SNOW SHRUBS. 267 



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 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. 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, arid 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 incon- 

 venience with respect to the more tender shrubs from North 

 America : which they therefore plant under north walls. There 



c sccuiiu cum luugeM, irusi. YV nue an me rest 01 me surruuiiuing exposed. 



grass looked bare and withered, that under a group of old evergreen oaks 

 had made a shoot of from one to two inches, and was of a fine vivid green, 

 distinguishable at a great distance. Groundsel, the daisy, shepherd's purse, 

 veronica arvensis, calendra arvensis, &c. were in flower the whole winter, 

 their blossoms expanding in bright warm days during the frost ED. 



