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heart ; if the heart is dead, the whole man is dead. But a plant 
seems to be, if I may say so, all heart, or a collection of hearts. 
Half or more of a plant may die, but if one good branch remains 
we can propagate a new plant from it, or, if it is killed to the 
ground and nine-tenths of the roots are destroyed, the remaining 
tenth is sufficient to renew the plant in full health and vigour. 
Ihave been much impressed with this this year. I have seen 
many plants coming to life again, and I know certainly that the 
new life has sprung from a mere thread, and the plant that comes 
is not a new plant, it is the old plant that has fought a brave 
battle against tremendous odds. 
These are not the only lessons that the year’s frost has taught 
me, but I must leave the rest, for I have still one or two 
things to note that I must not leave out. So on the subject 
of the lessons of the frost I will only add that I have learned 
more distinctly than ever that we really know nothing 
about the frost so far as plants ave affected by it; I mean that 
on the initial question as to what are the chemical or struc- 
tural or other constituents of a plant, which determine that it 
will be tender or hardy, the answer to that question seems as far 
off as ever. 
The year was remarkable for the great abundance of flowers 
and fruits, but whether that was in consequence of the great frost, 
or in spite of it, I cannot say. There can, however, be no doubt 
that the long rest, followed by an absence of late frosts, was very 
beneficial to all plants. In my own garden I had a complete 
failure of all wall fruits, and I attribute this to the fact that from 
time to time the rest was broken from the sunshine on a South 
wall, when the trees were tempted to begin their growth, and 
then the frosts had full power over them. With me the great 
failure of the year was in Irises ; but I am inclined to think that 
this failure was quite as much, if not more, due to the drought 
than to the frost. 
I cannot say much of the effect of the frost on animal life. In 
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