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cold weather of 1895, but not killed, and which had made a 
struggle for life during the summer and autumn of the year were 
largely helped in the struggle by the mild winter, and were able 
in Spring to come on with their usual vigour. That was a real 
gain; and another gain was that many plants which were 
apparently quite killed by the winter, and put in no appearance 
at all during 1895, came up well in 1896, and so taught us a 
lesson of the extreme vitality of all vegetable life, and a lesson 
not to despair or be in too great a hurry to root up all that have 
been injured, but to be hopeful and patient. Among the plants 
that so reappeared in 1896, after having disappeared in 1895, I 
may mention these; the sweet-scented Verbena (Aloysia), Vitis 
striata, Allium giganteum, bulbine annua, hypericum coris, boehmeria 
nivea (the Himalayan nettle), the Japanese Yam (dioscorea 
batatas), the Indigo (indigofera dosua), Azara microphylla, and 
others. The mild winter also brought a very early flowering, 
especially of flowering shrubs, which was partly the cause of 
many shrubs flowering twice; this is a doubtful benefit, but a 
more certain one was that the plants were able to make good and 
healthy growth, which have had full time to mature, and so are 
better fitted to face the winter. 
On the other hand there was one result of the winter which 
was rather unexpected, and that was that some plants which 
were uninjured during the severe winter of 1895, were much 
injured, and in some cases killed during the mild winter of 
1896. At first, this was a surprise, but avery little thought soon 
gave the reason: the plants were not killed or injured by the 
mild winter, but by the severe weather of the previous October 
and November. You may remember that we had a great wave 
of heat in the latter part of September and the beginning of 
October, followed by an unusual wave of cold in the end of 
October and beginning of November ; and it was these two com- 
bined that brought injury to many plants. The warm wave had 
unduly stimulated the plants in many cases into new growth, and 
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