The Natural History of Selborne 369 



For the last two or three days of the former year there were con- 

 siderable falls of snow, which lay deep and uniform on the 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 

 clear, 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 evergreens 1 

 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. 2 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 doubtless the 

 more tender trees and shrubs should never be planted in hot aspects ; 

 not only for the reason assigned above, but also because, thus circum- 

 stanced, they are disposed 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 plants from 



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

 passages, indicates the unreality of these later letters. ED. 2 This observation 

 has since been abundantly justified. I have 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 A 



