328 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. 



from injury by merely a linen cloth thrown loosely over 

 them, while others lying in the same chamber, and beside 

 them, but uncovered, were hard frozen. 



C, — On the morning succeeding that frosty night, I was 

 amused to observe the leaves falling from the trees : at every 

 stir in the air, which was very still and calm, they descended 

 in showers. Our old butternut in particular, I noticed ; it 

 had been in almost full leaf, but the crisped and brown 

 foliage fluttered down in a continual stream, so that in an 

 hour or two it was almost completely leafless. I never saw 

 so great a change in so short a time. 



F, — A change nearly, though not quite as great, was 

 made in the general woods ; most of the deciduous trees are 

 now bare ; even the poplars are turned, and fast defoliating. 

 The gi-ound in the hardwood forest is now covered with sere 

 leaves, and strewn with beech nuts. These are numerous 

 this year, affording a plentiful supply to squirrels, mice, blue 

 jays, &c. Squirrels mostly remain within the woods, in 

 winters when nuts are plentiful, and fare well ; but in sea- 

 sons of scarcity they come very short ; many resort to the 

 farmer's barn, and live by theft, and often die by the aveng- 

 ing gun, but very many more are starved to death : so that 

 after a season in which the beech-mast has failed, we see 

 but few squirrels for several years. The fruit of the beech 

 is called by botanists a glans ; it is at first tightly enclosed in 

 a strong and tough envelope, covered with flexible prickles : 

 this is the cupule, a form of the inmlucrum ; its bracts are 

 four, enclosing two triangular nuts, which face each other ; 

 they resemble the chestnut in some particulars, but are much 

 smaller, and the angles are sharper: like it the kernel or 

 seed is enclosed in a shining coriaceous pericarp or shell, of 

 a dark brown colour. The bracts separate when sufficiently 

 ripe to allow the nut to fall to the ground, but occasionally 

 an empty cupule^ and sometimes an unopened one, is found 



