In agriculture and gardening, a cloche (from French, cloche for "bell") is a covering for protecting plants from cold temperatures. The original form of a cloche is a bell-shaped glass cover that is placed over an individual plant; modern cloches are usually made from plastic. The use of cloches is traced back to market gardens in 19th century France, where entire fields of plants would be protected with cloches. In commercial growing, cloches have largely been replaced by row cover, and nowadays are mainly found in smaller gardens.