OCTOBER 177 



the timber, and Thorpe's Dictionary of Chemistry gives 

 the following figures for other material : 



Ash of Potato tops, . . 6 per cent. 



Wheat straw, . 11-5 per cent. 



Hay, . . .25-6 per cent. 



Bean straw, . . 42'6 per cent. 



Kelp ash, . . 13 to 23 per cent. 



Potatoes, . . } 

 Beet, 



Mangold, . . ab Ut 50 P er Cent 



Turnips, . . J 



Compared with which bracken ash, as shown above, 

 contains 41 '82 per cent, when the fern is cut in July; 

 but in a subsequent letter Professor Greenish informed 

 me that it yielded a higher percentage when cut in 

 September. 



XLV 



' Nor spring nor summer's bewty hath such grace 

 As I have seen in one autumnal face.' 



It is often asserted that the autumnal colouring of 

 British woodlands depends for brilliancy upon Autumnal 

 the amount of warmth and bright sunshine colour 

 of the preceding summer; but to this doctrine my 

 country note-book lends no support. 



For instance, the summer of 1912 was miserably 

 cold, sunless, and wet ; nevertheless I have it recorded 

 that some of our native trees, which usually remain 

 green till the end of September, did in that year 

 assume full autumn finery before Michaelmas. 



The rowan or mountain ash (which is not an ash) 

 M 



