APRIL. 
121 
situations and coldest districts; and this fact should be'strongly impressed 
on the minds of collectors of plants intended to grow in the open air of 
Britain. There are probably few individuals, who have made hardy 
plants their study, who cannot bear testimony to the wide difference ob¬ 
servable in many species of plants reputed to be hardy, among which the 
numerous varieties of Coniferous trees which have been planted within 
the last dozen years afford some striking examples, a remarkable instance 
of which is named by the editor of the Gardeners' Chronicle, relating 
to a batch of seedling Araucarias in Mr. Glendinning’s nursery, in 
a recent number. The subject is one of great importance to out-door 
planters, and any evidence we can produce bearing on the subject 
we gladly record. In our own collection of Conifers are — or, 
rather, were—several plants of P. insignis growing within less than a 
stone’s throw of each other, all on a similar soil and the same 
exposure, of which, one tree, planted twenty-two years back, has never 
had a leaf browned even by the severest winters, and has maintained 
its usual rich verdure through the past trying season ; while several 
other trees of the insignis, and its close ally radiata, which have been 
planted subsequently, have died in previous years; two more are this 
season dead, and the others greatly injured. The tree which has so 
good a constitution, as compared with the others, was raised from the 
first batch of seeds sent to the Horticultural Society, I presume by 
Hartweg, in 1836 or 1837- I name this, as perhaps the Society may 
know from what locality the seeds were obtained by their collector. 
For several years we possessed several good specimens of -P. patula, at 
all times a delicate Pine, but valuable for its graceful habit and cheerful 
green foliage. In 1854 or 1855, all of them excepting one were much 
injured, and two or three died ; two or three years later the rest 
suffered, and subsequently died, but the one noticed above appeared to 
have a charmed life, for it kept its colour uninjured. Within the past 
month the effects of the fearful 25th of December, and the frost which 
shortly afterwards followed upon a thaw, have become painfully visible, 
and it is now beyond recovery; but leaving us the testimony that, 
either through some law of nature with which we are unacquainted, or 
owing to its parents having been natives of a colder climate, it possessed 
the power of resisting cold in a greater degree than others growing 
under the same conditions. Foreign seedlings of the Cypress, Juniper, 
and Abies sections of Coniferse are all liable to be affected differently by 
severe cold, and in a seemingly inexplicable manner. 
Having these facts before us, are we right at all in inducing any¬ 
thing approaching a luxuriant growth in plants as to whose hardiness 
doubts exist? We think not; for this past winter must have shown 
how much more easily pampered plants have been cut down by the 
frost, than those of slower growth, but with a more matured system ; 
and consequently having the power of enduring cold to a much greater 
extent than those which have been planted in rich soils. Near 
where I write are four Stone Pines, twelve years old, which had grown 
luxuriantly, and are much cut; while an older tree, which had made 
but little wood, owing to its growing on a dry brashy soil, is none 
the worse ; and many similar cases occur with other species of plants. 
