VOL. XXVI.] PHrLOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 537 



our finer mural fruit-trees, as of peaches, nectarines, apricots, &c. was so con- 

 gealed and disordered, that it proved stagnated in the Hmbs and branches, and 

 equal to chilblains in human bodies ; which in too many parts of the"tree, turned 

 to so frequent mortifications, that it is doubtful whether sufficient vigour is ever 

 to be expected from them, to be worth their standing. What he observes con- 

 cerning the destruction of wheat was, I believe, a general calamity ; as also the 

 particulars he takes notice of much the same in other places too, viz. " Where 

 the land was poor, and coldly exposed, the wheat was killed ; that many lands 

 of wheat escaped tolerably well on the warm side, when the other side was 

 quite killed with the extremity of cold." By the warm and cold sides, I 

 suppose our ingenious observer means the sunny and shady sides. But with us 

 the wheat suffered rather more on the southern, sunny side, than the 

 northern ; I suppose by reason the ground was somewhat opened by the sun- 

 shine, and the covering of snow melted, and way was thereby made to the seve- 

 rity of the nocturnal frost : on which account I have heard it said by some skil- 

 ful observers, that vegetables suffered more the last winter from the sun than 

 the frost. And not only shrubs and plants, but the larger trees have in some 

 places had their share of suffering too. But it was observed by some inge- 

 nious persons at one of the meetings of our society, that the calamities which 

 befel trees, arose not purely from their being frozen, but principally from the 

 winds shaking and rocking them at the same time, which rent and parted their 

 fibres. 



As to other places, I find the effects were, in the more southerly parts of 

 Europe, much the same on their vegetables as in ours. In Italy, Dr. Newton 

 sajs, almost all the lemon and orange-trees, with those of the like kind, are 

 destroyed in this country by the frost, and a great many olive-trees. The leaves 

 of the bay-trees have the same colour now, as all others have when they ^re 

 falling in October. And Dr. M. Angelo Tilli, the learned botanic professor at 

 Pisa, writes me that the frost has destroyed a world of trees, both in the city 

 and in the country about them. And as to the northern parts of Germany, 

 the case was much the same as with us in England, or still worse. In Switzer- 

 land too, among the high Alpine ridges, they felt the dire effects of the frost, 

 but yet some places were so happy as to escape. 



Microscopical Observations on the Corifiguration of Diamonds. By Mr. Leuwen- 



koeck, F. R. S. N° 324, p. 479- 



I took a small polished diamond, and broke it to pieces with a pair of pincers ; 

 but observed nothing more in the broken particles, than in those of common 

 glass. I afterwards placed before a microscope a small rough diamond, and ob- 



VOL. v. 3^ 



