THE EFFECT OF FROST ON VEGETATION 73 



grievously dull this spring in consequence. It is 

 nearly all killed to the ground, though I have 

 noticed a few bushes still green and vigorous on 

 Wandsworth Common. What a glorious thing it is, 

 and how little our poets have done to celebrate it ! 

 One never realises its splendour till a season has to 

 be passed without its goblin gold. Let no sceptic 

 ever profanely call in question the legend of Linnaeus, 

 who, it is said, used to cultivate gorse in pots in his 

 greenhouse, for it will not endure Scandinavian 

 winters, and when he first saw an English common 

 covered with gorse in bloom, burst into tears of 

 gratitude. 



Myrtles endure a very low temperature with 

 impunity, though they seem to require the breath of 

 the sea to keep them vigorous in our latitude. Here, 

 in the west of Scotland, not only] have the plants 

 trained on walls suffered no more than the nipping of 

 a few sprays, but those in the open ground have lain 

 comfortably lapped in snow ready to start into fresh 

 growth. I felt much anxiety about a fine specimen 

 covering the end of a toolhouse here. Planted as a 

 cutting in 1851, it reaches twenty feet high, the 

 stem is twenty inches in circumference, and each 

 autumn it bears a load of fragrant, creamy blossoms. 



