Chap. XL Of Blight. 147 



Colour it appears (b). By this Means that Part* 

 which, if it had a due Share of the Sun's Influence* 

 would be harden'd like a Bone or Spring, for the 

 Support of the Stalks, for lack of thalj becomes 

 more like to a Cartilage, foft and weak, unable to 

 fuilain the Weight of the bending Ear, which, having 

 its greateft Impetus againfl this Part, which is moft 

 feeble to refift it, it yields, and lets it fall to the 

 Ground ; and then the Grain will be blighted. 



There is alfo another Caufe of the Blight ; and that 

 is, the Wheat's coming too late into Bloffom. The 

 ufual Time is the Beginning of June ; and if it be 

 later, the Days fhorten fo fad after the Solftice, that 

 the Autumn of the Year haftening the Autumn of 

 the Wheat's Life, the full Time of its Pregnancy 

 (c) is not accomplifh'd ; and then its Fruit, which is 

 the Grain, becomes as it were abortive, and not full- 

 grown. This Time betwixt the Generation, BlofTom- 

 ing, and the Maturity of the Grain, is, or ought to 

 be, about Two Months. 



Therefore 'tis advantageous to haften, what we can^" 

 the Time of BloiToming, and to protract the Time of 



(b) But now I fufpeel this to be a Miftake, it being more like- 

 ly, that the white Colour of the Rind is owing to the Abfence 

 of the Sun and free Air, than to the Chyle, as the Skin of thofs 

 Parts of our own Bodies that are concealed from them, is whiter 

 than of thofe which are expofed to them, though no Chyle- vefTei 

 comes near our Skin. 



(c) Ut enim Mulieres habent ad Far turn Dies certos, fie Arbor es 

 acFruges. Varro, Lib. i. Cap. 44. 



Menfe Maio fiorent ; Jic Frumenta, & Ordeum, & qua funt Sem:- 

 nis fingularis, Oclo diebus florebunt, iff deinde per Dies 40. gran- 

 defcunt Ficre depojito ufque ad Maturitatis E-ventum.' Palladius, 

 Pag. 114, 115. . " 



Quindecim Diebus ejft in Vaginis, ^uindechn for ere, ^uindecim 

 exarefcere, cum ft maturum Frumentum. Varro, Lib. i. Cap. 32. 



But the different Heat that there is in different Climates, may 

 alter both the Time that Plants continue in BloiTom, and the 

 Time betwixt the BlofToming and the Ripening. 



L % Ripening : 



