502 Transactio7is of the London Horticultural Society. 



of the myrtle, but the branches generally budded vigorously, and in the 



summer the plant was as healthy as ever. 

 QuADRiA heterophylla, in a very sheltered situation at Carclew, was much 



hurt, but afterwards recovered. 

 Salix Himboldtiana was killed in the Society's Garden. 

 SoLANUM crispmn, against a west wall, was killed to within 2 feet of the 



surface, at Norwich ; in the Society's Garden, it was destroyed on a south 



wall, 

 Sphacele campanulata was killed on a south wall in the Society's Garden. 

 Vestia lyciodes was killed at Woburn and Norwich ; in other places, in- 

 cluding Cornwall, killed down to the ground. 

 Verbena Melindres lived in open ground at Arundel Castle, protected with 



a covering 6 inches deep of leaves. 

 Volkameria inermis was killed to the ground in the Society's Garden, but 



sprang up again with rather strong shoots. 

 Zephyranthes Candida sustained no injury at SpofForth, even in the leaves ; 



but it was killed at Dropmore. 



>" The results of these returns, and of the numerous observations made in 

 the Garden of the Society, are less conflicting than they usually are in such 

 inquiries. The effects of cold ai'e so much modified by soil, by the surround- 

 ing atmosphere, by a variety of local causes which are often not appreciable, 

 that perfect uniformity in apparent results cannot be expected. This has 

 long since been observed by Humboldt and other writers upon Botanical 

 Geography, in comparing one country with another ; it has been found that 

 parallels of latitude offer by no means an indication of uniform temperature, 

 as they would do, if the globe were a sphere with a perfectly level surface, 

 and a homogeneous crust, but that the mean temperature of some countries, 

 Lapland for instance, is much higher than it should be, from their position 

 with regard to the equator. Such being the case with respect to large tracts 

 of land, it a fortiori would be expected in different localities on such an island 

 as Great Britain, with its diversity of coast, wood, mountains, and exposure 

 to the ocean : accordingly we find in the garden of Mr. Fox, at Grove Hill, 

 near Falmouth, not only that such common green-house plants, as Acacia 

 armata, and longifolia, Brugmansia suaveolens, Calothamnus quadrifida, and 

 several Cape heaths, survived last winter, although they perished in other 

 places in Cornwall ; but that the much more tender species, Dracaena fra- 

 grans, Justicia Adhatoda, Thunbergia coccinea, which are generally regarded 

 as stove plants, were also uninjured. In this garden. Acacia armata has been 

 growing 16 years, Aloysia citriodora 24, the red Camellia japoniea 25, Jasmi- 

 num revolutum 15, Leptospermum ambiguum 17, Callistemon lanceolatus 20, 

 and the Cape plants, Pentzia flabelliformis, and Salvia aurea, from 14 to 15 

 years, without being killed. This fact is unparalleled in the records of British 

 gardens, even in the case of that of Mrs. Hamilton Nesbitt, in East Lothian, 

 of which some account will be found in the Transactions of the Society, 

 vol. vii. p. 31. It is obvious, that such exceptions must be left out of all 

 calculations, as to the capability of plants becoming naturalised in a given 

 climate. 



" Oi Australian plants, none seem to have been able to bear so much as even 

 -J- 12°, except Billardiera longiflora, which is recorded at Glasgow to have 

 borne — 1° at the foot of a south wall, and a Eucalyptus, called alpina, which 

 escaped at Norwich ; it will, however, be probably found that this circum- 

 stance is, in both cases, attributable to some unexplained cause. It, therefore, 

 seems useless to attempt to naturalize New Holland plants in the midland and 

 northern parts of England. On the coast of South Wales, where the thermo- 

 meter did not fall below + 1-^"* Leptospermum lanigerum is the only species 

 which appears to have survived ; at Carclew, in Cornwall, where the climate 

 seems generally to be very mild, although the temperature is reported to have 

 been 4-12°, almost all the New Holland and Van Piemen's Land plants 



