10 



his article on Insects in the new edition of the Encyclopaedia 

 Britannica, and on the reception which that article has met with 

 from those entomologists who are competent to express an opinion 

 on its merits. I can here only faintly echo the sentiments 

 that have been expressed by others. He has produced a very 

 effective article, marked by that clearness of expression and 

 arrangement which is a distinguishing characteristic of his 

 scientific expositions. 



The meteorological conditions of the past five months- are 

 worthy of notice. The abnormal weather may be considered to 

 have begun with the storm of October 14th, the wind blowing 

 from the west and south-west. This was followed by another 

 storm of equal severity, in which the wind acted with great 

 force within narrow limits, blowing down chimneys and garden 

 walls in the line of its direction, doing considerable damage 

 to property in this immediate neighboui'hood. During the last 

 week of October, the temperature fell low enough to produce 

 frost on the ground, but the November which followed was 

 unusually warm — in fact, the warmest recorded in Great Britain 

 for 118 years, or since thermomoters were used to record the 

 temperature ; except only as to London itself, where the mean 

 temperatures for November, 1818 and 1852, were very slightly in 

 excess of that for 1881. At the same time the barometer fell 

 very low ; the lowest reading probably being that at the Butt of 

 Lewis, where on the 27th November, the reading con-ected for 

 32*, and sea level was 27*865, remaining at this lowest point fi-om 

 4.30 to 7 a.m., and over a wide area the pressure was for a con- 

 siderable time less than 28 inches. December was a month of 

 nearly average temperatm'e, and marked by very slight variations. 

 Some frost occurred about the middle of the month, but so slight 

 as to offer scarcely any serious check to the growth of grass, 

 and it would be diificult to call to mind any season when at 

 Christmas the fields presented such a spring-like vesture. On 

 the morning of the 6th January, 1882, our friend Mr. McLachlan 

 noticed the first blossom of the Coltsfoot {Tussilago farfara) at 

 Lewisham ; the appearance of this blossom is ordinarily con- 

 sidered to be an indication that winter is over. A peacock 

 butterfly was caught on the wing near Basingstoke, on February 

 13th. Perhaps the most noteworthy feature of the past two 

 months has been the extraordinary high readings of the barometer. 



