MILDAND UNION '. MEETING AT CHELTENHAM. 113 



MIDLAND UNION: MEETING AT CHELTENHAM. 



The Cheltenham Natural Science Society are making arrangements 

 for the next Annual Meeting of the Union, which will be held at 

 Cheltenham, under the presidency of Dr. T. Wright, F.K.S., on the 

 16th and 17th of June next. The details of the programme are not 

 quite complete, but will, we believe, include, besides the usual meet- 

 ings, a Conversazione on the evening of the first day, and several 

 Excursions on the second. These will be for Geologists, Botanists, 

 and Archasologists, and will probably include visits to Leckhampton 

 and Birdlip, Sudeley and Toddington, Ched worth and Bourton-on-the- 

 Water. The Local Committee will be glad to have the assistance of 

 the various Societies in the Union in making the Conversazione as 

 interesting as possible. They are particularly desirous to have the 

 aid of Microscopists. All who are willing to exhibit Microscopes, &c, 

 on the occasion will oblige by communicating to the Hon. Secretary of 

 the Local Committee, Colonel H. Basevi, Elm Lodge, Prestbury, 

 Cheltenham. The Hon. Secretaries of the Union will have the pleasure 

 of reporting to the next meeting of the Council that applications for 

 admission to the Union have been received from the Oxfordshire 

 Natural History Society, the Birmingham Microscopists' and Natural- 

 ists' Union, and the Nottingham Working Men's Naturalists' Society. 



METEOROLOGY OF THE MIDLANDS. 



THE WEATHER OF MAECH. 1881. 



BY CLEMENT L. WRAGGE, F.R.G.S., F.M.S. 



Abnormally low temperature, a rising barometer, and the formation 

 of an anti-cyclonic crest embracing the Midlands marked the first days 

 of tbe month. These conditions broke up on the 3rd on the approach of 

 an Atlantic depression, bringing hail and snow at some stations, and 

 the rainy period of the month, with a sudden rise in temperature as 

 the wind veered southwards. A subsidiary disturbance came up early on 

 the 7th, followed by more rain, fresh westerly gales ; and hail, thunder 

 and lightning in North Staffordshire on the 8th, as the entire system 

 cleared off to N.E. The gales continued till the 10th, when a broad 

 " wave " of high temperature swept over our districts, giving maximum 

 values at most of the stations and a spell of more genial weather, 

 pressure holding temporarily steady. During the third week Central 

 England was influenced by the conditions attendant on a well-formed 

 area of high pressure, having its centre S.W. of the Lizard ; light aira 

 and calms prevailed, temperature again ran high, the sky cleared, and 

 the summer anti-cyclone seemed as though striving to develop itself. 

 The barometer reached its maximum on the 17th ; depressions followed 

 on the 21st and 21th, accompanied and succeeded in each case by heav}' 

 snow squalls and a fall in temperature. A period of quiet closed the 

 fourth week, and March eked out with clear skies, hard frosts, and 

 piercing easterly breezes — bitter enough in moorland districts ! The 

 total duration of sunshine, as registered at Hodsock, and recorded on 

 twenty-three days, was 108*2 hours. Mean temperature was fairly about 

 the average, but vegetation generally was unusually backward. The ex- 

 treme radiation values were (solar) 122*0, at Burton, on 25th, and (terres- 

 trial) 12'0, at Ashby Magna, on •'list. The mean temperature of the soil at 



