WITHERING AND SEARING OF LEAVES. 383 



the withering and searing up as it were of the 

 leaves of our vegetation, which we attribute gene- 

 rally to an early morning's frost. That late spring 

 frosts do occasion such injuries, and that noxious 

 blasts, from causes which we cannot divine, occa- 

 sion infinite annual mischief, if not destruction, to 

 our wall fruit, is most manifest ; yet there is great 

 reason to suspect that a large portion of the inju- 

 ries which we ascribe to blights, blasts, and frosts, 

 are occasioned by saline sprays brought by strong 

 western or south-western gales from King-road in 

 the Bristol Channel, eight or ten miles distant, or 

 from even more remote waters, and swept over the 

 adjoining country where the wind passes. This 

 saline wind has often been suspected by me as the 

 evil agent that accomplishes most of our blightings 

 here; and on November the 3d, 1825, these sus- 

 picions were corroborated for on this and the 

 preceding days we had strong gales from the water, 

 in consequence of which such windows as were 

 situate to the west and south-west were skimmed 

 over with a light saline scurf, the brass-work of 

 the doors was corroded and turned green, painted 

 works of all kinds were salt to the tongue, as was 

 everything that could condense the moisture ; and 

 the leaves of the shrubs in the hedgerows, and of 

 trees, all turned brown, and were crisped up. A 

 row of large elms in particular, that fronted the 

 gale, received its full influence ; the whole of the 

 windward side, then in full foliage, became per- 

 fectly brown and seared, and the leaves shortly 



