Order.-FILICACEE.

Frond flat, leafy; fructification in capsules on the back or margin of the frond; vernation circinate; root fibrous; rhizoma simple, solid,

Polypodium vulgare, Linn. In the hedges everywhere.

var. Near gate, church-path, Budock church: rare. Mr. Watson informed me that he had procured the Polypodium Phegopteris, Linn., in College wood.

Lastrea dilatata, var. linearis, Bab. Embankment near watercourse, Budock bottom.

multiflora, New. :-very common.

recurva, New. :-plentiful.

Filix-mas, Bab. :-common.

Family.-ASPLENIEÆ.

Clusters of fruit disposed along the veins.

Genus.-ATHYRIUM, Bab.

Athyrium Filix-foemina, Bab.:-common.

var. irriguum, Sm. In bog near Panscoth lane;

hedge of ditch, Tregenver farm.

Genus.-ASPLENIUM, Linn.

Asplenium Trichomanes, Linn. :-common.

marinum, Linn. Caves on the sea-shore, fissures of rocks, &c.: common. Two plants from Mainporth, each measured 20 inches in height without the roots.

Asplenium Ruta-muraria, Linn. Pendennis castle, magazine:

plentiful.

lanceolatum, Hudson :-not common.

var. Hedge-row, near Mr. Lane's second gate, old Penryn road.

Adiantum-nigrum, Linn. :--common.

var. b acutum:-not common.

var. y obtusum :-not common.

Genus.-SCOLOPENDRIUM, Symons.

Scolopendrium vulgare, Sym. :-common.

Genus,-BLECHNUM, Smith.

Blechnum boreale, Sm. :-common.

Family. PTERIDEÆ.

Covering of the fruit from a point on the veins, or from a small terminal disc.

Pteris Aquilina, Lin. :-common.

Genus.-ADIANTUM, Lin.

Adiantum Capillus-Veneris, Lin. A small patch growing in a cave west of Mainporth rare.

Family.-HYMENOPHYLLEÆ.

Fruit in a sort of marginal cup.

Genus.-HYMENOPHYLLUM, Smith.

Hymenophyllum Tunbridgense, Smith. Five habitats for this

rare plant in this neighbourhood.

Family.-OSMUNDEÆ.

Vernation circinate; capsules on the altered extremity of the frond.

Genus.-OSMUNDA, Linn.

Osmunda regalis, Lin. :-common.

Observations on the Harvest in the East part of Cornwall, from

BY JONATHAN COUCH, Esq., F.L.S., &c.

I am desirous of placing on permanent record, by communicating to the Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society, a series of observations, which I have made in successive years, on the circumstances attending our harvests on the south-east part of the county: which comprizes the district bounded on the west by the river Fowey, and on the east extending to the Rame point. I am prevented from including in this communication my notes on the variations of the weather through the years; partly, because they are not so widely extended, but principally, because they require a greater extent of labour in their reduction than it is at present in my power to bestow on them.

1816. Harvest began on the 26th of August, and ended about the 26th of October-the corn much injured by the wet. Price of old wheat at harvest, £1 16 0 the bushel of sixteen gallons. Barley was generally used for bread by working people; and the following process was employed to render it eatable. The barley meal was placed in a bag and set over the fire in a pot or crock of water. It was boiled so many hours as there were gallons of meal in the bag; and when taken out the water was found not to have penetrated into it beyond a little distance. The water thus used for boiling the meal had become brown or black, and offensive to the smell; but the barley meal, which before was black and disgusting, had acquired a colour and consistency not disagreeable, and a tolerably good taste. In its improved condition it required much water to make it into dough, whereas before it required very little.

1817. Harvest bad.

1818. Wheat harvest has been excellent: the grain fine, and well saved the quantity a crop and half, and in some places more. The barley was thin in the ground, but a good grain: the straw of all kinds short, so that the sheaves seemed top-heavy. Price of new wheat, 18s. to £1. Barley, 12s., oats 10s., old wheat not saleable; in fact, from the worst seed that perhaps was ever sown followed the best harvest that any one remembered. Wheat harvest generally ended before the close of July, and all corn saved before the end of Agust.

1819. Harvest finished before the end of August: fine, but not so luxuriant as the last. The corn was carried in an excellent condition; but, being left unthatched, a sudden and severe thunder-storm wetted it throughout, and compelled the farmers to carry it again into the fields. Price of wheat, 18s., barley, 8s. 1820. Harvest finished at the end of dant and good, interrupted by showers. 1821. Harvest late: beginning with at the middle stormy and wet, so that the grains of wheat grew out in the ear: rather plentiful. Wheat, 14s., barley, 5s. 6d.

August: the corn abunWheat, £1 the bushel. favourable weather, but

1822. Harvest finished in the first week in August: the crop fine. Price of wheat, 12s. 6d., barley, 5s.

1823. I have no other note of the harvest of this year, than that it was very late and wet. The hay harvest was only finished in the second week of August; and fruit in general remained unripe. Quality of the corn very bad.

1824. Crops are remarkably good, the wheat more so than the barley. At the beginning the weather was inclined to wet, and some corn was injured by the haste with which it was cut and carried; but the weather soon became fine. In some parts of the county hail-storms did much harm by knocking the grain out of the ear. In one field of about ten acres, it was supposed that forty bushels of oats were thus beat out. Harvest ended about the first week in September. Price of wheat, 12s., new barley, 8s. the bushel.

1825, Harvest began, with exceedingly warm weather in the fourth week in August: the crops of wheat good, of barley

moderate: the straw being short on account of the dryness of the summer.

1826. Harvest early: that of wheat being ended about the close of July; and that of barley by the middle of August: an average crop of wheat-the barley slight. The summer has been dry in an extraordinary degree.

1827. Harvest finished about the end of August, generally in good condition; but the straw of the last year was so scarce that the farmers were compelled to thrash out the new wheat to obtain reed to cover the mows. Price of wheat, 17s., barley, 10s.

1828. Harvest ending at the beginning of September: the wheat a thin crop from injury received at the time of blossoming; and much has received damage from being carried in a wet con⚫ dition. Barley and oats a poor crop. Price of wheat, 16s. 6d., barley, 7s. 6d., the bushel.

1829. Harvest began at the end of July, and was not finished until the second week in September: with much interruption from the weather, but no harm. After the barley was sown in the spring there fell no rain for a considerable time; from which cause it came up thin, and was exceedingly short. When rain came a new growth took place; by which means a portion was ripe, and others green at the same time. Price of wheat, £1, barley, 10s. 6d. This season was interrupted by frequent returns of wet; but I find it recorded, that by cutting the corn at an early stage, the farmers were aware that they had prevented the grain from sprouting, as in former years. And then, by being compelled to leave it long in the field, the weeds which entangled it had time to dry, and the corn was not left to grow hot in the mow.

1830. Harvest began at the end of July, but did not end until the second week of September; and the price of wheat, which from the lateness of the season had been so high as £1:2:0 the bushel, fell to 15s. The weather had been changeable, but the corn was not injured, and a good crop.

1831. Harvest began towards the end of July and lasted a month: the crop good in quantity and quality. Wheat, 15s. the bushel, barley 7s.