52 RHODODENDRONS AND OTHERS 



bleak watershed between Strathspey and Strathtay, and 

 of the Spitals of Glenmuick, Glendye, and Glenshee. 



XII 



Never was there more apt illustration of the weather 

 Rhododen described by rural meteorologists as ' feeding 

 drons and a frost' than we have had during this winter 

 of 1916-17. From before Christmas onward, 

 right through January, the mercury hovered round the 

 freezing point, never more than two or three degrees 

 above or below it. Then, when the frost was full ' fed/ 

 it set to work in earnest, and a spell of three weeks set 

 in of such cold as has not befallen us since the memor- 

 able rigours of 1895. In that year the cold was far 

 more intense than anything we have had to bear in 

 1917, for on that occasion the shaded thermometer here 

 twice registered zero Fahr. ; but a thick and beneficent 

 mantle of snow, such as I have never known before or 

 since to lie on our western seaboard, averted injury 

 from half-hardy plants. In 1917 the risk was greater, 

 for although the mercury has only twice fallen so low 

 as 17 Fahr. (15 degrees of cold), there has been no 

 snow. Yet we have escaped cheaply, having no serious 

 losses to record, owing to the frost having been steady, 

 without trying alternation of thaw. 



The mischief done by sunshine upon frozen plants 

 was very evident on February mornings upon a large 

 bush of Rhododendron barbatum, which was inadvi- 

 sedly planted on a full south exposure about thirty 

 years ago. This fine Himalayan species protects itself 

 from frost by rolling its leaves so tightly back upon 



