? 



3lanuarp 



' MiHi prseteritos referat si Jupiter annos ' (Oh, if Jove 

 would but restore to me the bygone years !) nora 

 — an ejaculation as futile as it is trite, but ^ys™*"^ 

 ever poignantly present with him who has let slip 

 opportunities in gardening. It was long before some 

 of us dwellers on the west coast of Scotland fully 

 realised the capabilities of our climate. We used to 

 read about the wonderful things that grew in distant 

 Cornwall; but we followed generally the precepts of 

 Victorian writers on horticulture, who invariably 

 described temperature as regulated by latitude, leaving 

 us to discover slowly that in the British Isles winter 

 cold corresponds far more closely with longitude. Had 

 we but been wise in time, over what lordly specimens 

 might we be purring now, equal to those which are the 

 reward of timely foresight and intelligence at such 

 places as Stonelield and Poltalloch in Argyll, Castle 

 Kennedy, Logan, and Corsewall in Wigtownshire. 



The winter of 1917-18 has been of a character to 

 test the endurance of half-hardy plants, so frequent 

 and violent have been the fluctuations of temperature. 



A 



