20 THE FLOEAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



were above the average, and the excess of those three months amounted to 

 5"08. The total rainfall near London was 30-08 ; according to Mr. Thomp- 

 son, 10" 73 above the average ; according to Dr. Lindley, 6v inches. On 

 the north of London, the excess was 10'41. Reckoning from the 1st of 

 October, 1859, to the 30th of October, 1860, the total rainfall was 38^- 

 inches. As every district has its own peculiarities in this respect, minute 

 differences arc of little consequence in the face of the fact that the season 

 was remarkable for cold and wet. In extreme temperatures, December 

 1860 distinguished itself, for in many cases, the thermometer indicated as 

 low as — 8' on the night of the 24 -25th. The mean of December was only 

 2^ above freezing-point. There were several periods of great gales and 

 hurricanes. On the 27th and 28th of February the west coast was ravaged 

 by fearful storms, which by cyclonic movements swept thence over the 

 centre of England, and committed vast havoc among the woods of North 

 "Wales, Nottinghamshire, Hertfordshire, and Norfolk. In Nottinghamshire 

 more than 20,000 trees were blown down. On the 3rd of October a great 

 gale commenced on the Hebrides, which swept off the crops of St. Kil- 

 dare, and traversed the greater part of Scotland, to the destruction of 

 whole plantations, and the reduction to a desert state of many highly- 

 cultivated districts. 



LoxDOx has not too manj^ lungs, yet, sad to say, one of its largest and most 

 known is likely to be soon numbered with the things of the past. Fins- 

 bury Circus — the site of the London Institution, and some magnificent 

 blocks of private residences — is promised an invasion by a new railway, so 

 that the lovers of rurality in the great old city will have one green resort 

 the less, and the population lose a valuable source of atmospheric pui'ifi- 

 cation. Though the majority of our readers live far away from the smoky 

 Babel, all are directly or indirectly related to it, and have some interest 

 in its welfare as the capital of a country which is chiefly excellent because 

 of its homes and gardens. Therefore, we must not ignore the proposed 

 demolition of this beautiful enclosure, and must fain express our deep 

 regret that commercial speculation did not fix its hard gray eye on some 

 less attractive site for the project which has caused alarm among the resi- 

 dents of the district, and general disapprobation throughout the City, 

 Our contemporary, the Citi/ Press, treats the proposal as but too likely to 

 be cari'ied into effect ; and, as the champion of City gardens, is in no 

 exulting mood upon the subject. Mr. Alfred Smee, the surgeon of the Bank 

 of England, has contributed to the Citi/ Press some particulars respecting 

 the property, from which we learn the following : — 



"The centre constitutes a circle planted with exquisite taste with the 

 choicest trees, and forms a tout ensemble which might be admired in any 

 part of the world. It challenges, for beauty, the garden of any square in 

 London, and it is the admiration and astonishment of foreigners as an 

 affair of private entei'prise, and not a creation of the State. A return 

 made by the gardener states that it contains three trees 60 feet high, and 

 180 feet in the circle of the head; 20 trees between 45 and 55 feet high; 

 34 trees between 35 and 45 feet high; 60 trees between 25 and 35 feet 

 high; and 107 trees between 15 and 30 feet high; besides upwards of 700 

 fine shrubs, and several beautiful weeping trees, all of more than half a 

 century of growth. The effect of trees in the centre of towns cannot be 



