136 METEOKOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS 



grees warmer than usual. There were no severe frosts ; the 

 lowest indication of the thermometer was 22°, on the 10th. From 

 the 16th to the end of the month, there was no frost even at 

 nights. The amount of rain was below the average. On the 

 whole the weather was very favourable for the operations of the 

 garden. 



March. — The mean temperature of the month was about half 

 a degree above the average, but the weather throughout was not 

 favourable to vegetation, which the mildness of the preceding 

 month had brought forward so far, that by the 10th many of the 

 plums were in Hower, as were also peaches and nectarines on 

 walls. The 16th was stormy, with hail in the afternoon ; and 

 on the morning of the 20th a fall of snow commenced, whicli 

 attained a depth of nearly 2 inches, lodging heavily on trees and 

 shrubs. The plum-trees exhibited a strange crowding of snow 

 and blossoms, and the Ribes sanguineum had a most singular ap- 

 pearance. The snow disappeared in the course of the day ; but 

 the frost at night was more severe than it was in the two pre- 

 ceding nights, the thermometer being 12° below freezing. The 

 blossoms of fruit-trees of course suffered much. 



April. — This month was very vvet, the depth of rain amount- 

 ing to nearly 4 inches. On the 25th alone the quantity which 

 fell was little short of an inch and a half The mean tempera- 

 ture was almost equal to the average ; but the nights of the 8th, 

 9th, 20th, 21st, and 28th were frosty, and consequently proved 

 injurious to the crops of fruit. 



May. — The temperature was 2° above the average. From the 

 20th to the end of the month the weather was very hot for the 

 period of the season. On the 31st the thermometer stood as 

 high as 80° in the shade. The quantity of rain was nearly half 

 an inch below the average ; none fell after the 20th. Thunder 

 occurred on the 6th, and some thunder showers on the 19th. 



June. — This month was hot and dry ; and still the potato 

 disease progressed. The mean temperature was fully 5^° above 

 the average. On eighteen days the maximum temperature in 

 the shade was above 80°, and on the 22nd it was 93°. No rain 

 fell after the 22nd. The total amount was only yV^hs of an inch, 

 of which ^\i\\s fell on the day just mentioned, when the long- 

 continued hot dry weather broke up with a thunder-storm. 



July. — This month was not so hot as the preceding, still it 

 maintained above an average temperature. The days averaged a 

 lower temperature than those of June ; but the nights, compared 

 with those of the latter, were warmer. The 4th was excessively 

 hot and dry : the hygrometer then indicated 34° of dryness, a 

 condition rarely equalled in this climate. The evening was clear ; 

 the morning of the 5th was very hot ; the temperature increased 



