General Notices. 503 



mind, that repays him for his trouble, and an amateur values a plant he has 

 raised, more than five times the intrinsic worth, it having been the object of 

 his care and attention, for months past ; and, in my opinion, the nurseryman 

 and florist, would best consult his own interest, by giving- amateurs every 

 reasonable information in the cultivation of the plants they are desirous of 

 growing, and, upon this principle, that a person who can grow any particu- 

 lar flower well, will never be satisfied with what he has, but will seek to 

 improve his stock, by the addition of new varieties; and where would he be 

 so likely to go to for them, as to the person who had taught him to grow 

 them well ■? but if an amateur cannot succeed in the cultivation of his favor- 

 ite flower, he will cease to grow it, and turn his attention to such plants 

 only, as require little care and trouble. I had hoped that, by this time, nur- 

 serymen had become more liberal and enlightened in their opinions, for I 

 am fully convinced, that no man, let him be in what class of life he may, 

 will ever do much good for himself, so long as he cultivates a sordid and 

 narrow-minded feeling towards his fellow-man — {Gard. Chron., 18i8. 

 p. 622.) 



High Night Temperature in Plant Houses. — Every gardener who pre- 

 tends to an acquaintance with his profession is now aware of the prejudi- 

 cial efl^ect of HIGH NIGHT TEMPERATURE. We havs repeatedly pressed the 

 subject on his attention : we have shown that, in countries called hot, the 

 thermometer often falls low during the night, and that, to the Vine in parti- 

 cular, night cold is indispensable, and always provided by Nature, where 

 grapes are finest. The well known formation of ice, near Calcutta, although 

 brought about by slightly artificial means, is in itself a beacon to guide the 

 gardener who reflects. In short, the kind of periodical rest, which a low 

 nocturnal temperature secures to plants, is undoubtedly as necessary to them 

 as sleep to aniinals: it may be broken for a short time with impunity, but it 

 must be provided eventually, and the greater the regularity of it, the better 

 the health of the individual. 



The physiological reasons for this are well understood, and need not be 

 explained to-day. That it is a universal provision of Nature, that tempera- 

 ture should greatly diminish in the absence of the sun, is attested by all 

 good meteorological observations on tropical countries, and, in the absence 

 of them, would be sufficiently indicated by the well known effects of the 

 nocturnal radiation to which plants are exposed in starlight nights. 



It is probable, however, that no one has been prepared for such a fall of 

 temperature by night, as is recorded in Sir Thomas Mitchell's late Jour- 

 nal, into the interior of tropical Australia. The facts revealed in this inter- 

 esting work have been fully extracted and made the subject of comment, in 

 the last number of the " Journal of the Horticultural Society of London." 

 For details, the reader is referred to that work. The following is the au- 

 thor's summary of the facts : — 



" In the end of April, (our October,) in latitude 82° S., within 4^° of the 

 tropic, at an insignificant elevation, the thermometer stood at 26° at sunrise, 

 and was as low as 43° at 9 p. m. ; nevertheless, the country produced wild 

 Indigo, Mimosas, Casuarinas, arborescent Myrtleblooms, and Loranths. A 

 degree nearer the tropic in May, (our November), the thermometer at sun- 



