OF SELBORNE. 201 



that day the air became entirely clear ; and the heat of the 

 sun about noon had a considerable influence in sheltered situa- 

 tions. 



It was in such an aspect that the snow on the author's 

 ever-greens was melted every day, and frozen intensely every 

 nig] it ; so that the laurustines, bays, laurels, and arbutuses 

 looked, in three or four days, as if they had been burnt in the 

 fire ; while a neighbour's plantation of the same kind, in a 

 high cold situation, where the snow was never melted at all, 

 remained uninjured. 



From hence I would infer that it is the repeated melting 

 and freezing of the snow that is so fatal to vegetation, rather 

 than the severity of the cold. Therefore it highly behoves 

 every planter, who wishes to escape the cruel mortification of 

 losing in a few days the labour and hopes of years, to bestir 

 himself on such emergencies ; and, if his plantations are 

 small, to avail himself of mats, cloths, pease-haum, straw, 

 reeds, or any such covering, for a short time ; or, if his shrub- 

 beries are extensive, to see that his people go about with 

 prongs and forks, and carefully dislodge the snow from the 

 boughs, since the naked foliage will shift much better for 

 itself, than where the snow is partly melted and frozen again. 



It may perhaps appear at first like a paradox ; but doubt- 

 less the more tender trees and shrubs should never be planted 

 in hot aspects ; not only for the reason assigned above, but 

 also because, thus circumstanced, they are disposed to shoot 

 earlier in the spring, and grow on later in the autumn than 

 they would otherwise do, and so are sufferers by lagging or 

 early frosts. For this reason also plants from Siberia will 

 hardly endure our climate : because, on the very first advances 

 of spring, they shoot away, and so are cut off by the severe 

 nights of March or April. 



Dr. Fothergill and others have experienced the same incon- 

 venience with respect to the more tender shrubs from North- 

 America; which they therefore plant under north- walls. 

 There should also perhaps be a wall to the east to defend them 

 from the piercing blasts from that quarter. 



This observation might without any impropriety be carried 



