298 
or in any way caused by, the severe cold of November, 1895. 
The weather of any month we may be passing through, is not 
caused by the weather of any preceeding month, nor can it have 
any effect on the weather of any month to follow. The weather 
of each month is caused by atmospheric and climatic conditions 
which may have existed hundreds of miles away, and, perhaps, 
many weeks or months that may have long past; and it is 
only when the conditions draw near our Globe, and ovr portion 
of the Globe, that we are able to make a poor weather forecast 
of four and twenty hours: a forecast which, as we all know, is 
often far from the reality. 
I have said quite enough about the mild winter, and it is 
time to come to the other marked feature of the year, the great 
drought. During January and February the rainfall was below 
the average, but during March it was above the average: and 
then from the first of April to the end of July the total rainfall 
was only 31 inches, of which more than half fell on a few days in 
June. Since that time we have had enough rain, especially in 
September and the first half of October, to bring the total 
rainfall of the year almost up to the average. We may say that 
for four months there was no rain; and what was the result in 
our gardens ? 
We may put out of the question all the newly-planted shrubs 
and other plants; of course they would suffer more or less in 
such a drought and they called for a good deal of labour and 
watering. But the point that most forcibly struck me was that 
with well-established plants the injury was very small indeed. 
My own garden has a rich deep soil, and so is able to contend 
against a long drought better, perhaps, thaa some others ; but 
during the summer I visited many other gardens, and everywhere 
I met with the same surprise at the little amount of suffering 
that the plants had to bear, and I had not much difficulty in 
finding the explanation of this, which is so interesting that I 
must speak of it at some little length. 
