FRI 



238 



FRU 



separated every second or third year. 

 The proper time is when their flower- 

 etalks decay, taking the whole cluster 

 of roots out of the earth and separating 

 them into distinct roots, planting the 

 emaller offsets by themselves, in nurse- 

 ry-beds, to remain a year or two ; and 

 the larger roots plant where they are 

 designed to remain. 



They are also propagated by seed to 

 gain new varieties. The process is 

 tedious. The fritillary and Persian lily 

 will be three years, and the crown im- 

 perial sometimes six or seven, before 

 they flower in perfection. 



The seeds are to be sown in boxes 

 of light earth in August or September, 



down to below 32o without freezing, 

 but it solidifies the moment it' is agi- 

 tated." — Principles of Gardening. 



The seeds of some plants are bene- 

 fited by being frozen, for those of the 

 rose and the hawthorn never germinate 

 so freely as after being subjected to the 

 winter frosts. 



Freezing is beneficial to soils, not 

 only by destroying vermin within its 

 bosom, but by aiding the atmosphere to 

 pervade its texture, which texture is 

 also rendered much more friable by 

 the frost. M. Schluber says that freez- 

 ing reduces the consistency of soils 

 most remarkably, and that in the case 

 of clays and other adhesive soils, the 



covering them with earth a quarter of i diminution of their consistency amounts 



an inch deep. — Ahercromhie. 



FROST. If a plant be frozen, and 

 though some defy the attacks of frost, 

 others are very liable to its fatal influ- 

 ence, death is brought upon them as it 



to at least 50 per cent. In hoeing clay 

 he found it reduced from sixty-nine to 

 forty-five of the scale already stated, 

 and in the ordinary arable soil from 

 thirty-three to twenty. He satisfactorily 



is in the animal frame, by a complete j explains this phenomenon by observing 



breaking down of their tissue ; their 

 vessels are ruptured, and putrefaction 

 supervenes with unusual rapidity. 



The following contingencies render 

 a plant especially liable to be frozen. 



" First. Moisture renders a plant 

 susceptible of cold. Every gardener 

 knows this. If the air of his green- 

 house be dry, the plants within may be 



that the crystals of ice pervading the 

 entire substance of the frozen soil, ne- 

 cessarily separate the particles of earth, 

 rendering their points of contact fewer. 

 As soil in our climate is rarely frozen 

 to a depth of more than four inches, 

 and in extremely hard winters it does 

 not penetrate more than six inches in 

 light soils, and ten inches in those that 



submitted to a temperature of 32^ with- i contain more clay, or an excess of 

 out injury, provided the return to a ' moisture, these facts, and the frequent 

 higher temperature be gradual. ' failure of our potato crops, have led Dr. 



" Secondly. Gradual decrements of. Lindley to the very judicious suggestion 

 temperature are scarcely felt. A myr- j of planting these crops in autumn, 

 tie may be forced and subsequently [ which must be the best time if practica- 

 passed to the conservatory, to the cold- ' ble, for it is pursuing the dictate of na- 

 pit, and even thence to an open border, ture. That it is practicable, I have no 

 if in the south of England, without doubt, for no frost would injure the 

 enduring any injury from the cold of sets, if a little coal ashes were put over 

 winter; but it would be killed if passed them in each hole, for coal ashes are 



at once from the hot-house to the 

 border. 



Thirdly. The more saline are the 



an excellent non-conductor of heat, and 

 consequently opposed to a low reduc- 

 tion of temperature. Even if potatoes 



juices of a plant, the less liable are buried some inches beneath the soil's 

 they to congelation by frost. Salt pre- surface are frozen, they thaw so very 

 serves vegetables from injury by sudden I gradually, that no injury to themoc- 

 transitions in the temperature of the curs, unless the freezing has been suffi- 

 atmosphere. That salted soil freezes cient to burst their vessels, which 

 with more reluctance than before the ! occurs very rarely, 

 salt is applied, is well known, and that j FROTH-FLY. See Tettigonia. 

 crops of turnips, cabbages, cauliflowers, FRUIT ROOM. "Fruit for storing 

 &c., are similarly preserved is equally should be gathered before it is quite 

 well established. ', mature, for the ripening process, the 



"Fourthly. Absence of motion en- ^ formation of sugar, with its attendant 

 ables plants to endure a lower degree exhalation of carbonic acid and water, 

 of temperature. Water may be cooled | goes on as well in the fruit room as in 



