194 NETHER LOCHABER. 



hygrometric sensitiveness in the potato plant a day or two ago. 

 We have an early planted field, more forward, perhaps, than any- 

 thing else of the kind in the "West Highlands, over which we took 

 a friend who happened to call upon us. It was about mid-day, 

 with a bright, hot sun overhead, and our friend agreed with us 

 that he had never seen potatoes that had come up more regularly, 

 or that looked more healthy and vigorous at the same stage of 

 growth, the fully expanded plants already showing leaves broad 

 and beautiful as those of a hazel tree in June. In an hour or two 

 afterwards we had occasion to pass the same field, and the change 

 in the appearance of the plants was extraordinary. They seemed 

 to have actually grown a couple of inches since mid-day, and our 

 friend exclaimed, " Well, your potatoes are wonderful ! look at 

 them now." And we did look, not so much, however, at the 

 potato field as our friend did ; we looked upwards and saw that 

 clouds were rapidly forming in the west, one black, finger-like 

 stripe of which had already nearly mounted to the zenith, and 

 looking at that and at our potato field, we assured our friend that 

 a heavy fall of rain, with possibly a gale of wind, was at hand. 

 Our companion was astonished ; the sun was yet shining brightly, 

 and the greater part of the heavens was clear and cloudless ; but 

 within little more than an hour afterwards the rain fell in torrents, 

 and a smart gale from the south-west was blowing. Our potatoes, 

 however, had foreseen it all ; were sensible of its approach, while 

 our friend and ourselves thought ourselves in the midst of fine 

 weather that might, perhaps, last unbroken for days ; and what 

 struck our companion as a sudden and mysterious addition to the 

 height of the plants was merely the effect of their having gathered 

 themselves together contracted all their parts into the least possible 

 compass thus assuming an upright pyramidal form, as best enabling 

 them to withstand the assaults of the approaching storm. Plants 

 of less health and vigour would, according to our theory, have 



