13 
creatures, the violence of winds, the diversities of plants and 
the virtues of roots ; because in him there was an understanding 
spirit, holy, subtil, lively, clear, plain, loving the thing that is 
good, ready to do good, kind to man, sure, pure, and steadfast.” 
(Ecelus. vii. 18.) 
I may connect him with my paper to-day, by saying that from 
very early years he was a close observer of the weather ; not 
for the object of posing as a weather prophet, but from his desire to 
search out all he could of the laws which govern the physical world ; 
and besides his other works on the subject, he read several very 
interesting papers on the Weather to our Club, which are 
published in our Proceedings. He was also from very early years a 
close observer and lover of plants. Everything in plant-life had a 
great interest for him, but his chief delight was in the flora of 
Great Britain, and especially in the flora of the neighbourhood of 
Bath, and on this too he contributed valuable papers to our 
Proceedings. 
I will say no more on this subject, but I could scarcely say less ; 
yet before I leave it, I hope I may be allowed to add one sentence 
of a personal nature. You have been kind enough to nominate 
me as Mr. Blomefield’s successor in the Presidency of this Club. 
On that I will only say now, that while I consider it a great 
honour to have been so nominated, I consider the honour to be 
largely increased by your thinking me in any way fit to succeed 
him as the second President of the Club. I cannot expect or 
hope in any way to equal him as President, for indeed it would 
be hard to find his equal as President of a Field Club. I can 
only say that I shall, however feebly, try to follow in his steps, 
though I feel very keenly that it will be a case of sequar non 
passibus equis. 
I now come to the real subject of my paper—the weather of 
1893, and its effects on the garden. 
It will be most convenient to take the twelve months from 
November Ist, 1892 to November Ist, 1893, and a short record of 
