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 ground 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 involucrum ; 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 



