 would still be cheap at a higher price than Is. Id. per yard. 

 If, however, this sort of drugget cannot now be obtained, an 

 efficient material for protecting fruit trees from frost is still a 

 desideratum. — C. M., Cargrave Vicarage, May 1st. 



■WEATHER WISDOM. 



(Contimied from page 201.) 



It has been previously remarked that in calculating the pro- 

 babilities of future weather, the observer must never neglect to 

 make use of a thermometer, and to note the readings of that 

 instrument as well as those of the barometer. Such obser- 

 vations are always necessary, and of the greatest importance, 

 because a rising barometer with a falling thermometer shows 

 quite a different prospect of probable weather to that which a 

 rising barometer and a high thermometer would lead observers 

 to expect ; not, however, when a barometer and thermometer 

 are placed in a hall and hung up where both are influenced, 

 more or less, by the rays of the sun, or by the heat of a fire. 

 Then an attached thermometer is not of much use for weather 

 wisdom, and only informs the observer of the temperature of 

 the air surrounding the column of mercury, and for closer ob- 

 servations gives him the means of finding out how many 

 hundredths ought to be deducted from the observed height of 

 the column, the mercury in the barometer being affected by 

 temperature. Such temperature must be taken into account 

 in order to obtain a true reading in all critical observations. 



While on the subject of thermometers, I think it may be of 

 service to point out some of the chief causes which bring about 

 such discrepancies in the readings of these instruments. I do 

 not by discrepancies mean difference in temperature as com- 

 pared with the temperature of the previous day, but discrepan- 

 cies in the temperatures of places close to each other. Many 

 of your readers, doubtless, remember the time when the readings 

 of their registering thermometers differed considerably from 

 those of their neighbours close by. All were good instruments, 

 by good makers, and yet the difference caused some anxiety 

 as to the dependance to be placed on the observations, in 

 cases where, had the thermometers been suspended side by 

 side, the readings would, no doubt, have been identical. It is 

 a common remark to hear on a frosty morning, " My theimo- 

 meter registered so many degrees of frost," and another person 

 living close by will say, " Mine registered a greater number," 

 making a difference, perhaps, of three, four, or even more de- 

 grees. The cause of such discrepancies in temperature is 

 generally as follows. When comparisons of temperatures aie 

 made, no allowance is given for aspect, or for the place where 

 the thermometer is fixed. Now, there is a great difference 

 between the readings of a thermometer on the grass, and of 

 one placed 4 feet above the ground, or again of a thermometer 

 placed on the snow. It was recorded by Mr. Lowe, writing 

 from Highfield House, at the time of the great frost, on the 

 25th of December, 1860, that a thermometer at 4 feet from the 

 ground was 6°, and another on the grass 8°, below zero ; and at 

 Beeston Observatory, one 4 feet from the ground, 8.3°, another 

 on the grass, 11.7°, and another on the snow, 13.3°, below zero. 



Again, some thermometers are placed in very sheltered 

 situations — near a window, or where the true temperature is 

 really never arrived at. Others are placed facing the north or 

 the south, and in all cases where there is a difference it can 



