NUTTY AUTUMN 127 



then a third, till, looking round the fields, it seemed as 

 if every fourth or fifth tree had thus been burnt 



It began with the leaves losing colour, much as they 

 do in autumn, on the particular bough ; gradually they 

 faded, and finally became brown and of course dead. 

 As they did not appear to shrivel up, it looked as if the 

 grub or insect, or whatever did the mischief, had attacked, 

 not the leaves, but the bough itself. Upon mentioning 

 this I found that it had been noticed in elm avenues and 

 groups a hundred miles distant, so that it is not a local 

 circumstance. 



As far as yet appears, the elms do not seem materially 

 injured, the damage being outwardly confined to the 

 bough attacked. These brown spots looked very remark- 

 able just after the trees had become green. They were 

 quite distinct from the damage caused by the snow of 

 October 1880. The boughs broken by the snow had 

 leaves upon them which at once turned brown, and in 

 the case of the oak were visible, the following spring, as 

 brown spots among the green. These snapped boughs 

 never bore leaf again. It was the young fresh green 

 leaves of the elms, those that appeared in the spring of 

 1 88 1, that withered as if scorched. The boughs upon 

 which they grew had not been injured ; they were small 

 boughs at the outside of the tree. I hear that this 

 scorching up of elm leaves has been noticed in other 

 districts for several seasons. 



The dewdrops of the morning, preserved by the mist, 

 which the sun does not disperse for some hours, linger 

 on late in shaded corners, as under trees, on drooping 

 blades of grass and on the petals of flowers. Wild bees 

 and wasps may often be noticed on these blades of grass 

 that are still wet, as if they could suck some sustenance 

 from the dew. Wasps fight hard for their existence as the 



