THE AMATEUR GARDENERS CALENDAR. 
459 
.there cannot be an alteration made in the 
power of a plant to endure heat or cold. 
The same plant that has been tried down to 
the lowest degree of cold that it can bear, will, 
by gradual increase of temperature, be made 
to bear as much heat as ever it did ; and by 
the same gradual plan of lowering the tem- 
perature, it may be brought back again to 
bear all it ever did bear of cold. 
Nobody can dispute the ill effects of sudden 
transition from heat to cold, and vice versa; 
but it applies alike to all plants, hardy, half 
hardy, tender, and tropical. The sturdy oak 
would be victimized as readily as the delicate 
orchidaceous plant, by the sudden change of 
temperature, and its nature would be neverthe- 
less as little changed as if it had remained in 
its native forest. 
We admit, however, that the constitution 
of a plant may be injured, that is, that a plant 
may be got into an unhealthy state, and by no 
means sooner than by sudden change of 
temperature ; that it may, in fact, be so 
damaged as not to be recovered, but to linger 
on in ill health a considerable period, and 
perhaps eventually to die ; but this does not 
make it a tender plant, it only renders it a 
sickly one. We have seen the constitution of 
a plant damaged by excessive propagation, 
and with great difficulty some of the progeny 
by cuttings recovered, but we have seen others 
that never recovered, and their cuttings and 
layers continued the same sickly, weakly 
character that distinguished the parent ; but 
still the fact had nothing to do with the 
powers of the plant to endure cold or heat. 
A plant, whether tender or hardy, may be 
healthy, and it is on healthy subjects alone 
that we can place any reliance in the trial of 
what a plant can bear. 
The question of acclimatizing plants, there- 
fore, is only tenable if we put another con- 
struction on the word, and instead of using it 
as meaning the making of a plant more hardy 
than it naturally is, use it in the sense of 
'proving how hardy a plant naturally is, for 
such is all we can do. 
. The first Aucuba japonica that ever reached 
this country would have stood out of doors 
just as well as the last ; all that had to be 
avoided was sudden change, which no plant 
will bear. Every-day experience shows us, 
that sudden alteration of temperature is 
mischievous. If we want to force a rose or 
a,n American plant, we dare not take it into a 
hot stove at once, for they would fail; but first 
in a cold pit, then in a greenhouse, next in a 
moderately warmed pit, and lastly in the 
stove, they will do j ust as we wish them to do, 
and according as we hasten them, so do they 
come earlier ; but when they are in flower, if 
they are brought suddenly into the cold, they 
would irrecoverably fade, so that we are 
equally called upon to reduce the temperature 
gradually ; nevertheless the rose and the 
American plant will stand just as much cold 
as ever, so that we reduce their temperature 
by degrees. So much for acclimatizing. 
THE AMATEUR GARDENERS' CALENDAR. 
BY MRS. LOUDON. 
Our respect for the authoress induces us to 
hint very gently, that with due submission to 
her excellent taste in some things, we do not 
like her reasons for writing a new Calendar. 
The condemnation of other authors should be 
undertaken with caution ; and it comes with 
an ill grace from a lady whose knowledge is 
anything but unlimited, and certainly not 
practical. We have not the slightest objec- 
tion to the multiplication of Calendars ; there 
is one that will outlive them all, and contains 
more and better information than any that 
have been published since, and Mrs. Loudon's 
condemnation does not read well with those 
whose sound practical experience enables 
them to appreciate between shadow and sub- 
stance. 
" Whenever I have taken up a Gardeners' 
Calendar myself," says Mrs. Loudon, " to see 
what was necessary to be done at any particu- 
lar season, I have been perplexed, first with 
the multitude of directions that I have found, 
and next with being continually told that such 
and such things may be done at such and such 
seasons, without being informed which is the 
proper season at which each ought to be done, 
so as to have vegetables at the usual time. 
Thus, for instance, we know that peas, in 
ordinary gardens, are only produced during 
two or three months in the year ; and as 
amateur gardeners cannot be expected to have 
anything out of the usual seasons, the object 
of taking up a Gardeners' Calendar is to know 
when the seed should be sown to produce, peas 
at the usual time. Now, on taking up almost 
any ordinary gardening book, I find directions 
for sowing peas in January, February, March, 
April, May, June, October, November, and 
December, or in other words, in nine months 
out of the twelve, without any clue being 
given for an amateur to know which months 
are to be preferred." 
Now Mrs. Loudon commits a great injustice 
to all the Calendars we have seen, because, 
although we are told in them that this, that, 
or the other may be sown, there are directions 
when seeds are to be sown for main crops. 
Now this must mean for ordinary seasons, 
and before Mrs. Loudon issues another edi- 
tion, we recommend her to read Abercrombie's 
Every Man his own Gardener, and for 
