72 MARCH 



XXVI 

 Gardeners may be heard bewailing now (1895) 



the havoc wrought among shrubs and 

 The Effect 



of Frost on herbs by the extraordinary cold : but it 

 Vegetation 



serves a more useful purpose to. note 



those plants of doubtful hardihood which have re- 

 sisted it. In the gardens in and near London, 

 perhaps the most notable and unexpected instance 

 is afforded by an evergreen of comparatively recent 

 introduction to this country, a native, too, of New 

 Zealand, which is a region producing a flora of which 

 the greater part has proved impatient of our climate. 

 Olearia Haastii, as botanists have somewhat clumsily 

 named it, is a shrub of the order Composite, typified 

 by our own daisies and thistles, with leathery, ever- 

 green leaves, beautifully buff on the under surface, 

 and loaded with small, white, fragrant flowers in 

 July and August. After the bloom has passed, its 

 place is taken by a mist of cottony seeds, which per- 

 sist all winter. Not only has the Olearia proved as 

 hardy as common box, but it is framed to resist the 

 malign influence of London smoke, so fatal to most 

 evergreens. 



The common gorse has suffered sadly from frost- 

 bite, and most of the commons near London will be 



