104 



JOUENAIi OP HOBTICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ Augusts, 1865. 



flower-decorated windows and arches which edge and span the 

 street of Tenby this day ! The cUniate, like that of the Channel 

 Islands, is so tempered by the surrovmding sea, and the gardens 

 on the sonth-western slope of the hmestone hUls are so shel- 

 tered, that the Fuchsias, Hydrangeas, and other plants of 

 simUar nativity and habit are ahnost trees instead of being the 

 potted pets they are in colder districts. Hence branches of 

 these, with their floral honours thick upon them, hare been 

 sacrificed to do honoiu- to this day with a liberality that would 

 appal a more inland gardener. 



This floral decoration carries me away to notes on the use in 

 this ucighboiuhood of particular plants on particular days ; 

 and the first among those notes is of a custom — rude and bar- 

 barous, but now abandoned — for the men and boys on St. Ste- 

 phen's day, to cany twigs of HoUy, and to beat with them the 

 bare arms of the women whom they could find thus unpro- 

 tected ! What could be the origin of this misuse of the ever- 

 green which but the very previous day had been used to do 

 honour to Christ's natirity ? Was it intended by our fore- 

 fathers to prefigure that that birth, though a subject of rejoicing, 

 caused suii'ering to the jubilant as it did to the proto-martjT ? 



New Year's-day had, and still has, a more grateful custom ; 

 for boys and girls, bearing a cup of spring water, chp into it 

 a sprig of evergreen, and sprinkle with it the inmates of the 

 houses where they caU. This may well be accepted as a gentle 

 monition to pm'ity during the newly -born year ; but how shall 

 ■we explain aU the details of these verses they chaimt during 

 the sprinkling ? — 



" Here we bring new water from the well so clear. 

 For to worsliii) God with, this happy new year ; 

 Sing levy dew, sin^ levy dew — the water and the wine. 

 With seven bright gold wires, and bugles that do shine. 

 Sing reign of the fair maid with gold upon her toe ; 

 Open you the west door, and turn the old year go. 

 Sing reipi of the fair maid with gold upon her chin ; 

 Open you the east door, and let the new year in." 



There is no reason for doubting that "levy dew" is really 

 the Welsh "Lief i DIam," a cry to Ciod. The first " fan- 

 maid" we may accept as intending the last day of the old 

 year, which departed amid the usual rejoicing over its last 

 ioiu:, or " gold upon her toe ;" and the other " fair maid " we 

 may similarly accept as the tiist day of the new year, the very 

 commencement of which was welcomed, or had " gold upon 

 her chin." " Turn the old year go," is a Welsh form of speech ; 

 for when the field-gate is opened for any animal to enter, that 

 animal is "turned go," according to the farming man's voca- 

 bulary. But who wiU explain the gold wires and bugles ? — G. 



SH.VDE, WHAT IS IT? AND THE 

 THERMOMETER. 



Although this question may appear very simple, yet 

 there is a wide diversity of opinion as to what constitutes 

 shade in the case on which the present article is intended 

 to dwell ; and even in the more general sense in which 

 the term is used in gardening shade ilifl'ers more or less 

 in degi'ee ; at the same time its influence on vegetation 

 entitles it to most earefid attention. It is not, however, my 

 intention to enter upon that part of the subject, but to speak 

 of what is commonly called shade in describing the heat of any 

 particular day. There is evidently much diversity of opinion 

 on this point; consequently, the registers of those who take 

 meteorological notes lose much of their value from their not 

 being conducted according to one imiform rule. As matters of 

 this land have of late been considered of more importance than 

 heretofore, and as some of the most eminent men in the 

 kingdom have given their attention to meteorology, something 

 like a uniform rule as to what constitutes shade, when this 

 term is used in describing the heat of a summer day, ought to 

 be settled by general consent. As we possess no other means 

 of registering the various amounts of heat in our atmosphere 

 than by instruments more or less correct, let us at least try to 

 avoid giving a wi-ong figm-e by adopting a imiversal rule as to 

 liow and where that figure has to be denoted. 



Taking for granted that thermometers are the only instru- 

 ments for measuring the variations of heat in the atmosphere, 

 where ought these instruments to be placed so as to simply 

 give atrue index of that heat ? " In the shade," is generally the 

 answer at once. But what is meant by shade puzzles many, 

 and the different records of extreme heat given by those who 

 now and then report in the public prints certaiidy indicate 

 that the observations are taken under different circumstances. 



Heat, unlike water, is not distributed alike in all places to 

 which it has access ; certainly its tendency is to rise upwards 

 instead of to descend as the header fluid does, but even then it 

 does so in waves that do not penetrate everywhere in the same 

 degree, even though acting on one level. Many upstair rooms 

 that are lofty and allow of a large hourly influx of external air 

 never become heated to the same degree as the air out of doors, 

 but this is probably due to the walls and various articles of 

 fm'niture abstracting heat from the atmosphere; and until they 

 have acquired the same temperature as the external air (which 

 doubtless requires longer than the twelve or fourteen hours' 

 heat of our siunmer day.s) the atmosiDhere of the room must be 

 colder. 



When the earth has become to a certain degree warmed by 

 the bright sunshine of preceding days, and the evenings pro- 

 bably seldom offer a lower temperature than 55°, we may 

 look for the hottest d.ay in the year somewhere between the 

 20th of June and 20th of July. Not that the period here stated 

 always presents the highest temperature, for I have knovm 

 this occur in May, and on one occasion in September, but 

 such cases are unusual, the period above given being usually 

 the warmest ; and as comiiarison with the heat of former years 

 is always interesting, those having the means usually endea- 

 ^■om• to ascertain the degree of heat, and if their instruments 

 be correct, and the mode of using them the same each year, the 

 difference, if any, will be easily seen. It is, however, not so 

 easy to compare notes with others who may take their obser- 

 vations under widely different circumstances, and, consequently, 

 comparison in such a case is useless, for A perhaps keeps his 

 thermometer in an upstair window facing the north, where 

 perhaps some overhanging trees assist in completing the shade 

 and encourage the eddying wind to jilay on the instrument, 

 reducing the reading much below what it ought to be ; wliile B, 

 anxious to have his readings correct, runs into much the same 

 error by boxing his instrument up from almost aU connection 

 with the extei-nal air, giving it in fact a case all rormd or 

 nearly so of some non-conducting material, and thereby pre- 

 venting that access of external air which ought certainly to be 

 allowed if anything like the true indication be wanted. C, 

 again, places his instrument in the open, or I might almost say 

 in the fidl sun, and, consequently, falls into an opposite error 

 by recording too high a temperature, and seems surprised on 

 looldng at the published returns in the daily papers to find his 

 district so much hotter than any other recorded. In fact, so 

 vague is the term "shade "that unless some explanation be given 

 of what is meant by it we must exjject to grojje in the dark. I 

 therefore venture to give my views as to what I think we 

 ought to regard as the day and night temperature, or in other 

 words the maximum and minimum of the thermometer. 



Assuming that the object is to ascertain the precise tempera- 

 ture of the external air where not acted upon by the direct 

 rays of the sim, the least possible amoimt of shadow that 

 intervenes between the sun and the instrument woiJd seem to 

 be all that is wanted. At the same time such intervening object 

 ought to be of a non-conducting m.aterial, and for general 

 appUcation I know of nothing better than a plain timber post 

 set perpendicularly' in the gi'ound in a jjerfectly open situation ; 

 this post ought to have a flat side to the north considerably 

 wider than the instrmnent that is to hang against it on that 

 side, whether horizontally or vertically, the former way being 

 on the whole preferable. Against such a post, and say at 4 feet 

 from the gi-ound, hang up one of the best maximum registering 

 thermometers, and about a foot from the groimd you may hang 

 up the minimirm one in the same way ; care being taken that 

 nothing like shelter intervenes to prevent the cool air of the 

 night acting upon this instrument. A more open exposure 

 may be made if necessary for the latter, but this is sufficient 

 for most purposes, and the convenience of having the two 

 instrmnents together is an object when only ordinary observa- 

 tions are required. I ju'efer having the two instruments 

 separate, as the double ones are so liable to become deranged, 

 and when th<^ maximum and minimum thermometers are 

 separate there is no more trouble in taking notes of them than 

 if only one were in use. Tolerably good instruments can now 

 be had at a reasonable rate, although I by no means afiirm that 

 perfection has been arrived at ; on the contrary, I would like to 

 call the attention of makers of such instruments to the fact 

 that bubbles of air or some other foreign fluid often pass 

 into the quicksilver or spirit, and thereby render the reading 

 incorrect. This misfortune is by no means confined to low- 

 priced thermometers, for I have had two or three thermometers 

 from a celebrated London fiiin which cost 21.s. each, and they 



