246 E. MAWLEY PHENOLOGICAL PHENOMENA 



Throughout this dry summer the growth of nearly all plants 

 in the garden was kept in check by the dry weather and great 

 heat, and more particularly owing to the unusual dryness of the 

 air during the greater part of it. Before the end of the summer 

 many trees and shrubs growing on anything Hke shallow soils 

 had begun to show the effect of the long-continued drought 

 upon them, while the lawns for weeks remained parched up and 

 brown. 



Mr. Willis, writing from Harpenden, states that the first 

 wheat-ear was out of its sheath on June 20th, or eight days 

 later than its average date in the previous fourteen years, and 

 that on the 18th of the same month potato haulms were cut 

 down by the fi*ost. At St. Albans (New Farm) turnip and 

 mangold seeds, which were sown in July, took six weeks to 

 germinate. The same observer also reports that the harvest 

 was finished thei'e on August 30th, or within the month. Our 

 observer at Hatfield reports that at the end of the summer the 

 leaves on the lime-trees were turning yellow, and dropping off 

 owing to the drought, while the foliage on some of the beech- 

 trees had become brown and shrivelled. Both at Hatfield and 

 St. Albans wasps are stated to have been unusually numerous. 



Taking the plants on the list which flower during the summer 

 months, the dog-rose was five days late, and the greater bind- 

 weed four days late, while the harebell blossomed at its average 

 date, and the black knapweed was three daj^s early. 



The Autumn. 



With the exception of 1898, this was the warmest autumn in 

 the last twenty years. Each of the three autmnn months, and 

 especially Octotier, proved unusually warm. Notwithstanding 

 the dry weather in September, the total rainfall of the season 

 was much in excess of the average. There was a splendid record 

 of sunshine in September, but October and November were, on 

 the other hand, rather dull. 



Owing to the great heat in August, a good deal of corn had 

 been got in before the autumn began, and as the same hot and 

 fine weather lasted well into September, the whole of the cereal 

 crops were gathered in with little trouble and in splendid 

 condition. In the middle of the latter month came a wet week, 

 which caused the roots and pastures to improve. But it was 

 October, with its warm nights and days and heavy rainfall, 

 that saved the situation, and enabled the I'oot-crops and 

 pastures, which had become quite bare, for the first time in the 

 year to make any really satisfactory growth. In October 

 ploughing the land for wheat began, and good progress was 

 made, notwithstanding the frequent and heavy falls of rain, for 

 the subsoil had become so dry that it readily absorbed any 

 superfluous moisture on the surface, and therefore soon became 

 workable again. Nothing perhaps showed in so marked 

 a manner the beneficial effect of the change of weather which 



