x HORTUS MORTOLENSIS 
places where the north wind brings the fresher air from the 
mountains. During the greater part of the year, how- 
ever, the temperature is variable, especially during winter, 
when the difference between sunshine and shade is very 
remarkable, and a cool night generally succeeds even a warm 
winter day. This sudden change is very prejudicial to many 
tender plants. A marked fall in temperature has almost 
invariably been observed at the beginning of January, and 
when cold winds prevail even frost may come. The lowest 
point of the thermometer, which I have seen, was —4° C. 
(== 24°8° F.) on January 6th, 1901. But besides the danger 
arising from cold winds, we are never quite safe from frost 
in winter, although it is rather an exception than the rule. 
A thunderstorm which brings masses of snow or hail on to 
our nearest mountains, and is followed by a clear night, 
may bring down the temperature to or below freezing point. 
These frosts may occur at any time from November to 
March, but happily they only last a few hours, and generally 
pass without doing much damage. It is often surprising 
what an amount of ungenial weather plants can stand. 
Snowfalls * occur but rarely, and are of short duration, 
nor does the snow remain longer than twenty-four hours. 
In a garden soil, water, temperature and sunlight are 
the factors which determine the character of the vegetation, 
and Nature severely punishes any neglect of them. No one 
understood this better than Sir Thomas Hanbury, with his 
keen observation and long experience. ‘‘ Never go against 
Nature,” was his constant thought in laying out and planting 
his garden. 
A short history of the garden may be of interest. It is 
chiefly drawn from the notes on “ Sowing and Planting at 
Lia Mortola,’’ which were carefully kept by the late Sir 
Thomas Hanbury, and his brother Daniel, the eminent 
botanist and pharmacologist. These old pages bear witness 
to the enthusiasm with which the brothers entered upon 
their self-imposed task, and to their zeal in pursuing it. 
It had been the dream of Thomas Hanbury from his 
early youth to make a garden in a southern climate, and 
to share its pleasures and botanical interests with his favourite 
brother. While staying on the Riviera, in the spring of 1867, 
after many years of strenuous work in the East, he decided 
* “On December 12th, 1878, the country down even to the seashore 
was covered with snow ... the temperature showed two or three degrees 
of frost.” (See T. H. in Gardeners’ Chronicle, February 11th, 1879.) 
