94 
to be from 45 to 50 degrees in tlie day, and 
during this time your flowers ought to be ex- 
posed to the natural air ; and when covered 
up at night, the grand object with me was to 
keep them as warm, or nearly so, as they were 
in the course of the day, which is about 50 de- 
grees of heat: this is only to be done by an 
artificial covering, as fire heat will not answer 
the purpose. The keeping them so warm at 
night, from about the middle of March, prevents 
any check to vegetation ; and another great 
effect this peculiar mode of covering has, that 
as soon as the pips begin to open, they go on 
cheerfully, expand freely, and come level, fine, 
and nearly flat as a shilling ; but if once they 
get a complete chill by cold night air, their 
blossoms will not expand flat, but on the con- 
trary ruffle or furbelow. 
I never took the trouble to ascertain what 
the degree of' heat was from the warm 
cloathing at night, by a thermometer, which 
might be known by hanging one in the frame^, 
or under the hand glasses ; this I am informed 
by an optician, that in the months of March 
and April, when the wind shifts from the south- 
west or from the south, to the north or north- 
east, it makes the weather colder by six or eight 
degrees. Under those circumstances, I caution 
