296 Observations upon the effects of Frosty 



of the oak, and ash, blackened by frost in the month of June, in the 

 hedgerows of Norfolk and Suffolk, and yet we know how capable 

 are those natives of the soil of resisting with impunity our severest 

 winters. This is undoubtedly owing in a great measure, if not ex* 

 clusively, to their tissue containing much more fluid when in a 

 growing state, than when they are dormant. The more succulent a 

 plant, or a part of a plant, the more tender it is under equal circum- 

 stances. An oak, or an ash, is nearly exhausted of its fluid contents 

 by the leaves, before the frost sets in, and in fact, the fall of those or- 

 gans in deciduous trees is probably caused, in part, by the inability 

 of the stem to supply them in autumn with an adequate quantity 

 of fluid food ; during the winter, but little water is added to the con- 

 tents of the stem, until after the severest frosts are past and the re- 

 turn of spring, when the sap is attracted upwards by the budding 

 leaves. The winter, therefore, is the dry season of such plants, and 

 for that reason the period in which they are least liable to the effects 

 of frost. But if any unusual circumstance alters this habit, the capa- 

 bility of resisting frost is altered with it ; and thus the Arbutus, the 

 Vine, the Araucaria, and the other plants mentioned in the instances 

 lately quoted, stationed in warm sheltered situations, were stimulated 

 prematurely into growth, their stems were filled with fluid, and they 

 were, in consequence, affected by frost in a much greater degree than 

 when, from the coldness of a station, they were kept in their ordi- 

 nary winter condition. 



Nothing seems more generally to have excited surprize, than that 

 so many plants, apparently killed, sprang up again from the roots. 

 Hence it has been generally said, that many species which would 

 have survived, if undisturbed, were thrown away, in the eager haste 

 of gardeners to remove objects, which had become unsightly. Some 

 have indeed ignorantly imagined, that the mere act of cutting dead 

 stems down had the effect of destroying the lingering vitality of the 

 root. No person, in the slightest degree acquainted with the na- 

 ture of vegetable life, could entertain such an idea as the last ; but 



