80 



hand it will also receive many other advantages of 

 various kinds, — enough to make it far surpass all 

 its antecessors. 



Pray how low was the thermometer with you ? 

 and on what day was it the lowest ? I hegan to 

 think that the great severity of the frost has been 

 in your parts and in Lincolnshire. On the 2/th, 

 my servant Roberts, whom you know, was valuing 

 wood in a copse near Tattershall, where he heard 

 noises several times repeated, like the loud smack 

 of a whip, which proved to be the riving of the 

 branches of trees by the intensity of the frost. I 

 do not remember that this phenomenon, though 

 common in the North of Europe, has been observed 

 since the hard frost, as it is called, of 1739-40, when 

 Miller mentions it. I believe that a combination of 

 circumstances are necessary to this phenomenon, 

 but intense cold below the 0° of Fahrenheit is cer- 

 tainly one of them. 



My time has been of late so taken up by the 

 Committee of Coinage that I have done little in 

 botany. I regret it the less, as Dryander is em- 

 ployed in printing the Catalogue. 



Dickson tells me that last market at Covent 

 Garden was well supplied, and at reasonable prices, 

 — a sign that the frost has done little mischief to 

 our market-men. White brocoli is said to be the 

 only plant that has suffered materially. 



Pray offer to your wife and mother the best good 

 wishes of the season, and for many happy returns ; 

 and believe me very faithfully yours, 



Joseph Banks. 



