126 Mr Lindsay's Report on Open- Air Vegetation, [skss. li. 



nine days only. Frost was registered on twelve mornings, 

 the total amount being 76°, as against 128° for the 

 corresponding month last year. 



The lowest readings of the thermometer were on the 

 mornings of the 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th, indicating 

 respectively 23°, 23°, 22°, 17°, and 20°. The highest 

 morning temperatiires were on the 3rd, 18th, 23rd, 24th, 

 and 27th, when 46°, 45°, 49°, 50°, and 44° were indicated. 

 The lowest day reading was 31° on the 8th; the highest 

 was 58°, on the 27th of the month. Of the forty spring 

 flowering plants, whose dates of flowering are annually 

 recorded, the following seventeen came into flower, viz.: — 

 Tusdlago alba, on February 3; Ci^ocus Susianus, February 4; 

 Eranthis hycmalis, February 4; Daphne Mezereum, February 

 5; Leucoium vernum, February 14; Symplocarpus fmtidus, 

 February 14; Scilla prmcox, February 16; Bhododendron atro- 

 virens, February 17; Crocus vernus, February 17; Nordmannia 

 cordifolia, February 18; Bidhocodium vernum, February 19; 

 Scilla sibirica, February 19; /?•^'s retictdata, February 26; 

 Bhododendron NoUeanum,, February 26 ; Scilla hifolia taurica, 

 February 27; Arabis aZ&io^a, February 27; Omphalodes verna, 

 February 28. All but two of these have flowered earlier 

 than last season, the average being seventeen days in 

 advance. Several shrubs have flowered most profusely 

 during the month; the finest were the red and white 

 Mezereon, Bhododendron atrovirens and B. prcacox, Andromeda 

 jloribunda, &c. Leaf-buds are not developing so rapidly as 

 might have been expected, probably owing to the dryness of 

 the ground. 



On the Itock Garden forty-five species and varieties of 

 plants came into flower during the montli, as against twenty 

 during February 1886. The most conspicuous varieties 

 were — Hepatica triloba, Galanthus Mwesi and Bedoutei, 

 Crocus annulatus, C. hijlorus, etruscus, Olivieri, Susianus, 

 Sieberi, and vernus; Helleborus anfAquorum, albicans major, 

 orientalis, guttatus; Leucoium vernum and carjmticum, 

 Cyclamen Coum vernwm, Golchicum crocijlorum, Iris reticidata 

 and KreUifjei, Chionodoxa sardensis, Saxifraya oppositifolia 

 and alba, S. Burseriana, BocJieliana, Muscari linyulatum, 

 Scilla bifolia taurica, Bid.hdnidimn, vernum, Scilla sibirica, 

 iJraba aizoon, Doronicum coucdsicam. 



