120 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



CALENDARS AND THE INDEXING OF NATURAL 

 HISTORY OBSERVATIONS. 

 By C. Maplestone. 

 fRead he/ore the Field Naturalists' Cluh of Victoria, 9th December, 1895.^ 

 When the list of the times of the flowering of orchids, compiled 

 by Mr. C. French, jun., appeared in the Victorian Naturalist, I at 

 once compared it with my records and found that I could make 

 many additions to it. I made a list of them and gave it to the 

 editor. I intended to have made some remarks then upon the 

 construction of a calendar, but found that the subject of keeping 

 records of natural history observations generally could not well 

 be separated from it, so I thought a paper dealing with the 

 subject and my experience would be acceptable to members of 

 the Club. For the reasons stated, when my calendar was pub- 

 lished it was thought better to give it in its entirety, though I 

 had intended to have held it over and made it an addendum to 

 this paper. It was made for the purpose of showing me, by 

 simple inspection, what orchids were likely to be found in any 

 particular month, as I was then, and still am, anxious to complete 

 my collection of them. It was compiled from my own observa- 

 tions and the records in the Victorian Naturalist : the former being 

 extracted from a general calendar of plants in which, when I 

 found any flowering, I entered them, having first drawn them in 

 my diary. Often (as when I commenced I knew not all their 

 names) only the number of the drawing appeared ; the name 

 followed when I obtained it. In this calendar I ruled twelve 

 columns, one for each month of the year, and put a dot opposite 

 the name or number in the column devoted to the month in 

 which it was found. If found in the succeeding month a dot 

 would be placed in the next column, and whenever afterwards 

 the same plant was found flowering in any month in which it was 

 not already recorded, a dot was placed in the proper column, 

 and these dots were connected by a line, so that a glance at the 

 calendar showed at once when any plant flowered, and also all 

 the plants flowering in any particular month, which is much easier 

 than looking through a long list of names, and very much more 

 compact. I would note that in the calendar of orchids, which 

 was made for a special purpose, the entries are in due order, 

 but in the general calendar they are entered among the plants 

 as found ; the month only is indicated in them, but the day of 

 first and last appearance can also be shown when considered 

 necessary. The same plan can be adopted by ornithologists for 

 recording the arrival and departure, nesting, singing, &c., of 

 birds ; by entomologists for records of captures, &c., of insects ; 

 and by naturalists generally for observations, the time of which 

 may be of importance. 



Separate calendars may be kept for different classes of obser- 

 vations, though they are not necessary, but even if a calendar 



