76 FARMING AMI NATURAL HISTORY NOTES. 



The fruit crop, with tho exception of gooseberries, currants, and 

 strawberries, has been a general failure. In many cases the wood of 

 1879 could not be ripened from want of sun, and the extreme severity 

 of the winter killed not only that year's growth, but also that of the 

 before, in many cases. Where this was the case, there naturally 

 was no crop of fruit, but in some localities the show of bloom was 

 astonishingly great. Just at the time of expansion of the flower, 

 however, cold and wet set in, and rendered the whole unproductive. 

 Wall fruit was everywhere (as far as I can learn) a failure. The only 

 fruits which appear to have been generally plentiful were gooseberries, 

 currants, strawberries, and even they were not universally so. Garden 

 seeds, both of vegetables and flowers, were not up to their proper 

 quality from the want of sun in the previous year. 



Wild flowers appear to have been scarcer than usual, not only in 

 the number of species, but also in the number of specimens. A few 

 marsh plants, as the Marsh Marigold ( Caltha palustris ) and the Cuckoo 

 Flower ( Cardamine pratensi8,) seem to have been much benefited by 

 the damp season of 1879, and reports generally state that they were in 

 wonderful profusion. A few other plants, as the Wild Rose (Rosa 

 canina,) were in magnificent bloom for a short time, but with these few 

 exceptions it has been a bad year, botanically speaking. Plants were, 

 naturally, earlier than in 1879, but later than in the four previous 

 sears as regards the time of flowering. At Marlborough, comparing 

 the dates of first flowering of about 450 plants with the mean for the 

 previous fifteen years, plants were later till about the second week in 

 March, then generally a little earlier till the middle of May, and after 

 that later. It is very curious that at Plymouth no less than fifty-nine 

 species were found in flower between the 1st and 3rd of January, but 

 at most other places very few, if any, were found in January or 

 February. 



Monstrosities have not been common. The most noteworthy are 

 the Colchicum and the common garden cabbage. In the former, the 

 autumn flowers were very scarce ; but in the spring, instead of the 

 usual seed vessels and leaves appearing, there came up with the leaves, 

 in many cases, the ordinary flowers, and in others a very curious 

 malformation. The segments of the perianth were long and narrow, 

 an I of a dirty white, the anthers without pollen, and the ovaries 

 merely rudimentary. In the latter, in two places in Wiltshire, the 

 cabbage Leaves assumed a funnel shape, or a portion of the midrib 

 separated and projected above the surface of the leaf, terminating in 

 a (unnel-shaped expansion. 



Among insects may be noted the unusual abundance of the 

 berwell Beauty i Vanessa dntiopa) among butterflies, and of wasps, 

 which were in immense numbers in most parts of England. Aphis, or 

 .. was very abundant in the early part of the year, and wild 

 (lowers, notably the Mealy Gueldei Rose (Viburnum Lantana,) were 

 BOmetimi I with it. The larva) of the Gooseberry Moth 



(I' ' ' ita) and of the Gooseberry Saw-lly (Nematus Ribesit) 



