M‘Sweeny, on the Climate of Ireland. 191 
“Tn April—the wall flower.”—Bacon. : Wild wall flower, “its bright golden flowers 
are very ornamentalin April and May.’’—Sow- 
erby’s English Botany. 
In April, the cowslip.”"—Bacon, Cowslip—April is commonly assigned as the 
month of flowering for all; but the primrose ap- 
pears in March, and the cowslip in April.”— 
Miller's Dictionary by Martyn. 
“Tn May and June, apple tree in blossom.” “When about the end of May it is covered 
—Bacon. with bloom, few if any shrubs surpass the crab 
in beauty.” —Sowerby's English Botany. 
“In July—the lime tree in blossom.’’.—Bacon. Lime tree, “the flowers begin to open by the 
middle of May, but are not in their full beauty 
before the middle of July.”—Phillips'’s Sylva 
Florifera. 
From the mildness of some winters in England, furze is met with in blossom, some- 
times about Christmas. In the calendar of Flora, in White’s Natural History of 
Selborne, we find the primrose in flower on the 10th of November, and furze in blossom 
on the 2ist of December. 
It shows that where the years differ so much, and where the seasons are proverbially 
variable, complete uniformity cannot be expected in the accounts of the flowering of 
plants. 
Phillips, in treating of the mulberry, observes: ‘‘ The mulberry tree is stated to 
have been introduced into this Country (England) in the year 1548, and it is said that 
it was first planted at Sion House, where the original trees still thrive, and which we 
have seen since the first part of this work has been put to press.”—Phillips’s Poma- 
rium Britannicum, p. 239, London 1823, 
Although years may differ, yet on an average of a great number of years, the fact 
as told by Phillips of these mulberry trees standing the weather so long, tends to show 
that no great alteration has taken place in the climate of England since the time of 
their being planted. 
There is every reason to think, that variability of seasons is not of modern date. 
Lord Bacon, in his essay on the vicissitude of things, says: ‘“ There is a toy which I 
have heard, and would not have it given over, but waited upon a little. They say it is 
observed in the Low Countries, I know not in what part, that every five and thirty years, 
the same kind and suit of years and weathers comes about again ; as great frosts, great 
wet, great droughts, warm winters, swmmers with little heat, and the like, and they 
call it the prime : it is athing I do the rather mention, because, computing backwards, 
I have found some concurrence.” 
We find White, in 1774, in his Natural History of Selborne, complaining of a run 
of wet seasons, and observing that there was no use in newspapers inflaming the public 
