394 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
spinosa, but disappointment would follow an attempt to emulate 
their successes in Staffordshire or Northants. 
" Aldenham, however, is a fair average place for climate, not the 
very worst, but some ten degrees colder than favoured parts of Surrey 
and Sussex ; it has a cold clay subsoil, practically without lime, 
does not suffer specially from winds, a moderate rainfall of 24 inches 
average in the year, and therefore on the dry side, is subject to very 
bad spring frosts, and enjoys all the variability of English weather, 
so that in the last ten years we have registered frost in every month 
of the year. 
" With this explanation before them your readers will be able 
to judge what are the conditions under which plants have either lived 
or died in Herts. The collection there is so extensive with regard to 
all hard-wooded plants that are generally reputed hardy, save for 
Conifers and peat-loving shrubs such as Rhododendrons, which are 
unsuited to the soil, that with these exceptions, and a few great 
rarities, I think it will be possible for anyone to find out the fate of 
any hardy tree or shrub in which he may be interested. 
" Of course in the limits of an article such as this it would be quite 
out of the question to enumerate all the inhabitants of the Aldenham 
gardens. I have therefore omitted nearly all quite common species 
which have escaped uninjured, though where they have suffered in 
any degree, such as the common holly, yew, and Mahonia, they are 
listed. 
"I have also left out all varieties (a goodly number) except in the 
few cases where I have satisfied myself that the variety is hardier or 
tenderer than the type : an illustration of the former is Viburnum 
foetidum rectangulum, which has come off much better than the type, 
and of the latter Rhus Cotinus 0 atropurpureus, which has been more 
heavily punished than R. Cotinus itself. It is not easy to see why 
plants of the same species with differently coloured flowers or differently 
shaped leaves should vary in hardiness or other qualities, but un- 
doubtedly the golden-coloured Cupressus macrocarpa lutea is hardier 
than the type, and the copper- or brown -coloured beech thrives 
better on our heavy clay soil than the ordinary Fagus sylvatica. 
" I must also mention that the lists refer, unless otherwise stated, 
to mature plants, for the difference in the effect of hard frost on trees 
in a young state with no vigorous root development and little, if any, 
really hard wood, and others of the same kind when 20 feet high is 
most marked, e.g. my tree of the new Chinese Paulownia tomentosa 
lanata, nine years old and 20 feet high, and the Chilian Nothiofagus 
obliqua, about twelve years old and about 18 feet high, are entirely 
unscathed, whereas little plants of the former 8 inches to a foot high 
have been killed, and thirty plants of the latter in the nursery from 5 
to 7 feet high have almost all been severely injured, the majority 
being killed half-way down. 
" The moral of this for inexperienced planters is obvious, viz. 
that many trees require protection during the first eight or ten years 
