388 Ralph Carr-Ellison, Esq., on Fireblight. 



common corn horsetail (Equisetum arvense). One who hopes 

 to share in the honours and pleasures of membeiship of our 

 Border Field-Club — namely, Captain Carr-Ellison, — pointed 

 out to me last week how curiously every filament of the 

 young and succulent horsetail was tipped by a small exuded 

 drop of clear water. There was no dew upon any of the 

 blades of grass or other plants among which the Equisetum 

 was growing, nor upon the older and more hardened heads 

 of the plant itself. But every young, succulent, and tender 

 example was beautifully spangled with its brilliant drops of 

 clear and pure water. Young partridge chicks might have 

 allayed their thirst without stint, for the plant was freely 

 mingled with the grass. The soil was a deep sand, with 

 humidity below. 



It is hoped that others may be able to complete what is 

 wanting in these imperfect data, and that we may obtain 

 increasing knowledge how and where young game-birds find 

 moisture in dry weather to sustain life, and how even the 

 skylark finds it ; since she seldom flies to the brook or pond, 

 though after a shower she will drink from a rut on the high- 

 way rather' than alight among the drenched and reeking grass. 



Ralph Carr-Ellison. 



On Fireblight ; or, the Minor Effects of Lightning on the 

 Foliage of Trees, — and the valuable lesson which it 

 affords to the arboriculturist, by teaching him how to 

 curtail the extremities of lofty branches by aid of torch- 

 flame. By Ralph Carr-Ellison, Esq., of Dunstan 

 Hill. 



When a useful process, adopted from Nature herself, by 

 which human control over the trees of the field and the forest 

 can be increased, has been successfully practised, but may 

 easily fall into forgetfulness and pass away with him who 

 first applied it, some means ought to be used for handing it 

 down to future foresters. 



As the method of checking the extremities of lofty side- 

 branches by blighting their foliage at midsummer, by help of 

 a torch affixed to a long rod, was first followed at Hedgeley, 



