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18 Effects of Frost on Plants. 
‘For to one imbued with a taste for natural science, Nature 
unfolds ‘her hoarded poetry and her hidden spells ;? for him 
there is a voice in the winds, and a language in the waves—and 
e is = 
‘ Even as one 
Who, by some secret gift of soul or eye, 
In every spot beneath the smiling sun, 
Sees where the springs of living waters lie!’ ’* 
Art. II.— Observations upon the Effects produced on Plants, by 
the Frost which occurred in England in the winter of 1837-8 ; 
by Prof. Joun Linpiey: abstracted and condensed from the 
Horticultural Transactions of London.+ 
Ix noticing the disastrous effects of the extraordinary winter 
of 1837-8 upon the exotic plants suppposed to be hardy, as well 
as upon many of those indigenous to England, Dr. Lindley first 
makes some remarks on the state of the weather during the. pre- 
ceding summer and autumn. These are founded chiefly upon 
observations made in the garden of the Horticultural Society at 
Chiswick near London. 
“The month of April, 1837, was perhaps the coldest and at 
_ the same time the most sunless ever remembered. It was 7° 
Fahr. below the mean of the same month for ten preceding years ; 
and the temperature of May following was 6° below the average. 
In the latter month, the appearance of vegetation was like what 
it generally presents a month earlier. * * * * The general tem- 
perature of April and May being thus low, and the nights fre- 
quently frosty throughout both months, vegetation advanced but 
little, and only commenced under favorable circumstances in June; 
plants consequently made the greater portion of their growth after 
midsummer and during the autumn, at which season the short- 
ness of the days, and an unusual deficiency of sun heat, were 
insufficient to enable them to complete the process of lignification. 
* Mrs. Hemans. 
t Messrs. Editors—The memoir with this title, published in the last volume of - 
the Transactions of the Horticultural Society of London, possesses so great gene- 
ral interest, that, on the supposition that few of your American readers will meet 
with it in its original form, I have made the enclosed copious abstract of the more 
portions for publication in your Journal, adding a few notes in 
Aiea ae A. G. 
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