PROTECTION OF PLANTS IN THE OPEN GROUND. 143 



they look tidy when taker off and placed by their side. This 



same cover, which can be made to suit any plant of two feet 



high and under, is the best that can be used for araucarias, 



choice pinuses, and all other young plants that are tender 



while young ; for the covers are easily packed away one in 



another, when not wanted. There are many of the hybrid 



rhododendrons perfectly hardy, sufficiently so to stand any 



degree of frost ; but they bloom so early, that the flowers, 



which are always tender, are cut off by the spring frosts, and 



the entire beauty spoiled in a single day. The covers we 



have mentioned ^vill effectually preserve the flowers ; they 



should, therefore, be put on every night, and may be also 



used in the heat of the sun, and be kept on in windy or 



frosty weather. By this means the beauty of the plant may 



be enjoyed in all but frosty or windy weather; and the 



covers, if obliged to be left on the ground, only appear like so 



many beehives. These covers, of all sizes, might be brought 



into very general use, not only to protect plants from frosts, 



but also to preserve the flowers of many choice plants on the 



borders or on lawns, when the bloom is of a nature to be 



damaged by rough weather, or too much wet ; for they are as 



good a shield from rain as they are from sun and frost and 



wind. A great number of plants flower well against open 



walls, and people are generally very careful to mat them, as 



a preservation from frost ; but they make a sad mistake in 



omitting to mat them when the sun shines hot and bright. 



It is not the frost that does one half the injury that these 



plants suffer in winter and spring. The Camellia japonica 



will do admirably against a wall out-of-doors, and will stand 



even without a covering ; but often all the flowers are seen 



killed in a single night of hard frost — at least all the blooms 



that are exjDanded ; whereas a mat would have saved them. 



But two things should be provided for that are seldom 



noticed : in the first place, a ledge or coping should be so 



placed that the covering may be fastened under it, so that no 



vacancy shall appear at top, but all wet shall run off; and, 



next, that pegs or stops should stick out from the wall, a few 



inches, to keep the covering from touching the plant. Then, 



again, there is another point to be attended to ; the mat must 



be placed over them in the hot sun as well as in the cold 



frost ; and the same must be observed in heavy showers, and 



cold winds, all alike inimical to flowers, and to the young 



