38 
ON ACCLIMATISING GREENHOUSE PLANTS. 
roots from damp, but prevents them growing too luxuriantly, which they usually do, 
particularly towards autumn, when the branches and wood being in a very succulent 
and immature state, they are injured by the frost. 
Many cultivators err exceedingly by planting exotics against walls having a 
southern exposure. This is no doubt a very proper situation for Chrysanthemums, 
which require a prolongation of season to perfect their flowers, and also for bulbs 
and herbaceous plants, which die down to the ground annually ; but it is the worst 
possible situation for woody plants, because the warmth of the vernal sun excites 
them into a growing state too early in the season, and renders them liable to be 
destroyed, or at least very much injured by the late spring frosts, to which we are 
so liable in May and often in June. A north-east or west aspect is much better. 
According to Mr. Street's experience, small plants resist the cold better than 
larger ones ; while Mr. McNab, who has been unusually fortunate in the cultivation 
of exotics in the open air, recommends old and more fully grown specimens 
for this purpose. 
Upon the whole, so little, comparatively, is at' present known of the degree of 
frost that different plants, even from the same countries, will bear with impunity, 
that it is advisable to plant out every duplicate that would be otherwise thrown 
away from most collections, and record the success ; for we have often found that 
species, which we had calculated would stand the winter, have failed, while others 
that we did not expect have remained uninjured. 
The following are recorded in the " Gardeners' Magazine " as having stood the 
winter at the following places : — 
Nerium Oleander, grows luxuriantly without protection, in the neighbourhood of Swansea, Wales. 
Myrtles, at Barronhill, Isle of Anglesea, 18 feet high, without protection. 
Edwardsia chrysophylla, at the same place, has attained the extraordinary dimensions of two feet in 
circumference and twenty feet high. 
Hydrangea hortensis, prospers well in most situations, and if cut to the ground shoots up again 
with great vigour. One at Tringwainton, near Penzance, Cornwall, is recorded to be 45 feet 
in circumference, 8 feet high, and to have had at one time no less than 1300 flowers upon it. 
The following exotics stood out for several years prior to 1888, in the Clare- 
mont Gardens : — 
**Aloysia citriodora survives most winters uninjured, and is only killed to the surface when the 
thermometer indicates 12° of frost. 
*Alstroemeria, ten species in a border in front of a plant stove, and several of them in the open 
flower-border. 
*Albuca major and minor, in dry warm border in front of plant stove. 
*Agapanthus umbellatus, at the bottom of a south wall. 
Aster refiexa, 1 
tomentosa J * n ^ e fl° wer -borders, partially sheltered by a cedar tree. 
* Amaryllis, many species and varieties, in a dry warm border in front of the plant stove. 
*Arctotheca repens has escaped from the open border into the grass walks, from which it appears 
to be difficult to eradicate it. 
**Acacia dealbata, upon a south wall, but extending several feet above it. 
