The unusual frosts which have visited our country in the early part of January have played havoc with our gardens. Plants always hitherto considered hardy in this latitude are either killed outright or so severely injured that their recovery is very doubtful. Camellias in full beauty, covered with buds and blossoms, are pitiable to behold; every bud scorched as if by fire, and the trees browned and their stems twisted. Many of our delicate roses are killed to the ground, and the tops of the Euonymus hedges have turned white. In short, there is no end to the destruction of our shrubs and plants; yet, the tea trees are uninjured; they are about the only evergreens in our grounds which have not succumbed in some measure to the cold, except the Gardenias, which appear indifferent to heat or cold, one of my large bushes standing in an exposed situation not having changed a leaf.

And now I must speak of our invalid strangers who have sought the balmy air of our village in search of health. None have suffered, and Sum-merville can boast of an immunity from sickness remarkable in such a winter. Sheltered from the east wind by live oaks and towering long-leaved pines, the rain may come and the rain may go, for the porous soil absorbs the moisture and the numerous little water-courses carry off what the sand cannot quickly enough receive. We certainly do sometimes have deluges of rain, soon to be followed by blue skies and delicious sunshine - days that are as heaven to the sufferer who basks in the fragrant air or walks bravely forth day after day amazed at the delightful climate.

That there is something marvelously healing in the atmosphere of the pines we realize more fully each succeeding year, and in lung and throat diseases the cures here are numerous.

My family came to reside here most unwillingly, but a member of it had been troubled with a throat affection, which promised to become serious, for over two years; he had sought the advice of many good physicians North and South. Finally he was advised by a Charleston doctor "to live in Summerville;" his recovery was rapid and he is to-day a healthy man.

A gentleman from Ireland brought introductions to Charleston - on his way to Florida. He was told to visit Summerville, if only for a week. He came, with hectic fever, a hard dry cough and panting breath; had no great comfort in the small wooden house where he boarded, and where the fare was as unlike as could be to the dainty food of a wealthy home. After visiting Florida he returned here at the end of a week looking decidedly worse than when he left, which he attributed to the fatigue of the journey in such a warm soft air, for thus he described the languor of the climate. After some weeks he bought a horse, hunted deer, etc., and remarked one day, "I breathe here, and I haven't breathed comfortably for two years".

If I remember rightly he came to Summerville about the first of November, and left us for Europe in the middle of the following May - a well man, and he writes, "I am quite well, have no trace of my former illness; manage my own property," etc.

Our local physicians are very urgent in entreating their patients who reside in any of the Northern States not to hurry away at the first breath of spring, but to remain with us till at least the middle of May, the heat being quite bearable till the latter part of June. This, unfortunately, many will not do; the consequences to the newly healed lungs we leave to the imagination of the reader.

Summerville, S. C.