OBSERVED IN HERTFOUBSniRE IN 1896. 233 



Owiup: to the same cause seeds germinated slowly, and in many 

 cases failed to come up at all. 



The most noteworthy feature of this spring was undoubtedly 

 the abundant blossom on all kinds of flowering shrubs and trees, 

 including fruit-trees, the hawthorn bushes especially presenting in 

 many cases one continuous sheet of bloom. 



^Irs. Bishop reports tliat at the end of May the lawns at "Watford 

 were mucli burnt up, while the grass intended for hay was very 

 thin and short. Miss Lilian Warner, writing from Wormley early 

 in April, remarks that "the unusually mild winter had made less 

 ditference in the flowering of early spring plants than might have 

 been expected — the coltsfoot, wood-anemone, and blackthorn not 

 being out so early as they often have been after a moderately hard 

 winter." The chill given to the ground by the cold spell at the 

 end of February, and the absence of sunshine afterwards, no doubt 

 caused these early plants to flower later than they otherwise would 

 have done. 



Tlie wood-anemone, taking the mean date for all the records sent 

 in, was two days later than the nineteen years' average, the black- 

 thorn nine days early, the garlic hedge-mustard six days early, the 

 horse-chestnut eleven days early, the hawthorn thirteen days early, 

 the white ox-eye one day early, and the dog-rose six days early. 



The three spring migrants on the list, for which we have average 

 dates, arrived somewhat behind their usual time, the swallow being 

 nine days late, the cuckoo five days late, and the nightingale seven 

 days late. 



The "wasp was first seen nine days in advance of its average date, 

 but the three butterflies made their appearance later than usual, 

 the small white being nine days late, the orange-tip one day late, 

 and the meadow-brown eight days late. 



The Summer. 



June and July were both hot months, but during August the 

 temperature remained unifonnly low for the season. A good deal 

 of rain fell during the first ten clays in June, and again in the latter 

 half of August, but throughout the intervening ten weeks the rain- 

 fall was extremely light. The record of sunshine was much in 

 excess of the average in June and July, whereas August proved 

 very gloomy for a summer month. Taking the season as a whole 

 the winds were light and unusually dry. 



The rain which fell in the early part of June proved very 

 beneficial to all farm and garden crops, but of course came too 

 late to save the hay, the yield of which was extremely light. It 

 served also to start into growth many of the recently-sown seeds. 

 The ground had, however, previously become so dry that the good 

 effect of those heavy rains soon passed away, and a second drought, 

 accompanied by great heat and cli-ying winds, set in. 



In order to give some idea of the nature and duration of 

 these two droughts, a few extracts from the records of one of my 

 percolation gauges may be of interest. The gauge referred to is 



