292 
THE 
CANADIAN 
NATURALIST. 
bers of ears which are necessarily left on the ground^ and the 
irregularity of the sheaves. We have been favoured this 
season ; the protracted fair weather allowing of a general 
ripening of the corn before the severe autumnal night-frosts^ 
which I have known to occur as early as the 12th of 
August ; killing the grain when yet in the milk/' blight- 
ing the hopes of the farmer^, and causing in many parts of 
the country distress little short of actual famine. 
C. — We have had some frosts already ; but not of suffi- 
cient intensity to injure plants^ for even the delicate scarlet 
beans in the garden are not withered. 
F, — I have heard it asserted by an intelligent practical 
friend,, who has passed many years of sagacious observation 
in this country that grain may be gradually/ inured to a 
severity of cold which would kill it if it were exposed to 
its violence without any such preparation. For example^ if 
frosts come^ light at first, but every night gradually increas- 
ing in intensity^ a heavy frost may be then sustained without 
any injury; whereas if a frost of the same severity had come 
suddenly^ after mild weather^ the grain would have been 
inevitably killed. I cannot give any personal opinion on 
the matter^ nor am I physiologist enough to debate the proba- 
bility of such a variation ; his opinion is drawn from observa- 
tion of facts, not from any theoretical principles. 
C. — I see in the field, among the grain^ a slender^ climb- 
ing plant, whose leaves resemble those of buckwheat : the 
seeds are of the same shape, of a deep shining black, enclosed 
in a light skin ; the flowers are small, and pale pink. It 
climbs spirally around the stalks of wheat, and is not un- 
common. , 
F. — It is a wild weed ; a native plant of the same 
genus as Buckwheat ( Volygonum Convolvulus Do you 
observe that the elms are beginning to put on their yellow 
autumnal dress ; and that patches of crimson begin to appear 
