Report on Temperature and Rainfall. 77 



long be in a position to lay before the members a statement of 

 the main features of the climate of the Croydon district/ from 

 obsei-vations then in progress. The sub-committee has now the 

 pleasure of placing on record the air-temperature and the rain- 

 fall for the five years 1881-85 inclusive, at various stations in the 

 Club district ; and although a period of five years is far too short 

 to afford fundamental data, either of the temperature or of the 

 rainfall, yet comparing one station with another the results are 

 of gi'eat interest. 



The stations where trustworthy observations of temperature, 

 conducted on the same systematic plan, have been made, are 

 seven in number, namely. Park Hill, Croydon, 259 feet above 

 sea-level ; Addiscombe, 202 feet ; South Norwood, 190 feet ; 

 West Norwood, 185 feet ; Waddon, 156 feet ; WalUngton, 132 

 feet ; and Beddington Lane, 102 feet. As given here they are 

 in the order of their height above sea-level, commencing with 

 the greatest elevation. The observers were respectively Mr. 

 Baldwin Latham, Mr. E. Mawley, Mr. W. F. Stanley, Mr. W. 

 Marriott, Mr. Philip Crowley, Mr. F. C. Bayard, and Mr. T. 

 Eostron. The observers at Park Hill, Waddon House, and 

 Wallington have communicated theh- observations directly to 

 the committee. The results for the other stations have been 

 compiled from ' The Meteorological Eecord ' of the Eoyal 

 Meteorological Society. The thermometers have all been tested 

 at the Kew Observatory, and the necessary corrections, if any, 

 appUed to the observations. They are exposed on the stand 

 recommended by the Eoyal Meteorological Society, namely, the 

 Stevenson screen, which admits a free circulation of the air, and 

 effectually cuts off reflected heat and rain. 



Besides the above, corresponding records of temperature are 

 given for the Eoyal Observatory, Greenwich, 169 feet above sea- 

 level, and for the Kew Observatory, inasmuch as they are in the 

 Club district, and are observatories of the first order. But the 

 stands are of different construction ; the one at Greenwich a 

 revolving stand which has been employed, with triflmg modifi- 

 cations, ever since the year 1841, neither protects the instru- 

 ments from rain, nor from reflected heat, and in fine weather, 

 when the sun is north of the equator, higher maximum readings 

 are recorded there than elsewhere. At Kew, for the first two 

 years of the series, the daily extremes of temperature were taken 

 from the thermograph, and for the last three years by ordinary 

 maximum and minimum thermometers suspended in the ther- 

 mograph screen. In 1881, 1882, and 1888, temperatm-e 

 observations were also taken at Chelsham, on the North Downs, 



1 The district is defined in the First Keport of the Botanical Sub-Com- 

 mittee, read Dec. 18th, 1878, ' Transactions,' vol. i. p. 8. 



