828 
THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. 
from injury by merely a linen cloth thrown loosely over 
them^ while others lying in the same chamber^ and beside 
them^ but uncovered^ were hard frozen. 
C. — On the morning succeeding that frosty nighty I was 
amused to observe the leaves falling from the trees : at every 
stir in the air^ which was very still and calm, they descended 
in showers. Our old butternut in particular^ I noticed ; it 
had been in almost full leaf^ but the crisped and brown 
foliage fluttered down in a continual stream, so that in an 
hour or two it was almost completely leafless. I never saw 
so great a change in so short a time. 
F. — A change nearly^ though not quite as great, was 
made in the general woods ; most of the deciduous trees are 
now bare ; even the poplars are turned, and fast defoliating. 
The ground in the hardwood forest is now covered with sere 
leaves, and strewn with beech nuts. These are numerous 
this year, affording a plentiful supply to squirrels, mice, blue 
jays, &c. Squirrels mostly remain within the woods, in 
winters when nuts are plentiful, and fare well ; but in sea- 
sons of scarcity they come very short ; many resort to the 
farmer's barn, and live by theft, and often die by the aveng- 
ing gun, but very many more are starved to death : so that 
after a season in which the beech-mast has failed, we see 
but few squirrels for several years* The fruit of the beech 
is called by botanists a glans ; it is at first tightly enclosed in 
a strong and tough envelope, covered with flexible prickles : 
this is the cupule^ a form of the involucrum ; its bracts are 
four, enclosing two triangulai nuts, which face each other ; 
they resemble the chestnut in some particulars, but are much 
smaller, and the angles are sharper : like it the kernel or 
seed is enclosed in a shining coriaceous pericarp or shell, of 
a dark brown colour. The bracts separate when sufficiently 
ripe to allow the nut to fall to the ground, but occasionally 
an empty ciipule, and sometimes an unopened one, is found 
