81 
RETROSPECT OF THE LATE WINTER. 
Our title may not appear apposite, yet it will be found perfectly so, and 
in keeping with the objects of a floricultural periodical. "When we retrace 
the four entire months which have elapsed since the first advent of severe 
frost, and take into consideration that in Britain, as well as in France, there 
have been three distinct periods of winter, each of a character so rigid as to 
challenge competition, we feel called upon to solicit the notice of our readers, 
in order to lead to inquiries concerning the effects that must have been produced in 
gardens, and glazed erections of every description. These will prove instructive, 
inasmuch as they point to improved management in seasons to come. We shall 
retrace a few leading phenomena. 
Every one will recollect the peculiar aridity of the spring and early summer of 
1844. Some autumnal rains followed ; but to no great amount, at least in the 
South of England. After the middle of November, when rain ceased, several 
severe frosty nights occurred, and a steadfast gloom prevailed : this continued 
throughout December, with scarcely any interval of sun, the wind searching, and 
often violent from east to north ; there were three weeks of such black, cold 
weather ; and while it became essential to cover up every forcing-house or pit, it 
was proportionally difficult to retain the coverings against the force of the wind. 
We have lately said a good deal upon the subjects of heat and light, and, there- 
fore, are the more inclined to seek information concerning the availability of the 
several methods of excitation which have been called into action during a season of 
peculiar character and unwonted severity. 
The Gardeners' Chronicle has taken notice of the extreme absence of solar 
light, and lamented the hard lot and difficult task of those gardeners whose only 
appliance during the shortest days, and most bitter nights, was the old-fashioned 
smoke flue. The subject of a moist atmosphere has been assumed with more than 
ordinary solicitude, and great importance has been attached to the theory of the 
late Mr. Daniell, of King's College, who wrote a scientific paper 44 On Climate con- 
sidered with regard to Horticulture ; " and prepared an hygrometer, by which the 
actual degree of moisture, connected with variations of temperature, might 
be accurately determined. We extract the following paragraph from the first 
volume of Loudon's Gardeners' Magazine^ where the article in question is 
reviewed : — 
44 The inhabitants of the hothouse are all natives of the torrid zone, a climate 
distinguished by an unvarying high degree of heat, and a very vaporous atmo- 
sphere. In a hothouse, when all the paths and walls are in a dry state, exhalation 
to an extraordinary degree takes place from the only sources of moisture- — ■ 
the leaves of plants, and the earth in their pots. This prodigious evaporation is 
injurious to plants, first, by chilling their roots, on the same principle that water is 
VOL. XII. — NO. CXXXVI. M 
