150 



Comparative Temperature of different Years. 



been complimented upon attempting to reconcile their prac- 

 tice to such a standard ; but, in doing this, in many cases we 

 must abandon nature, as they are often irreconcilable, nature 

 being often most unreasonable, or reason most unnatural. As 

 an example in point, let us observe her mode of applying mois- 

 ture, which is often truly disproportionate to the heat : there are 

 sometimes months together intensely hot, without a single drop, 

 and that at a time when vegetables, according to our ideas, 

 reasonably demand a most liberal supply, and to withhold it to- 

 the same extent in artificial cases would prove inevitable destruc- 

 tion. Again, in the dreary dripping months of winter, nature 

 dreadfully outrages all the sage maxims of reason : plants then, 

 particularly deciduous ones in a dormant state, are reasonably 

 kept dry, while nature unsparingly drenches the leafless plain, 

 causing the inert and torpid objects of her bounteous care to 

 stand under such circumstances in an actual puddle, and their 

 after-success is often proportionate to the excess they may then 

 endure, which renders it probable that our caution is in part 

 unnecessary, perhaps injurious, and demands investigation. 



Although cold winters produce a corresponding increase 

 of heat in summer, it does not altogether follow that such 

 summers will prove so favourable to external vegetation as we 

 could wish, the undeniably beneficial effects of warmth being 

 often rendered abortive by untoward circumstances. Sudden 

 changes from heat to cold are the most frequent and most in- 

 jurious of these, often in a few hours counteracting the genial 

 influence of months, and crushing beyond all hope of remedy 

 the well-grounded prospects of the hapless cultivator ; the heat 

 is also occasionally unseasonable or misplaced, of which last 

 year aflbrds a memorable example. So far as regards the mass 

 of things, all this is in great measure uncontrollable : but the 

 cultivator in an artificial climate is altogether independent of 

 such casualties, they cannot possibly affect him, but by accident 

 or neglect ; but, however secure he may feel, such occurrences 

 afford a useful lesson, as, by marking their baneful effects upon 

 external objects, he will be prompted to increased vigilance, 

 lest by any means similar vicissitudes should occur in any de- 

 partment beneath his care, and he will do well to bear in mind 

 the far more susceptible nature of the objects fostered there. 



Exotics of annual growth, bulbs, or any other sorts that are 

 taken up, preserved during winter, and returned to the earth at a 

 proper season, will do best in seasons most favourable to such as 

 are indigenous ; but it is not a little curious to observe, that, to 

 such as are turned out permanently, seasons most favourable to 

 natives must prove most destructive, and unfavourable seasons 

 must be so far favourable to them, that they will be able at least 

 to prolong their existence : and this must ever prove the case, 



