VEGETABLES 443 



the lights in a morning, till the glasses are opened. Pro- 

 batum est. 



WHEAT 



A notion has always obtained, that in England hot 

 summers are productive of fine crops of wheat ; yet in the 

 years 1780 and 178 1, though the heat was intense, the 

 wheat was much mildewed, and the crop light. Does not 

 severe heat, while the straw is milky, occasion its juices 

 to exsude, which being extravasated, occasion spots, dis- 

 colour the stems and blades, and injure the health of 

 the plants ? 



TRUFFLES 



August. A truffle-hunter called on us, having in his 

 pocket several large truffles found in this neighbourhood. 

 He says these roots are not to be found in deep woods, 

 but in narrow hedge-rows and the skirts of coppices. 

 Some truffles, he informed us, lie two feet within the 

 earth, and some quite on the surface ; the latter, he added, 

 have little or no smell, and are not so easily discovered by 

 the dogs as those that lie deeper. Half a crown a pound 

 was the price which he asked for this commodity. 



Truffles never abound in wet winters and springs. 

 They are in season in different situations, at least nine 

 months in the year. 



TREMELLA NOSTOC 



Though the weather may have been ever so dry and 

 burning, yet after two or three wet days, this jelly-like 

 substance abounds on the walks. 



FAIRY RINGS 



The cause, occasion, call it what you will, of fairy-rings, 

 subsists in the turf, and is conveyable with it : for the turf 



