OBSEEVED IN HERTFORDSHIRE IN 1895. 103 



and whore a second crop of hay vras taken the yield was remarkably 

 good. With the exception of the dry period in September, when 

 the grass was beginning to look quite brown again, there was 

 always abundant keep in the pastures until the close of the year. 



Apples proved a heavy crop, and there was also a good yield 

 of strawberries, raspberries, and currants, but there were com- 

 paratively few pears or plums. 



Instances of second flowering and fruiting were very numerous. 

 Mr. "Willis, writing from Harpenden, remarks that " a characteristic 

 of this season was the second blossoming of many fruit trees and 

 wild plants. On the same trees were observed ripening apples and 

 blossoms, the wild rose had red berries, flowering buds, and open 

 blooms, and many fully-ripe strawberries were gathered at the 

 beginning of October." Air. A. E. Gibbs mentions the second 

 blossoming of several spring-flowering perennials at St. Albans, and 

 the unusual circumstance of the Jerusalem artichoke perfecting its 

 flowers. As regards injurious insects, he states that "the winter of 

 1894-5, though so severe, seems to have had little effect upon 

 insect-life so far, at any rate, as common garden pests are concerned. 

 I have found them more numerous than ever. The dahlias had 

 an exceptionally bad time with the earwigs, while my lawn has 

 been ruined by what I believe to be daddy-long-legs grubs ; such 

 soft-bodied things as slugs have been also very numerous and 

 destructive this year." I^ot only was the tipula grub destructive 

 at St. Albans, but Mr. John Hopkinson, writing on September 25th, 

 remarks that the crane-fly {^Tipula olcracea) was also unusually 

 abundant there. The same thing was likewise noticed at Berk- 

 hamsted about that time. 



The ivy, owing no doubt to the great heat of the weather 

 in September, came into flower a fortnight before its usual time. 



