854 JOUENAL OF THE EOYAL HORTICULTUKAL SOCIETY. 



underside of a branch of an Apple-tree in my garden, and by December, so 

 far from the seeds having remained dormant, the site of the sowing was 

 represented by two conspicuous pimple-like excrescences seated side by 

 side in a slight cavity formed by the rupture and forcing up of the bark 

 around them, evidently by inserted roots. These excrescences are of a 

 greenish colour, rather more than hemispherical, and would each measure 

 fully a quarter inch in diameter. They presented much the same appear- 

 ance in the early autumn, w^hen I first noted that establishment had 

 taken place. It is obvious, therefore, that during the first season the 

 seeds are capable of penetrating the bark, which was perfectly smooth 

 and intact when the berries were rubbed in, and doing a considerable 

 amount of rooting work as a preliminary to leaf formation. What the 

 next step will be remains to be seen, but this experience, at any rate, 

 conflicts with that of your correspondent as regards dormancy until the 

 succeeding spring, since the rooting process must have been going on for 

 some time to judge by the swelled and ruptured bark, in a cavity of which 

 the two hemispherical bodies are seated." 



Our correspondent's observation shows two things : — 

 1st. That Nature works in diftering ways, and not always by a single 

 rule or in one unde\4ating manner ; and 



2nd. That it is never safe to generalise from one or two isolated 

 examples. 



Hardy oh Tender. 

 Many and many a plant that is coddled up in greenhouses would, in 

 suitable soil and position, be far better out of doors ; and probably more 

 hardy plants have been destroyed by such cosseting than by all the 

 exceptionally hard frosts of the last century. At the same time, a plant 

 whose natural habitat is in a sheltered nook and in porous sand or rubble 

 must not be expected to survive a winter spent in heavy clay and fully 

 exposed to those most trying changes of our early spring, when a day of 

 biting north-easterly wind is succeeded by a night of damp fog from the 

 south-west, only to be followed up by another easterly change with sun- 

 rise. Multitudes of so-called tender plants can stand the actual amount 

 of frost we get, but they succumb to the constant and rapid changes, 

 when our climate never seems to know its own mind two days together, 

 and, except that it is determined always to be in extremes, pays little, if 

 any, heed to w^hich extreme it is. Some little knowledge and experience, 

 too, are needed to know what sort of spot and what sort of soil are likely to 

 suit a plant. But if these things are known many plants accounted 

 tender will do quite well, if not better, out of doors. A Fellow, writing 

 from Dawlish, says : — " I grow^ Primula mcgasccBfolia in the open. It 

 flowered splendidly from the end of November to the beginning of January 

 without any other protection than the dressing which I give to all rockery 

 plants, viz., an inch of sifted leaf -mould. It was indeed quaint to see its 

 flower- sprays standing up well above a coat of snow. Yet this has happened 

 twice. Last night we registered 12 degrees of frost, and the P. megasecefolia 

 foliage w'as solid with it, but in the morning it was quite uninjured. It 

 is planted facing due north. Gardeners are too fearful. Daj^hne indica, 

 Abelias (in five varieties), Azalea indica, Banksias, ' Bottle-brushes,' 

 Melias (both Indian and Japanese), Pomegranates, Camellias, Loniccra 



