EFFECTS OF A DRY SUMMER ON TREES. 115 



A large number of the Dracena^ or Cabbage trees, have also 

 been cut down, or cut back for some distance. One Dracena 

 Australis, grown from seed sent home by myself from the South 

 Island of New Zealand, in the year j 86 e, which was about 17 feet 

 high and had numerous heads, has been cut back half way. I have 

 been told that tying the heads together so as to protect the centre 

 from the frost saved many of them from destruction ; this seems 

 reasonable enough, as it is the centre which first suffers from frost. 

 In the year 1862 a heavy frost occurred in the South Island of New 

 Zealand and thousands of these plants were killed, the centre of 

 every shoot having been caught by the cold, and the plants looked 

 as if something had eaten out the heart of each head. 



In the early part of 1895, the Loe Pool near Helston, was 

 frozen over so as to bear, and even at Tresco in Scilly, the Abbey 

 pond was also frozen over. 



The Benthamia, or as it is now called, the Cornus, has suffered 

 much, and in some places the specimes have been killed, but those 

 that escaped are full of seed. 



