Hi BECOBD OF PHENOLOGICAL PHENOMENA, 



ther alone. In fuct.it is the most easily understood and most 

 wido spread species which are the most valuable for the purpose 

 which we are now considering. 



i mutant and Ranunculus Ficaria are typical examples of the 

 kind of plant to which fche attention of amateur botanists should be 

 directed, if only because they cease flowering during the later portion 

 pear. There are many plants, such as Ranunculus repens and 

 7.'. bulbonu, which will go on flowering under certain conditions all the 

 through, and it is easy for a superficial observer to mistake a 

 last ye'ir for an early flower of the present. Again, mis- 

 directed zeal is often shewn in recording that certain species were in 

 bloom on the first day of January. The primrose (Primula vulgaris) 

 is a well-known example. But Flora does not make a clean sweep of 

 her treasures at midnight on the 31st of December, to commence the 

 new year with a botanical tabula rasa. The only interest, from our 

 point of view, lies in ascertaining how soon in December the primrose 

 opened its first flowers. 



plant will serve also as a proof of the importance of a 

 third requisite of utility in the observation, namely, the aspect and 

 soil of the locality. In examining a limited district in early spring, 

 we may hunt everywhere without finding a single expanded primrose, 

 till we come to some favoured and well-sheltered wood, and there they 

 may be in bloom by hundreds. We can ourselves cite an instance where 

 a distanoe of only a dozen yards si pirated two spots, in one of which 

 tli. primroses were in full flower, while in the other there was scarcely 

 I, and in the latter, indeed, no flower appeared till several 



liter. Those who were on the spot could give sufficient reasons 

 fur the difference, hut the mere record of the date would have been 

 quite miale i ling. The object of the enquiry is not to obtain the earliest 

 period of flowering, but to accumulate data for determining the influ- 

 ence of climate aud weather upon growth, as well as to study the 

 conttitution of plants, and the coincidences of occurrence of which 

 many are well known already to country people. 



For instance, there is the proverb relating to the connection be- 



the leafing of the oak and ash, and the weather of the succeeding 

 summer. It has not yet been proved, in our opinion, whether under 

 similar circumstances the oak ever puts forth its leaves before the ash. 

 Is dated instanc is may be observed, but these, it cannot be too often 

 repeated, are of little value. Those observers who record that a certain 

 plant was in flower, a certain tree in leaf, or a certain bird arrived, 

 when the] I mlya single specimen, are retarding instead of 



advancing the cause of knowledge, unless they at the same time point 

 out the slender m tl trials on which they base the statement. 



Tt will now be evident that useful work in this direction is not of 

 Bucb easj achievement as it is sometimes thought to be: it will be 



"' v that the observer should limit the number of objects to 

 which his energies shall be devoted, It is intruded to publish each 

 month in the '• Midland Naturalist' (with the permission of the 



