OF SELBORNE. 385 



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 burned 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 melt- 

 ing and freezing of the snow that is so fatal to vegeta- 

 tion, 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 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 circumstanced, 

 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 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 

 inconvenience 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 



c c 



