40 
PROTECTION OF PLANTS FROM FROST. 
wrapped up most carefully through severe weather, covering 
being heaped upon them, until they are absolutely in a warmer 
atmosphere than they are likely to experience when again un¬ 
covered ; and this may continue for several weeks probably, 
during which the excitability of the plant is roused, and it is 
ready to burst into a new growth the moment that conducive 
circumstances surround them ; and to make the matter worse, on 
the first gleam of sunshine, and every mild day after, the whole 
of the coverings are removed, thus exposing the plant to an in¬ 
jurious glare of light in the first case, and to the ill effects of a 
precocious and untimely development by its continuance. It 
must be evident to every thinking mind that these sudden and 
opposite changes can be anything hut conducive to the state of 
perfect quietude so desirable in all plants in a state of nature at this 
season of the year; yet, notwithstanding the very apparent wrong 
character of such treatment, by far too many instances may he 
adduced to fully bear out the assertion that such is the practice. 
The object to be gained by the protective measures, adopted is 
simply to ward off just so much frost as would injure the plant, 
and no more ; every addition beyond this point is a positive mis¬ 
chief ; in effect as erroneous as it would be to remove such plants 
to a stove temperature in order to ensure them a season’s rest. 
The exact amount of cold or frost that a plant of the kind will 
bear with impunity is a matter that a gardener’s experience 
must teach him: it will be found to vary with situations and the 
state of the subject, but we are certain that if nothing but 
thoroughly mature and well ripened parts he exposed, there is 
much less to be appreheneded on this account than is generally 
believed. It is only when the tissue is full of crude aqueous 
matter in the shape of late growths that mischief really occurs. 
In removing coverings of the kind, it should be particularly 
observed to do it gradually, avoiding the incautious haste com¬ 
plained of; thus, if two mats w r ere used, let one be taken off, and 
the other remain for at least another day, and to keep the plants 
shaded on the southern side, so long as there is a probability of 
their requiring to be covered again. We repeat, it is not so much 
the cold that is to be dreaded as the expansion of new growths 
(so likely to occur) before the return of genial weather. 
The annexed woodcuts represent two kinds of coverings for 
