CALENDAR FOR OCTOBER. 
163 
favoured and the unfavoured grounds, in the near vicinity of each other, and 
so completely have tender plants upon the latter escaped, as compared with the 
same plants on the former, that various conjectures have been raised among 
practical men as to what may have been the cause. 
Now, though the reason is a very simple and obvious one to those who have 
paid even a moderate degree of attention to the philosophy of the weather, yet 
it may not be amiss to state it briefly; because it is of no small importance to ' 
cultivators of tender flowers, or indeed to cultivators generally, who have crops 
in a growing state, when the hand of winter begins to be laid, however slightly, 
upon the skirts of the departing summer. In the first place, as the plant is 
subjected to more violent action, and makes a stronger growth in the lowland 
situation, it is less hardy in its nature. In the second place, the greater 
warmth of the air over such a place makes it take up much more moisture 
during the day, than the air upon the height is capable of sustaining. In the 
third place, the difference of temperature between the day and the night is 
greater in the warm places than in the more bleak and elevated, for the very 
same reason that the temperatures of the day and night differ more in tropical 
countries than in temperate ones. Therefore, in the fourth place, the air 
immediately over the low ground being both more saturated with humidity, 
and more disposed to part with it, much sooner makes a deposit on the leaves 
and flowers of plants; and this deposit is dew or hoar frost, according to the 
temperature ; and it is not the forming of the hoar frost, but the melting of it, 
when the heat returns, and more especially the turning of it rapidly into 
vapour by the direct heat of the sun, which disfigures or destroys the more 
tender plants. When countries are in a state of nature, the plants are adapted 
to their circumstances, so that fogs and hoar frosts, which would be destructive 
on a surface in high cultivation, creep harmlessly along the swampy valleys of 
the uncultivated highlands. But it will always be found that the grasses there 
are of the coarser species ; and if man should come and build his cottage, and 
form his little garden close by the brook, he would find his potatoes stricken 
black to the earth, while those of his neighbour, on the free and clear hill side, 
remained in all their greenness. 
What has now been stated can be verified by any one who chooses to observe ; 
it may furnish many hints as to the spots most eligible for the situations of 
tender plants, when a choice of these can be had; and therefore we have con¬ 
sidered the mention of it as more useful than a mere diurnal register of the 
weather, which every one can make for himself. 
CALENDAR FOR OCTOBER. 
Stove. —Finish repotting ; every plant that requires it should now be 
shifted. Always use clean pots and plenty of drainage. Prune in all climb¬ 
ing-plants. Ferns should now be separated and repotted. Cacti, Euphorbias, 
and other succulents require less water now. The earth about the roots of 
plants turned out in the borders of the house will require renewing. Cuttings 
struck last month should be potted and kept rather warmer than those struck 
