142 Dr Murray m the Natural History of Alford. 



is seldom at x^st, for reasons which it is unnecessary to discuss. The same 

 circumstances also explain why, in accounting for the frosting of crops, more 

 stress than appears due has been laid upon the wetness of the ground. In a 

 tract surrounded by hills, the lowest situations are, for obvious reasons, apt to 

 be peculiarly wet ; and, as the injury from hoar-frost takes place mostly in 

 low situations, it is naturally, at first sight, attributed to the wetness. But 

 it is to be remembered, that the low situations are likewise the flattest and the 

 calmest ; and, upon these circumstances, much more than on the wetness, does 

 the injury in qtiestion seem to depend. 



Against the frosting of crops, shelter has been recommended; but unless it 

 is of a kind calculated to keep off the rays from the morning sun, shelter, in 

 place of being useful, will probably aggravate the injury. Not so, however, 

 with respect to frost affecting the crops in late seasons. Of such crops, shel- 

 ter is the main safeguard, as then the whole atmosphere, and not merely the 

 stratum next the earth, is occasionally below a freezing temperature ; and 

 wind, instead of bringing up successive portions of warmer air (by which 

 means it prevents hoar-frost), can have no effect but that of rendering the cold 

 more energetic. So, in late seasons, high grounds, from being most exposed 

 to cold and wind, suffer more than low and sheltered situations. 



Waiers of the District 



From a series of experiments I made in the wells and springs of Al- 

 ford, the following inferences may be drawn : — No water was found where- 

 in any uncombined substance of an acid or alkaline nature was detected. 

 Sulphuric acid was but seldom met with ; lime was occasionally present, 

 but more frequently no trace of it was perceived. Almost universally 

 muriatic acid was indicated. The usual tests of magnesia and potash 

 shewed no sign of these substances. For no other substance was inquiry 

 made ; but as there was frequently found no base which could have neutral- 

 ized the detected acid, it may be considered probable that soda (of which no 

 direct test is known) was often present. I have still to say, that a little iron 

 was found in several springs. On the whole, the water of Alford may be 

 reckoned freer from foreign ingredient than is common ; and, in comparison 

 with most waters, the quantity of sulphuric acid and of lime is peculiarly 

 small. 



Observations on the Importance of Natural History, 



An account of the native vegetables of Alford is now to be given, and this is 

 offered under the hope, that the botanical description of a portion of country, 

 whose plants are fully known to no individual except myself, will be considered 

 of a more accqitable character, than if it had related to a situation near the more 

 ordinary scenes of botanical research. Not a few persons ask the value of a cata- 

 logue of natural objects, which, in place of containing what they deem useful, 

 is made up of names ami stations ; but local Floras are a class of productions 

 ever interesting to the true lover of botany. It is only by a series of such 

 performances, that the maimer in which vegetables have been associated by, 

 the hand of Nature, can be fully known ; or exact ideas formed as to the face 



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