FOG, FLOWERS, AND FOLIAGE 5;^ 



Bulbous plants stand fog well for a different reason. 

 They rely on the stores collected, each one for himself, in 

 his own compact small body. No squirrel nor dormouse 

 is more thrifty, nor better understands the art of making 

 hay while the sun shines. This is how it is that 

 Londoners are so successful in growing bulbs. Look at 

 the parks in the spring-time, with their sheets of Cro- 

 cuses, Snowdrops, and Tulips. Allium, too, and Narcis- 

 sus and Hyacinth, are just as happy close to, and even in 

 the midst of towns, showing very little injury after being 

 exposed to fog. Flowers and flower-buds are the first 

 parts of any plant to evince suffering ; six or seven hours 

 of a bad fog will suffice to leave a scar, but the flower that 

 shows the blemish is pretty sure to be growing on a plant 

 that has no useful bulb set at its base. 



London fog is often the signal for much burning of 

 gas. The usual hardiness of the Fern deserts it here ; no 

 plants have a greater dislike to fumes of gas ; they resent 

 them as much as any other of God's creatures who were 

 meant to live and breathe in the sweet air which is 

 heaven's best gift. 



What precautions can be used in foggy weather ? 

 Experience shows that a low temperature and a moist 

 atmosphere are most conducive to the well-being of 

 plants indoors. It is not very easy to secure these con- 

 ditions ; glass roofs are a source of dryness in cold weather. 

 The temperature of a roof is lowered by the external air, 

 in consequence of which, the moisture of the hot-house 

 air is precipitated upon the inside of the glass, whence it 

 runs down in the form of " drip." Drip and dryness, what 

 plants can put up with these ? We must guard against them. 



The more one reads about and learns the ways of fogs, 

 the more one longs to scotch the snake itself, instead of 

 endeavouring to cure its bites. Why does not the Coal- 

 smoke Abatement Society wake up and try a little harder 

 to do something ? 



