264 Natural History in Foreign Countiifs. 



confiiderable as in England, and the much greater difficulty of preserving 

 grapes, &c., from becoming mouldy. Though the atmosphere was, of course, 

 thick and hazy during the rain, yet there has been nothing that could be 

 strictly called fog the whole winter. 



Progress of Vegetation^ ^c. i/yacinthu.? racemosus in flower, Jan. 18; 

 Oocus vernus var. ? January 20.; Ficaria ranunculoides, January 26.; 

 Violets, February 5. ; O'xalis corniculata, February 12. ; Veronica Cymba- 

 laria and jPumaria officinalis, February 15. ; almond trees in blossom, 

 February 10. ; box, Feburary 24. ; blackthorn, February 28. ; leaves of 

 hawthorn one fourth expanded, February 27. ; horse-beans (of which a 

 considerable extent is cultivated on the farms near Pisa), sown the begin- 

 ning of December, 3 to 4 in. high, February 10.; flax, 8 in. high, Feb. 15. 

 Vine-pruning mostly finished by the middle of February. This is not, as 

 in France and Germany, a simple affair, as of trimming so many currant 

 bushes, but requires no small share both of skill and judgment to separate 

 from the thick entanglement of the scores of last year's shoots the eight 

 or ten which alone are to be suffered to remain for the next, as well as to 

 deeide which of the branches of the pollard willows and poplars that sup- 

 port the vines, and to which their shoots are tied, so as to form festoons 

 from one to the other, are to be cut out, and which left, in order to insure 

 the required support without too much shade. The due pruning of one 

 tree, and of the two or three vines attached to it, often requires the labour 

 of a man for half a day. 



Vanessa Atalant« on the wing, January 12,; Fieri* rhamni, and other 

 common butterflies, February 12.; Macroglossa stellatarum very frequent 

 towards the end of the month ; Bibio hortulanus in great numbers, Feb. 4. ; 

 ants and various coleopterous insects running on the footpaths, and Armi- 

 dius dispar on the wing on fine mild days the whole winter ; lizards, of 

 which not a single one visible in December or January, began to appear 

 occasionally early in February, and by the middle of the month swarmed 

 on every sunny wall. 



General Remarks. The Pisans have a saying, " If the weather be open 

 on the 2d of February (the feast of the "Purification of the Virgin), 

 the winter is over ; if severe, it is only beginning." I know riot how far 

 this proverb may (with some latitude as to time), like that in England re- 

 lative to St. Swithin's day, and other popular meteorological sayings, have 

 some foundation in fact and long-continued observation. A Pisan, how- 

 ever, might have appealed to the present winter in proof of its accuracy; 

 for the slight and only frost, after lasting six days, broke up on February 1 ., 

 and after that time, for a fortnight, the weather would in England have 

 been called that of May rather than of February ; the thermometer, at 

 8 a.m., being generally from 45° to 50° i often 60° at 2 p.m. in the shade, 

 and 84° in the full suri. The latter half of the month, however, was a 

 good deal cooler ; the wind being generally from the north, and high. The 

 weather of Pisa is influenced by the quarters from which the wind blows, 

 much as in England : a south and south-west wind bring a damp, cloudy, 

 and mild atmosphere, and often rain ; and a north or east wind usually a 

 clear sky and cool temperature. The south wind, though disliked by the 

 Pisans, who transfer their old summer associations of the oppressiveness 

 of the scirocco even to winter, is not disagreeable at that season to the 

 feelings of such English invalids as chiefly require mildness of temperature ; 

 but the most delightful winter weather at Pisa is, doubtless, when a bright 

 sun is tempered by the tramontana^ or north wind, blowing in a very 

 moderate degree. If it blow strongly, it is sometimes almost as cutting as 

 an English March wind. I am, &c. — W, Spence, Pisa, March 4. 1831. 



