CXXXivV Proceedings. 
middle of July; and there has been much cool cloudy weather. 
January began mild and dry; but in the last week a period of frost 
with dry cold winds set in, which lasted a month and checked all 
vegetation. The average time of appearance of the early spring garden 
flowers was about eight days behind that in the nine years 1893-1901. 
The frost, however, was not continuous, nor was it of very great 
severity, 15° F. being the lowest, not enough to kill back laurels and 
other shrubs of an ordinary hardiness, although there was but little 
snow to protect them. The last week of February and the month of 
March were mild, with a fair amount of rain and more favourable to 
growth. April was dry, often cloudy, and with much cold N. and E. 
wind. May and the greater part of June were very cold and stormy, 
though the last week of June was fine and hot. The trees were very 
late in coming into leaf, the oaks and ashes scarcely being in full leaf 
at the end of May. There were several frosts in April and May, 
which, with the cold blighting winds, did much damage to the blossoms 
of the fruit trees, and except as regards strawberries the year was a 
bad fruit year. The corn crops, too, which in the earlier part of the 
year had looked very well, were much damaged by the continuance of 
cold weather; and the hop crop was almost a failure. July was 
generally dry ; it was cool and cloudy at the beginning and end, but 
there were some fine warm days towards the middle. A gale on 
July 26th did much damage to trees and hops. August was cold and 
wet. The potato disease made its appearance early in the month, and 
was more destructive than for a number of years past. September 
was cool and dry, except for a heavy thunderstorm on the 10th, which, 
however, was extremely partial in its distribution, two inches of rain 
and more having fallen at some places in the neighbourhood of 
Croydon, while at others not many miles distant only a few hundredths 
or none at all fell. Fungi were fairly plentiful as compared with the 
dry seasons of some recent years. October was cool and cloudy, with 
frequent rainfall in small amount and absence of frost. Owing doubt- 
less to the cool damp season and absence of frost, the trees—as oaks, 
elms, and ashes—which had been very late in coming into leaf in the 
spring, retained their foliage late into the autumn; away from the 
influence of the towns little sign of autumnal colour was to be seen in 
the foliage until the end of September, but later on the colouring was 
finer than usual. The first half of November and the last week were 
mild and stormy; but between the 15th and 22nd was a week of cold 
dry weather with cutting N.E. winds and frost, which destroyed all 
the tender garden flowers which had remained in bloom up till then. 
Nevertheless, at the Annual Soirée of the Society on Nov. 25th, the 
collection of flowers gathered in the open air was a fairly good one in 
point of numbers, 134 kinds being shown as against 170 and 151 kinds 
in the mild autumns of 1897 and 1899, and 32 in the severe one of 
1901. The earlier part of December—3rd-12th—was dry with cold 
N.E. wind; but the latter half of the month was mostly fine and mild, 
with occasional storms. On Dec. 31st thirteen species of plants were 
in flower at Oakhyrst, Park Hill Rise, viz. primrose, auricula, sweet 
violet, winter jasmine, Petasites fragrans, Laurustinus, Crocus hye- 
malis and speciosus, Helleborus niger and albifolius, Escallonia 
macrantha, Potentilla verna, and Calendula officinalis. Mr. J. E. 
Clark noted twenty-three species of wild plants as in flower near 
Croydon on December 25th—28th. 
