Prof. J. Le Conte on the Freezing of Vegetables. 87 
From a careful examination of Hunter’s experiments, I am 
surprised, that either he or his successors should have drawn such 
conclusions as have been deduced from them in relation to the 
The last shoot was 
frozen with great difficulty, which appeared to be owing in some 
measure to the repulsion between the plants and the water. 
hen thawed, the young shoot was found flaccid. Jt was 
planted ; the first and second we found retained life, while the 
third or growing shoot withered.”* 
Again, in his second series of experiments, when the tempera- 
ture of the air was 16° Fahr., he found a thermometer inserted 
into the trunks of a number of species of trees, to stand at 17° 
Fahr. Now, he found that the sap taken from the walnut tree 
on which he made the experiment, would freeze at 32°; and 
furthermore, that the sap which filled an old hole which he had 
made in the same tree, became frozen when the temperature of 
it was 31° Fahr. : Hpi BMS 
Assuming that the juices of the tree were not frozen when 
, th 
which the sap of a plant is frozen is faclnaree followed by the 
death of the whole plant or at least of the part congealed, before 
the fact of its having survived, can be made the basis of the con- 
clusion that congelation of the juices had not taken place. The 
asstimption is made that a plant which is not 
* Phil. Trans. for 1775, p. 451. Phil T 
