37 



5. — TiEPORT ON Phenological Obsekvations in Hertfordshire in 



1876. 



By John Hopkinson, F.L.S., «&;c., Hon. Sec. 



[Read 13th December, 1877.] 



At one of the earliest meetings of our Society I drew attention 

 to the steps which have been taken by the Meteorological Society of 

 London to obtain a series of observations of certain periodical 

 natural phenomena, or phonological phenomena as they have been 

 termed ; and I requested the assistance of our members in the 

 compilation of a Naturalists' Calendar for the County of Hertford, 

 giving a list of the species to be observed and instructions for their 

 observation.* To this request, I regret to say that only one member 

 has responded by carrying out a systematic series of observations. 

 I allude to Lieut. E,. B. Croft, F.L.S., of Great Cozens, Ware, 

 from whom we had a suggestive paper on the subject at the June 

 meeting last year,f and to whom we are also indebted for some 

 notes from a friend at Ware, who is not a member of our Society. 

 A few communications have also been received from other membeis, 

 but these are almost entirely confined to observations on the night- 

 ingale and the cuckoo. The following report gives therefore, with 

 a few exceptions, the results of the observations of Lieut. Croft 

 and his friend, Mr. S. J. Carter, for Ware, and myself only for 

 Watford. 



Taking the species in the order given in the table (' Trans.' vol. i. 

 p. 36) we have first to record the dates on which the flowers of 

 certain plants were observed to be jpen ; and here we at once 

 meet with a difficulty, due entirely to the small number of our 

 observers. It is impossible for one person to observe all the species 

 selected, or to say, for instance, that any species observed to be 

 apparently just in flower did actually open its flowers for the first 

 time on a certain day, while, with such a corps of observers as our 

 Society might furnish, few species ought to escape the detection of 

 their flowers when first open. This difiiculty may be partially 

 overcome by assigning from the observers' notes, or from the ap- 

 pearance of the specimens when these have been collected and 

 forwarded, a date for the first flowering, not always that on which 

 the flower was first seen, but sometimes a few days before. For 

 instance, if a plant is recorded to have been generally in flower on 

 a certain day, it may be inferred that some days have elapsed since 

 its first flower opened, and if a specimen received has some flower 

 or flowers in seed, or nearly so, the same conclusion will also be 

 drawn. An earlier date than that recorded should in such cases be 

 given as the probable date. In the following table in all instances 

 in which it is certain that a plant opened its flowers before the 

 date observed, two or three days have been subtracted from the 



* Transactions, vol. i. p. 33. t Ibid, p. xxxix. 



