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and intense frost the fronds of evergreen ferns shrivel up, 

 and lie prostrate as if they were dead, and on examination 

 they will be found precisely in the flaccid condition induced 

 by drought. When, however, the frost ceases, and the soil 

 thaws, we shall find that these shrivelled fronds will gradu- 

 ally rise and plump out, and in a day or two not the slightest 

 trace of damage will exist. Hence, it is clear the roots have 

 resumed their usual function of supply, and the frond cells 

 have responded by absorbing and transmitting the needful 

 sap precisely as they would do in the active growing season. 

 The fact that the fronds shrivel when the root supply is 

 checked proves that transpiration is going on all the time, 

 and this means a certain amount af activity throughout the 

 system. In many cases, too, and especially with bulbs, we 

 cannot at all estimate the amount of root-work going on 

 in the so-called dead season by the amount of the foliar 

 growth. An extensive root system may be formed below 

 a bulb while as yet the leaves have developed so little as 

 not to pierce the surface of the soil, but doubtless within the 

 bulb itself important work is going on, preparing it for that 

 comparatively rapid development of its contents so soon as 

 the spring has fairly arrived. How otherwise can we account 

 for the curious fact that some daffodil bulbs, Hors- 

 fieldi to wit, if dug up in August, will be found to be rooting 

 freely, though they do not push their foliage above the soil 

 until well into February, i.e., practically six months later ? 

 Another fact which we have observed, and which involves 

 considerable risk of drought to plants under glass, is thai 

 hard frost has a materially drying effect upon the soil. Soil 

 which previously was thoroughly moist, and even wet, will 

 often, when the thaw sets in, be found in a more or less dry 

 condition, belying the natural presumption that so long as 

 it was frozen hard the moisture contained therein was 



