viri. 



REPORT OX PnEXOLOGFCAL PHEXOMEXA OBSERVED IX 

 HERTFORDSHIRE DURING THE YEAR 1891. 



By Edward Mawley, F.R.Mct.Soc, F.E.H.S., 



Pbenological Recorder to the Royal Meteorological Society. 

 Head at Watford, dth May, 1892. 



TnE present Report is not nearly so interesting or valuable as it 

 "would have been had the number of pbenological observers been 

 greater. It is therefore to be hoped that when it becometj 

 generally known how easy the system of observation has recently 

 been made, the staii of observers may be considerably increased. 

 The localities where new observing stations are most required are 

 the neighbourhood of Barnet and Watford in the south, and 

 of Bishop Stortford, Buntiugford, Baldock, and Royston in the 

 north of the county. The work of observation is now rendered so 

 simple that no member of this Society having any knowledge at 

 all of our familiar wild-llowers, birds, and insects, need be afraid 

 of undertaking it. 



Returns were received last year from the following pbenological 

 stations : — 



Station. Height above Observer. 



Sea-level. 



St. Albans (The Grange) 380 feet Mrs. J. Hopkinson. 



St. Albans (Malvern House) 300 ,, Miss E. V. Smith. 



St. Albans (St. Peter's Street) 380 ,, Henrv Lewis. 



Great Berkhanisted 400 ,, Mrs. E. Mawley. 



Harpenden 370 ,, J. J. Willis. 



Hertford 140 ,, W. Gravesoii. 



Hitchin 230 „ J. E. Little, M.A. 



The plants on the list (see Table I, p. 87) flowered as a rule at 

 the different stations in the following order: — 1, Hertford; 2, 

 Hitchin ; 3, St. Albans ; 4, Harpenden ; and 5, Berkhamsted ; or 

 in the order of the heights of these localities above sea level — 

 those growing at the lowest level being the earliest to come 

 into flower and those at the highest level the latest. 



The Winter of 1890-91. 

 The weather continued very mild until the last week in 

 Xovember, when a severe frost all at once set in. This memorable 

 frost did not break up until tlie third week in January. Con- 

 sequently throughout these eight weeks all vegetable growths 

 remained entirely at a standstill. On the farms scarcely a sound 

 turnip or swede was anywhere to be found. In the gardens many 

 half-hardy shnibs, as well as all the winter vegetables, were 

 severely injured. It also proved a very trying time for birds, 

 many of which succumbed to the cold and the want of suitable 

 food. The remainder of the winter proved on the whole rather 

 mild, while the duration of bright sunshine was much in excess of 



VOL VII. — PAKT III. 7 



