185 



ON SOME CURIOUS ALG^E ONLY APPARENT IN 

 TIMES OF DROUGHT, WITH NOTICES OF THOSE 

 THAT OCCUR AND COLOUR WATER AT SEASONS 

 OF HIGH TEMPERATURE. 



BY EDWIN LEES, ESQ., F.L.S., F.G.S., &C. 

 Vice-President of the Malvern and Worcestershire Naturalists' Club. 



The drought of the summer just past, if not altogether unprecedented, has 

 been of such an exceptional character as to arrest general attention and com- 

 mend itself to the special regard of the Meteorologist. Into the particular 

 details of temperature and barometrical pressure I am not about to enter, only 

 remarking, that the temperature of the successive weeks since April (1870) to the 

 present time, as stated by Mr. Glaisher, from observations made at Greenwich, 

 has exceeded the average temperature for the last fifty years by. an amount 

 varying fiom three to thirteen degrees as the maximum ; while the rain that 

 has fallen has been so small in quantity as to be scarcely measurable. Conse- 

 quently, rivers not dammed up by weirs, have become very low, the weirs 

 themselves have been mostly dry, mountain streams have been reduced to mere 

 threads of water, and numerous pools have been entirely dried up. On the 

 hottest days in several places, the recorded observation of temperature in the 

 shade has been 90° Fahrenheit, while in the sun as high as 151* has been at- 

 tained. 



Mr. Plant, an eminent meteorologist residing at Birmingham, which has 

 generally a greater amount of rain than the vale of Worcester, or indeed the 

 vicinity of Hereford, has stated, that for four consecutive months from the 

 4th of March to the end of June this year (1870) he has only recorded a rainfall of 

 less than four inches, against the usual average of twice that amount, ' ' a dry- 

 ness unequalled in the corresponding months of any year since the memorable 

 drought of 1844." Technically, the three spring and summer months to the 

 end of July, showed a deficiency of more than six inches of rain, which, 

 translated into understood popular language, means that there was 3,000 hogs- 

 heads per acre short of the usual supply. 



It may be mentioned that this drought was not only felt in England, 

 but was general over Western and Central Europe. In the south of France 

 trees perished and many vines became dead. Even the Opuntias of the Cactus 

 tribe, as I learned from a correspondent, in spite of their succulent habit, be- 

 came dry and hard as horn. This excessive dryness and corresponding desicca- 

 tion of the soil, with an almost entire cessation of rain during the spring 



