24 
FLOWER GARDEN. 
Beds of Tulips, Hyacinth, and other tender bulbs, should be protected in 
severe weather; also tender kinds of Roses, Magnolias, and other half-hardy 
trees, and shrubs. The work to be done here is confined to digging, &:c. and 
preparing for a season more favourable to the Florist. 
THE WEATHER FOR DECEMBER. 
Our readers have of course not forgotten that we stated that a fall of snow 
was the likely result of the extreme moisture of the preceding autumn, 
winter, and early spring ; and that this was the means by which the earth 
would be restored to its ordinary tone. In our number for August, we further 
hinted that it would be as safe for autumnal planters to prepare against an 
early winter ; and in our November number, we stated that the floods which 
had occurred in the south of Europe, must tend to lessen the violence of the 
setting in of winter. We could not say that they would diminish the cold >' 
because they produced cold in the south; and cold in one place does not tend 
to lessen cold in another, though it makes the transfer from place to place less 
violent. 
These opinions were based on the simple, but sure, foundation of experience; 
and the weather in December has justified them all. The month set in with 
the same tranquil weather as the end of November, sometimes with frost, and 
sometimes without; hut there was no rain or other atmospheric disturbance. 
On the evening of the 13th, an intense black frost set in, with the wind at east, 
and blowing gently. This continued all the 14th ; and on the I5th snow came 
on gently, still with an east and south-east wind. It was not flaky, as we find 
the transitory snow upon a humid surface after cold produced by evaporation, 
but powdery snow, with some very small hail from the upper part of the 
atmosphere, — snow likely to remain, and afford a protecting mantle to the 
earth for some time. As might have been expected by any one who has paid 
the smallest attention to the weather, the wind shifted, and blew from the high 
uplands, after these had received their coating of snow; but even then it was 
not very violent. 
How long the snow may continue on the ground is matter of observation; 
but, in the mean time it answers the most beneficial purpose that snow could 
answer. With the previous black frost, which sealed up all the pores, it pre¬ 
vents the radiation of heat; and if it continues a few weeks longer, it will put 
matters in train for an excellent spring growth. We hope that the frost, which 
was intense and naked only for one day, has not reached the bulbs ; and while 
the snow continues on the ground, the frost will not penetrate any deeper, 
but rather the reverse, while snow has not the same tendency to draw plants 
up to untimely growth, as litter or other artificial coverings. 
