8 EFFECT OF SEVERE FROST ON THE 
currants; when however they point downwards 
I have sometimes known them to produce fruit 
after hard frosts, although fully opened at the 
time, plants like animals having in many cases a 
wonderful power of maintaining their proper 
temperature, when the temperature of the at- 
mosphere which surrounds them is unfriendly. 
Of apples, pears, and plums, the first blossoms 
which open, as they are almost invariably the lar- 
gest, are also those which, if uninjured, produce 
the finest fruit, and it is therefore unreason- 
able to expect that the later and immature blos- 
soms above referred to, although they may have 
escaped the spring frost, will yield very perfect 
fruit; hence it is that gardeners are the more 
interested in protecting wall trees in order to 
secure the first blossoms. 
If in the case of the potatoes which I have 
stated, the sprouts were saved by the straw not 
touching the ground, and the seed vessels of the 
immature blossoms of the Jargonelle pear were 
also protected by having a plate of air between 
them and the unopened petals, we may, I ap- 
prehend, conclude that any covering of fruit 
trees or vegetables, in immediate contact with 
them, must be of little use against frost. 
