On acclimatising Plants in British Gardens. 219 



Art. III. On acclimatising Plants in British Gardens. 

 By N. M. T. 



The accounts of the half-hardy plants that have been killed by 

 the severity of last winter are so contradictory, that I question 

 whether they have advanced our knowledge a single step, as to 

 the grand question of acclimatising. But they prove, however 

 reluctant we may be to admit the fact, that all our past endea- 

 vours have availed us nothing. And now that we are compelled 

 to make a fresh start, it is a fit opportunity to adopt some principle 

 as a guide to our operations; as the worst principle, so adopted, 

 cannot produce more unsatisfactory results than the number- 

 less systems that have been so completely swept away. As 

 past events have so fully verified the opinions I previously ex- 

 pressed, regarding the protection generally afforded to such 

 plants, &c, I beg to offer a few farther remarks upon the subject. 

 From the ample accounts alluded to, it appears that plants 

 growing in poor soil, and the most exposed situations, have in- 

 variably suffered less than those growing in the most sheltered 

 places; and that plants protected have been killed, while the 

 exposed ones remained unhurt. These facts may be at variance 

 with most of our preconceived notions, but are important, as they 

 point to the rest of the evil : for, if the same cause produce dif- 

 ferent effects in plants of the same species, it is evident that the 

 cause of the difference must exist in the plants themselves. 

 Plants have stood best in exposed situations ; but it does not 

 follow that they prefer such situations, or that they would have 

 suffered more had the cold been less : on the contrary, had the 

 plant sheltered been in the same condition as the one exposed, 

 it would undoubtedly have suffered less than the one exposed ; 

 and, although premature covering be the certain cause of death, 

 still nothing can be more beneficial when not applied until 

 wanted. 



Professors disagree about the method by which frost causes 

 the death of plants ; and, as I cannot enter scientifically upon 

 the subject, I am compelled to adopt the maxim, that "seeing is 

 believing," and shall presume that death is caused by a mere 

 mechanical operation. Every one knows that receptacles filled 

 with matter must become lacerated, should the matter they con- 

 tain be expanded beyond their powers of expansion or resistance. 

 This is an incontrovertible law; and that plants are subject to it, 

 and that many of them are so destroyed, we have abundant proof; 

 nor is it sufficient reason to assign a different mode of attack in 

 other cases, merely because the operation is carried on upon a 

 scale too minute for our perception. This being assumed as 

 fact, it follows that the hardiness of any plant depends entirely 

 upon the quantity of sap that it contains, and on the resistance 



