81 
RETROSPECT OF THE LATE WINTER. 
Our title may not appear apposite, yet it will be found perfectly so, and 
keeping with the objects of a floricultural periodical. When we retrace 
e four entire months which have elapsed since the first advent of severe 
jst, and take into consideration that in Britain, as well as in France, there 
\ve been three distinct periods of winter, each of a character so rigid as to 
allenge competition, we feel called upon to solicit the notice of our readers, 
' order to lead to inquiries concerning the effects that must have been produced in 
rdens, and glazed erections of every description. These will prove instructive, 
asrauch as they point to improved management in seasons to come. We shall 
trace a few leading phenomena. 
Every one will recollect the peculiar aridity of the spring and early summer of 
544. Some autumnal rains followed ; but to no great amount, at least in the 
)uth of England. After tlie middle of November, when rain ceased, several 
vere frosty nights occurred, and a steadfast gloom prevailed : this continued 
roughout December, with scarcely any interval of sun, the wind searching, and 
ten violent from east to north ; there were three weeks of such black, cold 
eather ; and while it became essential to cover up every forcing-house or pit, it 
as 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- 
re, are the more inclined to seek information concerning the availability of the 
veral methods of excitation which have been called into action during a season of 
;culiar character and unwonted severity. 
The Gardeners' Chronicle has taken notice of the extreme absence of solar 
yfit, and lamented the hard lot and difficult task of those gardeners whose only 
)pliance during the shortest days, and most bitter nights, was the old-fashioned 
noke flue. The subject of a moist atmosphere has been assumed with more than 
•dinary solicitude, and great importance has been attached to the theory of the 
te Mr. Daniell, of King’s College, who wrote a scientific paper “ On Climate con- 
dered with regard to Horticulture ; ” and prepared an hygrometer, by which the 
dual degree of moisture, connected with variations of temperature, might 
) accurately determined. We extract the following paragraph from tlie first 
)lume of Loudon's Gardeners' Magazine^ where the article in question is 
|Viewed : — i 
I “ The inhabitants of the hothouse are all natives of the torrid zone, a climate 
stinguished by an unvarying high degree of heat, and a very vaporous atmo- 
)liere. In a hothouse, when all the paths and walls are in a dry state, exhalation 
' an extraordinary degree takes place from the only sources of moisture — 
le leaves of plants, and the earth in their pots. This prodigious evaporation is 
jurious to plants, first, by chilling their roots, on the same principle that water is 
VOL. XII. — NO. CXXXVl. M 
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