Page:Transactions of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association, volume 2.djvu/100

 no doubt that the character of a climate is much more faithfully indicated by such natural tests, than by any instrumental, or artificial, means whatever.

1. The great mildness of the winter season in this district, is evinced by the growth, in the open air, of several plants which are either not natives, not cultivated, or are inmates of the green-house in most other parts of England. Among the rarer indigenous plants of this district, I may particularize the Sibthorpia Europœa as strikingly evincing the superiority of the winter temperature. This elegant little plant, when transplanted into the middle counties, is killed down in the winter, even in sheltered garden. Among the tender exotics which are common in the shrubberies, the botanist will find several growing here without shelter, which are green-house plants in most other parts of England. Among the most conspicuous of the exotics is the Myrtle, which, even in its extreme shoots, is rarely injured by the cold of winter. All its common varieties, broad and narrow leaved, single and double, thrive equally well and flower plentifully. In the open garden these plants attain the height of from 12 to 20 feet. Geraniums are also common in the borders, but many of these, in the severer winters, are killed down to the ground. The Hydrangea seems as hardy as a native, and attains an immense size, as does also the Verbena Triphylla.

The following list of some of the tenderer exotics growing in the open air, in the neighbourhood of Penzance, in the year 1820, sufficiently indicates the mildness of the winters. Many others equally delicate, or more so, would, I doubt not, thrive very