VEGETABLES. 363 



now in segments, and sometimes in irregular patches and 

 spots. Wherever they obtain, puff balls abound ; the seeds 

 of which were doubtless brought in the turf. 



METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 



BAKOMETER. 



OVEMBER 22, 1768. A remarkable fall of 

 the barometer all over the kingdom. At 

 Selborne we had no wind, and not much 

 rain; only vast, swagging, rocklike clouds 

 appeared at a distance. 



PARTIAL FROST. 



THE country people, who are abroad in winter mornings 

 long before sunrise, talk much of hard frost in some spots, 

 and none in others. The reason of these partial frosts is 

 obvious, for there are at such times partial fogs about ; 

 where the fog obtains, little or no frost appears, but where 

 the air is clear, there it freezes hard. So the frost takes 

 place either on hill or in dale, wherever the air happens to 

 be clearest and freest from vapour. 



THAW. 



THAWS are sometimes surprisingly quick, considering the 

 small quantity of rain. Does not the warmth at such times 

 come from below ? The cold in still, severe seasons seems 

 to come down from above, for the coming over of a cloud 

 in severe nights raises the thermometer abroad at once full 

 ten degrees. The first notices of thaws often seem to 

 appear in vaults, cellars, &c. 



If a frost happens, even when the ground is considerably 

 dry, as soon as a thaw takes place, the paths and fields are 

 all in a batter. Country people say that the frost draws 

 moisture. But the true philosophy is, that the steam and 

 vapours continually ascending from the earth, are bound in 

 by the frost, and not suffered to escape till released by the 



