66 EFFECTS OF THE SEVERE WINTER OF 1860-1, UPON 
Mahonia acuifolia, holly-leaved berberry, has shown itself 
everywhere hardy with us, though it will not thrive under the 
shade of trees as in the south of England. 
This beautiful shrub bears even our northern climate admirably. 
It feels the influence of our earliest spring sun, putting 
forth its flower buds in February, and expanding them in April. 
And since its fine purple clusters of berries are ripened perfectly, 
even early in September, it has become already almost as a 
native plant. 
Quercus ilex has shown itself almost as tender as the Arbutus 
and Sweet-bay in most situations a few miles distant from the 
coast. Within range of the tempering sea-air, as at Howick 
and Fallowden, it assumes the character even of a tree, in some 
instances.* 
Among the multitude of most beautiful hybrid Rhododendrons 
which adorn the southern English shrubberies, only a few are 
found to flower freely in the north. Numbers, however, are 
quite hardy as evergreens; and when they fail to flower, repay 
their cultivation to some extent by their fine foliage, especially 
those which show something of the race of Rhododendron cam- 
panulatum, in the lovely buff colouring of the under surface of 
their leaves. Rh. campanulatum itself can scarcely be described 
as hardy with us, since its leaf-buds are often killed by frost in 
winter, the growth is checked, and flower buds are not formed. 
If we turn to the great array of resenous plants which have 
obtained so much attention of latter years, in pinetums, and lesser 
collections of the same character, the tale of the bygone winter 
is various, but too often not encouraging. 
Woeful has been the destruction in the Edinburgh Botanical 
Gardens, and in the adjacent nurseries. The two celebrated 
specimens of Araucaria imbricata are killed to the ground. A 
like fate has befallen almost every one of their subordinates, not 
only in the Botanical Gardens, but far beyond. Hence the only 
uninjured plants are those which were so young as to have re- 
mained entirely covered by snow. 
* A Jarge ilex which stands alone, and in a situation very much exposed to the weather, 
in the churchyard at Castle Eden, escaped unhurt, whilst all those in the low grounds 
about Greatham, and near the sea, were killed to the ground.—Rey. H. B. Tristiam. 
