194 General Notices. 



shape of a cone, averaging fifteen to eighteen inches in width at its base, 

 nine inches at its summit, and from twelve to fifteen inches in depth. We 

 have had scarcely any snow here, so that, in the night of Tuesday, the 11th 

 inst., the ground was nearly hare of snow : on Wednesday morning, observ- 

 ing that my thermometer, placed on the northern side of a tree, about six 

 feet from the ground, in an exposed situation, registered 26° of frost, I felt 

 curious respecting the efficacy of my moss protectives. To my agreeable 

 surprise, I found, that under cones of moss, not more than nine inches deep, 

 owing to their settlement from the rains of winter, the soil was not frozen 

 in the least degree, and the young shoots and buds of the Roses, at the 

 bases of the plants, fresh and vigorous as in the mildest weather. I have 

 hitherto recommended moss, when used as a protective for Roses — not to be 

 placed in contact with the branches of the plants, fearing the effects of damp 

 during the humid weather of a great portion of our winters : but, owing to 

 my men not exactly going according to orders, many of my protective cones 

 have been placed closely round the plants : no injury from damp has re- 

 sulted, and their appearance is highly promising From having thus so re- 

 cently experienced the sure and certain protection from frost that moss gives, 

 my ideas have taken a wider range, and I feel convinced that Pelargoniums, 

 by having their leaves taken off from the bases of their shoots towards the 

 end of October, and a cone of moss placed round each plant, may be pre- 

 served in our open borders during our severest winters, without injury. 

 Fuchsias, hardy greenhouse plants, half-hardy evergreens, and many other 

 desirable plants, may also be preserved in our open borders. We may thus 

 be able to have them established, and of many years' growth, in our gardens, 

 instead of transplanting them annually, as at present, in May : for by the 

 time their roots are well established, frost comes, and obliges us to remove 

 them into winter quarters. By protecting them with moss, the lower parts 

 of Pelargoniums and Fuchsias will alone be preserved : but these, as is well 

 known, are full of buds, and their roots being perfect, the plants, after being 

 headed down, will shoot most vigorously, far beyond plants only recently 

 transplanted. It is not, perhaps, generally known, that many tender ever- 

 greens will suffer but little in their branches from severe frost, if their roots 

 are well protected. To such, moss may be applied unsparingly, with the 

 certainty of pleasing results. — (T. Rivers, Gard. Chron. p. 115.) 



Pear-borders. — A curious instance, corroborating the acknowledged ex- 

 pediency of paving Pear-borders, occurred here a few weeks ago. We 

 were obliged to take up an old border, made some years ago, which had 

 been laid with flat flags without cement, having rubbish over them. The 

 roots had swelled and crept through the rubbish to the flags and bulged out, 

 and then became as fine as string, and worked through the intervals of the 

 flags, again swelling out under them, and proceeding on their heterodox 

 course. This is surely a strong proof of the propriety of cementing the 

 bottoms of borders. — (Id., p. 5.) 



