208 EFFECTS OF THE WINTER OF 1853-4. 



that, upon the wliole, as much certainty has been arrived at as is 

 in tlie nature of things attainable.* 



The following are the places whence returns have been 

 obtained: — 



1. Royal Botanic Garden, Kew. 



The plants that have been more or less injured by the cold 

 of last winter are chiefly such as are considered sufficiently hardy 

 to bear the cold of our ordinary winters : most of them are 

 planted against walls of east, west, and south aspects, and were 

 protected by a covering of mats and fern. In the winter of 1838 

 the thermometer was observed at 0° : last winter it fell to ] 3°. — 

 Jno. Smith. 



2. Garden of the Society, C'hisicick. 



The autumn of 1853 was unfavourable for the maturing of 

 the wood of trees and shrubs, and they were consequently more 

 liable to suffer from the severe frosts in December and January. 

 On the night of the 2Sth of December, 1853, the common ther- 

 mometer was as low as 8°, and the radiating thermometer 5°. 

 On the night of the 2nd of January, 1854, the common ther- 

 mometer indicated 4°, and the radiating thermometer 2°. These 

 were the most destructive winter frosts which have occurred since 

 1838, hut not the most intense, for, on the night of the 7th of 

 February, 1845, the common thermometer was 3° below zero, and 

 the radiating thermometer was 9° below that point. On the 9th of 

 February, 1847, both thermometers were just as low as they were 

 on the 2nd of January, of the present year. These frosts, it may 

 however be observed, occurred later in the season than those of 

 last winter. No frost so intense as that of the 28th of last 

 December, has occurred in any corresponding month for the last 

 twenty-seven years at least. — Eobert Thompson. 



3. Dr. Lindley, Acton Green. 



A heavy imperfectly drained clay, with the ground raised in 

 places above the surrounding level. Temperature, &c., the same 

 as at Chiswick. 



4. Messrs. Standish and Noble, Bagshot. {G. C. 358.) _ 



The effects of the frost upon plants at Bagshot, up to the 



* All these sources of infoi-mation are referred to in the svicceediiig 

 pages by the name here printed in Italics. 



