JAN.] 



THE GARDENER. 



79 



protection, for fungi, which breed in it, attack the roots 

 of plants about which it is placed. 



That the sudden and violent escape of heat is the 

 cause of the injuries vre witness, is plain to any one 

 who notices the rapidity with which leaves and stems 

 are destroyed in a hoar frost, when the sun causes the 

 congealed moisture to liquify ; by the process of the 

 evaporation of its heat from its leaves and stem the 

 tender plant is killed — burnt in the famihar phrase, 

 which is quite correct in itself — inasmuch as a frost- 

 bite and a burn produce the same violent effect on ani- 

 mals and plants. If celery be decidedly frozen it rots 

 after the first thaw, unless it be taken up with large 

 balls of earth, and placed upright on the ground under 

 a roof with dry clean straw between the rows so as to 

 prevent the heads from touching. 



The Creator gives the most read}' and universal co- 

 vering when he bountifully lets falls a fleecy coverlid 

 of snow, which is so porous as to contain a great deal 

 of air; with this warm defence against the force of 

 congelation, the common Hepatica, the Scotch crocus, 

 and the snow-drop, vegetate freely, and burst into 

 bloom, the harbingers of spring, when all around is 

 deadness and gloom. The great danger from frost, I 

 repeat, is not in this season, but when buds are open- 

 ing in the spring, and vegetation is luxuriant in the 

 autumn, when it is impossible to guard against it: 

 the only remedy is to brush off the frost early in 

 the morning, before evaporation takes place. It is 

 from the foregoing principles that we understand why 

 plants exposed to a northern aspect escape the effects 

 of frost, when others with a sunny aspect are injured. 



Harsh chilling wind, such as visits us so generally 

 in the spring from the east,* has also immense inffu- 



• Some accurate obsen-ations of Mr. Thompson through a 

 course of nine years, quoted by Professor Lindley, show that lae 



