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plants had been living for that period below freezing poiut, at least they 

 had not been living they had been dying by hundreds. The previous 

 severe winter was in 1861, and this had not been so fatal ; then the 

 lauristinuses looked as if they had been through the fire, the bays were 

 cut down, and the magnolias much injured. It was not so now, and 

 that was becaure the severest weather was in January, when they had 

 no sun. The alteration of frost and sunshine was fatal te plants ; it had 

 just the efifect of bringing a frost-bitten foot to the fire. Most of the 

 herbaceous plants had not suffered much. Those which had suffered 

 most were those which had come to them from a higher temperature 

 and a low level, as for instance from the Mediterranean. Those which 

 had come from a higher temperature and a high level, as from the 

 Himalayas, Japan, and China, had stood very well. People often said 

 that they could acclimatise plants, but botanists knew that it was 

 nonsense to imagine they could make tender plants hardy. Still they 

 continually indulged the hope, and this wiuter had served to shew them 

 their error. New Zealand plants had gone in all directions, and the 

 scarlet geranium, which had been introduced two hundred yeai-s, was 

 another instance of a plant which could not be made hardy, though 

 every expedient had been tried. Geography also was a false guide, for 

 while some plants from the tropics stood well, there were some arctic 

 plants which they could not grow. Still there was one very pretty 

 New Zealand shrub, Veronica traversi, called by the gardeners 

 Devoniensis, which had stood very well. All who attempted to grow a 

 mixed collection would know that the great enemies to success were the 

 gardeners and the ladies. In their anxiety for tidiness they dug up the 

 ground just before winter and exposed the roots to the cold, and they 

 cleared away the leaves, though there could be no better protection than 

 the natural thatch which fell down upon a plant, and he proved this 

 from an instance in his garden of a little shrub which had been very 

 much bitten, except where the leaves of the New Zealand flax had 

 fallen upon it, and there it was all right. In conclusion he exhibited 

 some sprays of shrubs which had stood the winter well (as the Club 

 could see), and which he recommended to them— Choisyia ternata, 

 Nandina domestica, Bamhusa metake, Veronica traversi. The camellias 

 had also stood very well — he was looking at them at Kew only a few 

 days before. 



