100 E. MAWLEY — PHENOLOGICAL PHENOMENA 



coldest weeks of tlie winter, became frozen to a very unusual 

 depth. Even under grass the soil was at one time found to be 

 at a freezing temperature twenty inches beneath the surface. 



Owing to the unseasonable mildness and wetness of the late 

 autumn and early winter, there was a plentiful supply of keep 

 on the farms for cattle and sheep until very nearly the end of 

 December ; but throughout the prolonged fi'ost that followed, the 

 growth of the grass and young wheat was completely arrested. 

 All the swedes and turnips remaining in the fields were destroyed, 

 also the winter supply of green vegetables in the gardens. Half- 

 hardy shrubs suffered severely; while the commons presented a 

 very forlorn appearance, owing to the winter frosts having killed 

 all the spines upon the gorse, as well as many of the bushes. 



Mrs. Mitchell reports that at "Watford the laurels and bays were 

 very severely injured ; Miss Lubbock that at Radlett the laurestinus 

 and laurel were severely nipped, also beans, oats, etc., where not 

 sufficiently covered by snow ; Mr. Henry Lewis that in his garden 

 at St. Albans the green vegetables were nearly all killed, a few 

 wretched remnants of sprouting brocoli only remaining ; and 

 Miss L. Warner that at Wormley the gorse had suffered greatly. 



The Spring. 



This was a very warm and dry season. The most noteworthy 

 meteorological features affecting vegetation were — (1) the absence 

 of anything like severe cold, the exposed thermometer at no time, 

 after the tirst few nights in March, showing more than eleven 

 degrees of frost, (2) the scanty rainfall, particularly in May, and 

 (3) the remarkable duration of sunshine in that month. 



Until the diy weather began to make itself felt in the pastures, 

 this was a very favourable spring indeed for the farmer. The land, 

 owing to the beneficial effect upon it of the prolonged frost, was 

 in splendid working condition. Indeed, seldom have spring com 

 and other seeds been sown with as little trouble, and on so 

 satisfactory a seed-bed. Towards the end of the season, however, 

 the check caused by the dryness of the soil was beginning to cause 

 serious apprehensions. 



For some time after the long winter frost had come to an end 

 the ground remained very cold. It is therefore not surprising 

 to find that all the early spring flowers were singularly late 

 in making their appearance. Our observer at Hertford, Mr. 

 Graveson, regards this retardation of the blossoming of the earliest 

 native plants as " the most remarkable feature of the year." " By 

 the end of March," he says, "I had only observed half as many 

 flowers in bloom as in either of the two previous years at the same 

 time." The average date for the first flowering of the hazel in the 

 previous nineteen years is January 27th, but last year the fertile 

 flowers did not make their appearance until March 11th, or forty- 

 tliree days late. The coltsfoot was twenty-two days later than the 

 moan date, the wood-anemone seventeen days late, and the black- 

 thorn nineteen days late. From that time, the end of the third 



