The Natural History of Selborne 385 



ground without any drifting, wrapping up the more humble 

 vegetation in perfect security. From the first day to the fifth 

 of the new year more snow succeeded; but from that day the 

 air became entirely dear, and the heat of the sun about noon 

 had a considerable influence in sheltered situations. 



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

 greens ! was melted every day, and frozen intensely every night ; 

 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. 3 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- haulm, straw, reeds, or 

 any such covering, for a short time ; or, if his shrubberies 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 dis- 

 posed to shoot earlier in the spring, and to grow on later 

 in the autumn than they would otherwise do, and so are 

 sufferers by lagging or early frosts. For this reason also 



1 The phrase "the author," which occurs here and in some subsequent 

 passages, indicates the unreality of these later letters. En. a This 

 observation has since been abundantly justified. I hate myself observed 

 that near the summit of Hind Head in Surrey, over eight hundred feet in 

 height, many trees and shrubs pass uninjured through severe winters, while 

 below seven hundred feet, on the same hill, many individuals of identical 

 species are destroyed by the repeated thawings and freezings. ED. 



2 B 



