€hap. XXIV. ACCLIMATISATION. 309 



" Noisettes." In New York the " Irish yew is quite hardy, but the com- 

 " moii yew is liable to be cut down." I may add that there are varieties 

 of the sweet potato {Convolvulus batatas) which are suited for warmer, 

 as well as for colder, climates. 67 



The plants as yet mentioned have been found capable of 

 resisting an unusual degree of cold or heat, when fully grown. 

 The following cases refer to plants whilst young. In a large 

 bed of young Araucarias of the same age, growing close to- 

 gether and equally exposed, it was observed, 68 after the unusually 

 severe winter of 1860-61, that, " in the midst of the dying, 

 " numerous individuals remained on which the frost had abso- 

 lutely made no kind of impression." Dr. Lindley, after 

 alluding to this and other similar cases, remarks, "Among 

 " the lessons which the late formidable winter has taught us, 

 " is that, even in their power of resisting cold, individuals of 

 "the same species of plants are remarkably different." Near 

 Salisbury, there was a sharp frost on the night of May 24th, 

 1836, and all the French beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) in a bed 

 were killed except about one in thirty, which completely 

 escaped. 69 On the same day of the month, but in the year 

 1864, there was a severe frost in Kent, and two rows of scarlet- 

 runners (P. multiflorus) in my garden, containing 390 plants of 

 the same age and equally exposed, were all blackened and killed 

 except about a dozen plants. In an adjoining row of " Fulmer's 

 dwarf bean " (P. vulgaris), one single plant escaped. A still 

 more severe frost occurred four days afterwards, and of the dozen 

 plants which had previously escaped only three survived ; these 

 were not taller or more vigorous than the other young plants, 

 but they escaped completely, with not even the tips of their 

 leaves browned. It was impossible to behold these three plants, 

 with their blackened, withered, and dead brethren all round 

 them, and not see at a glance that they differed widely in con- 

 stitutional power of resisting frost. 



This work is not the proper place to show that wild plants 



67 For the magnolia, see Loudon's von Siebold, in < Gard. Chron .,' 1855 



'Gard. Mag.,' vol. xiii., 1837, p. 21. p. 822. 



For camellias and roses, see 'Gard. es The Editor, < Gard. Chron.,' 1861 



Chron.,' 1860, p. 384. For the yew, p. 239. 



'Journal of Horfc.,' March 3rd, 1863, « L ' ouckm > s < Gard< M , vd> ^ 



p. 174. For sweet potatoes, see Col. 1836, p. 378. 



