370 HISTORY OF THE ROYAL BOTANIC GARDEN. 
have not such choice, we should always protect the young plants 
with additional saecrind during winter, beyond what will be necessary 
for the older o 
t any cen try the experiment with a broad-leaved myrtle, a 
plant which most gardeners have it in their power to try; he will 
find that the old myrtle (if the winter is not very severe) will resist 
the cold, and, if partially a ora will always set out again in spring 
from the older wo — t the young myrtle, in a similar situation 
with the old, will, ‘mos ras cases, be totally ‘killed the first winter, 
ages a the’ young ‘plank had formerly been taken as a cutting from 
e older, or raised from seed from the same 
In stating the degree of ald which heaths will bear without 
suffering from it, I have been careful always to keep rather above 
what I know they will endure ; and any person who will take the 
trouble to observe accurately the cold that heaths will bear, will find 
that nee will not suffer when the thermometer falls a little lower 
- than what I have stated. It would require observations made for a 
series of years, and a correct — of the situations and soil in 
which the different kinds are found at the Cape, to come to any 
certain conclusion what degree of cold cing will bear in this country. 
: : : Ay 
ound in pure sand, or in loam, and exposed to drought, are 
ferdixe here than those that are found in rocky places, or in shady 
or moist situations. 
From the preceding statement it will appear, as I have already 
mentioned, that heaths require very little fire heat during winter, 
probably not more than six or eight nights during our severest 
I have to apologize for having extended these observations 
to a much greater length than J at first anticipated ; but on revisal 
I found I could not abridge them without in some de egree impairing 
their usefulness to the inexperienced cultivator of heaths, for whose 
benefit they are chiefly intended. 
Royal Botanic Garden, 
Edinburgh, November 8th, 1831. 
