130 
PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 
peculiar to the Briema Forest, in the Austrian States, is a valuable tree, serving as 
a shelter, and enduring exposure to the storms of the coast better than the pinaster 
or sycamore, and of all the pines it bears transplanting with the least injury 
to its growth. These improvements have been carried on extensively on each side 
of Lough Gill—a lake five miles in length, and, in parts, nearly two in breadth, 
and, with its islands, beautiful in its scenery. This lake, Mr. Wynne observes, was 
frozen over during the severity of the past winter ; its waters are only twenty feet 
above the sea. The silver firs are among the finest in the kingdom, exceeding 90 
feet in height, and, at a few feet from the ground, eleven and twelve in girth. Sixty 
to seventy of these fine trees were blown down in the storm of the 6th of January, 
1839; one of the trees, thirteen feet in girth, boarded a loft 40 feet by 20. The 
Chichester elm grows well, and becomes a fine tree, and the Turkey oak has a most 
rapid growth, and bears the wind well, but the white American spruce appears the 
best suited for high grounds, and to stand exposure to storms. The rockery in the 
gardens exhibits, in all their vigour of growth, some of the choicest plants and 
ferns of the mountains of Switzerland, and there also Pteris longifolia, a West 
Indian plant; Trichomanes radicans, and Adiantum capillus veneris bear the open 
ground throughout the seasons. Mr. Wynne informs me that the Trichomanes 
flourishes luxuriantly in his Wardian case, but does not bear involucra; on the 
rockery it fruits most freely. The Pinguicula grandiflora blooms there with sur¬ 
prising beauty and profusion. The influence of temperature has always affected 
the phenomena of vegetation, and we find plants, natives of opposite spheres, 
enduring, in many instances, degrees of temperature, either of heat or of cold, if 
that temperature be even, and not subject to sudden changes or transitions. Those 
plants, trees, or shrubs that suspend their powers during the winter, bear, without 
injury, the utmost rigour of that season, whilst those, like the sweet-bay (Laurus 
nobilis), Laurustinuses, and shrubs of similar habits, that have greater or less 
vitality during the winter months, suffer most extensively. At Glazenwood 
nursery, when remarking on the extensive ravages caused by the frost of 1837-38, 
Mr. Curtis says, u I have never known a more mischievous winter. Amongst 
standard roses I observe that a great many that were moved in the months of 
October and November survived, whilst those unmoved, of the same kinds, perished 
from the fulness of their sap-vessels.” In looking over Mr. Wynne’s list, I find that 
amongst the plants that were altogether killed, or much injured, were heaths, 
myrtles, old plants of the species of Edwardsia and the Laurus nobilis; while, 
among those that were uninjured, where Pasonia montana, Cedrus deodara, 
Araucaria imbricata, Trichomanes radicans, and the Rhododendra, and pines 
generally. In my own fernery, which is enclosed in a small greenhouse, the 
Trichomanes did not in the least suffer, although the fronds were coated with ice 
the greater part of the period the frost lasted—neither did Adiantum capillus 
veneris, nor the species of Hymenophylla. I have particularly noticed, in Mr. 
Wynne’s list, the Cedrus deodara and Araucaria; for, in reviewing the records of 
the severe frost of the winter of 1837-38, those plants were invariably found to 
stand the severity of the season, while, in all instances, the destruction to the 
Laurus nobilis, or sweet bay tree, appeared to be general. These notices are from 
the principal gardens in England and Scotland. The manager of the gardens and 
Pinetum at Dropmore states— u Araucaria imbricata—plants of this species, though 
not protected, and growing in exposed situations, have scarcely suffered, and the 
whole of the trees are growing vigorously. Cedrus deodara proves to be quite 
hardy. The Laurustinuses, bay trees, and the heaths, Erica Mediterranea, aus¬ 
tralis, arborea, and vagans were killed to the ground, but are now growing freely. 
I fully expected all were dead, as they were very late before they broke—Dropmore, 
12th September, 1838. Time should be given to valuable plants, apparently dead. 
The most severe frost of the winter was the middle of January, 1838.” In the 
island of Jersey the coldest day was on the 19th, when Fahrenheit’s thermometer, 
at five o’clock, p.m., was 18 ; on the 17th of the same month, it was noted, at the 
Nursery in Kilkenny, that Fahrenheit’s thermometer fell to 20. The magnolia, 
both in England and on the Continent, suffered but little injury; while the pines, 
heaths, and rhododendra, extensively perished. A friend informs me that, at the 
gardens at Cronstadt, St, Petersburg, and Moscow, at the approach of winter, all 
