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258 on the chmate of Rufsia. Dec. 19 
in full verdure and often in flower, and sometimes in sced 
before the protecting covering be removed; nor are they 
im danger of being checked by frost after the snow is mel- 
ted; whereas, with us, plants that are hardy, before they 
begin to fhoot out, are often cut off by spring frosts, after’ 
they have set forth their tender fhoots. It would, there- 
fore, be an interesting thing to have an exact list of her- 
baceous plants, as well as trees, which could bear the open 
air near Petersburgh in Rufsia, to be compared with those of 
Britain. It is probable, we fhould find that many of our 
hardy crees are greenhouse plants there ; and that many of 
their hardy p/ants require the thelter of the greenhouse, 
if not occasional resource of artificial heat, with us j 
CALLA ETHIOPICA. 
Tuere is just now [Dec. 7th,] in flower, in the botanical 
garden here, in the open air, a fine plant of the cad/a 
Ethiopica ; j a plant that has been hitherto considered as, 
requiring the heat ofa stove in this country. This is 
one instance, among several others, that have occurred of 
the impropriety of judging, @ priori, of the tendernefs of 
plants, from the nature of the climate of which they are 
natives. For though a plant may be able to bear the heat . 
ef a warm climate, and may have been originally found. 
in atropical region, it may, neverthelefs, be also capable of 
resisting the cold of more polar regions. Th€ sweet scent- 
ed pea, for example, is a native of the island of Ceylon, 
from whence it was first introduced into Europe 3 yet it i, 
well known to be the hardiest annual pea we have; and is 
the only plant of that desciiption, which, if sown at a. 
proper time, can resist our winter’s cold so as not to be kill. 
ed by it; and the Portugal laurel is our hardiest evergreen. 
The calla Ethiopica has been kept in our stoves in 
Britain, for perhaps half a century past ; nor does it seem 
