The Naturalist's Diary

For AUGUST 1818.

O'er fields embrowned, lo! AUGUST slowly bends!
And yellow Plenty, smiling, gilds the land;
The hills re-echo with the reaper's song.

THE powerful influence of the solar rays now contributes to ripen the various sorts of grain, which are benevolently given for the food of man and cattle. Fine weather is very desirable, that the principal source of the farmer's wealth may be safely housed; for sudden storms beat down the nearly ripened corn, and materially injure it. The utmost diligence is now exerted, and labourers from all parts are eagerly engaged to give their assistance in this delightful occupation; all is bustle and activity. The following is a genuine picture of Nature in this month, drawn with an uncommon degree of minuteness and fidelity :

Now Noon gone by, and four declining hours,
The weary limbs relax their boasted pow'rs;
Thirst rages strong, the fainting spirits fail,
And ask the sov'reign cordial-Home brewed Ale!
Beneath some sheltering heap of yellow corn
Rests the hooped keg, and friendly cooling horn,
That mocks alike the goblet's brittle frame,
Its costlier potions and its nobler name!
To Mary first the brimming draught is giv❜n,
By toil made welcome as the dews of Heav'n;
And never lip that pressed its homely edge
Had kindlier blessings or a heartier pledge!

R. BLOOMFIELD.

The harvest, to be viewed in perfection, should be seen in one of those extensive parishes which are as yet uninclosed. When the fields are white with harvest,' they exhibit a rich expanse of wavy corn' of every hue, from the white of the oat and barley, to the golden red of the wheat. It is a scene of repose, interrupted only by the breezes and the billowing of

the corn.
When the reapers enter, all becomes life
and motion. They are seen in all directions, reap-
ing, sheafing, and shocking, with the haste suitable to
so important a season. The mowers also take their
turn at the barley and the oats. The carts and wag-
gons then enter the field with speed, but leave it piled
up with sheaves of wheat, or loads of loose corn, with
a slow and stately pace, looking, at a distance, like a
ship sailing over the ocean. The masters and tything-
men are seen riding about in all directions, and
groupes of men reposing at their meals, or their re-
freshment of beer. The women and children then
enter as gleaners, and in the evening return with their
loads upon their heads:

Light as thistle-down moving, which floats in the air,
Sweet gratitude's debt to my cottage I bear:
Of Autumn's rich store I bring home my part,
The weight on my head, but gay joy in my heart.

ROSINA.

The rich splendour of the sun-set, the solemn gloom of the twilight, and the sober brightness of the harvest moon, are fresh occasions of admiration and gratitude.

Wheat, oats, barley, and other corn, are of the class triandria, and order digynia, having in each flower three stamina and two pistilla. Many flowers are collected into a spike, called an ear of corn: the stamina are seen projecting, and the antheræ freely playing in the air, when the corn is in full ear; but, to ascertain its botanical character, a single flower should be carefully separated from the rest. Of wheat, there are ten distinct species, cultivated in different parts of the world, and most of them in Britain; and of each of these species there are several varieties, which may, with care in the cultivation, be preserved perfectly distinct. What a field is here open to any intelligent experimental farmer !· we shall only mention a few of such as are most frequently met with.

S

1st. Winter wheat, which is the most common in this country, and is said to yield the most flour, but requires strong and rich land. Of this there are three varieties; all destitute of beards, or having very minute ones. One has a red ear and grain; a second, white ears; and the third, white ears and grains: the other particular qualities of these varieties remain to be discovered.

2d. Spring or summer wheat, which requires to be sown in February or March, and is suited to lighter soils. Of this there are also three varieties, bearing similar distinctive marks to those of the winter wheat.

3d. Cone wheat. Bearded ears, thick grains, small, plump, and more convex on the back. The varieties are four; the white, red, large-bearded and many-eared cone wheat.

4th. Polish wheat; much larger than the others, leaves white-striped. Very fruitful, and yielding abundance of flour.

5th. Spelt or German wheat, much resembles barley; will grow in stoney soils and mountainous countries, where other wheat will not. Makes excellent starch.

Switzerland spring wheat ripens a fortnight sooner than others. Egyptian wheat is uncommonly fruitful, though not fine; and affords very good

flour.

Wheat, as containing the largest quantity of farina or meal, and that of the best quality for making bread and pastry, is by far the most commonly used of any kind of corn; but for the purposes of making starch, or hair-powder, other vegetables may and ought always to be substituted.

Next to wheat, barley and oats are considered as the best articles for bread, and are in certain situations the principal food of the poor; as in the north of Scotland, and some of the northern counties of England. Barley is likewise consumed in large

quantities, in making malt liquors and ardent spirits; as oats are for feeding horses; and both for the feeding and fattening of cattle, swine, and poultry. Barley, when deprived of its husk and external cortical part, by grinding in a peculiarly constructed mill, is called pearl-barley. Both in this state, and in the state of barley-meal, it is used in broths, porridge, &c. as food for the lower classes '.

About the 11th of August, the puffin (alca arctica) migrates. Priestholme, or Puffin's Island, about three quarters of a mile from the Isle of Anglesea, abounds with these birds; and their flocks, for multitude, may be compared to swarms of bees.

2

In the middle of the month, the swift disappears, and probably migrates to more southern regions. Rooks begin to roost in their nest trees, and young broods of goldfinches (fringilla carduelis) appear; lapwings (tringa vanellus) and linnets (fringilla linota) congregate; the nuthatch chatters; and, towards the end of the month, the redbreast is again heard.

At the beginning of August, melilot (trifolium officinale), rue (ruta graveolens), the water parsnip (sysimbrium nasturtium), horehound (marrubium vulgare), water-mint (mentha aquatica), the orpine (sedum telephium), and the gentiana amarella, have their flowers full blown. The purple blossoms of the meadow saffron (colchicum autumnale) now adorn the low moist lands. The number of plants in flower, however, is greatly lessened in August, those which bloomed in the former months running fast to seed. We may now apostrophise the Spring' in the language of the poet :

Sweet Spring! amid forgotten things
Thou and thy smiles must sleep: thy little lambs
Dead, or their nature changed; thy hymning birds
Mute;-faded every flower so beautiful ;—

Skrimshire's Essays on Natural History, p. 127.

2 See the Goldfinches, an Elegy,' in our last volume, p. 158.

And all fair symptoms of incipient life
To fulness swollen, or sunk into decay!

Yet we are continually reminded of the bounty of our Creator; though the flowers of spring, and the lovely rose', are no more, the fruits of summer and of autumn now pour in their abundant stores.

Heaths and commons are now in all their beauty; the flowers of the various species of heath (erica) covering them with a fine purple hue. Ferns also begin to flower, the commonest sort of which is the fern or brakes (polypodium filix-mas); but the female (pteris aquilina) is the most beautiful plant.

Insects still continue to swarm; they sport in the sun from flower to flower, from fruit to fruit, and subsist themselves upon the superfluities of nature.

It is not the air only that abounds with insects at this season; ditches and stagnant pools of water are equally prolific of them. One of those most commonly found in these haunts, is the monoculus apus, and is an excellent subject for the microscope. Some account of an examination of one by the aid of this powerful instrument will be found in our last volume, p. 242.

That beautiful little insect, the lady-bird, or ladycow, now seen, and so often charged with being the cause of blights in apple-trees, is in reality the best remedy against that disease. The lady-bird, both when perfect and in its larva state, feeds entirely upon the aphis, a genus of which the blight in question is a species. The utility of this insect, in destroying the blight, is well known in the hop-countries. See a

For some beautiful lines to the Rose, by Waller, see our last volume, p. 240. The following additional stanza is from the pen of Kirke White:

Yet, though thou fade,

From thy dead leaves let fragrance rise,
And teach the maid,

That goodness Time's rude hand defies,

And Virtue lives when beauty dies.