158 Calendar of Flora, Fauna, and Pomona. 



lustris flowers in my garden. The Scarlet Lychnis and Sweet 

 William begin to decline, and Roses cast their petals in abun- 

 dance on the ground; I have observed that ants of all kinds 

 are very numerous and destructive in the garden this year. 

 Earwigs are less plentiful than usual. Slugs and snails very 

 abundant. Convolmlus septum and C. arvensis very abundant. 



August 2. — Boletus bovinus grows in the orchard. There 

 are now growing in my field a great quantity of Agarici, 

 which form a sort of semicircle in which the grass grows 

 richer than ordinary, and looks like what is called a Fairy 

 Ring. 



August 6. — Convolvulus tricolor flowering at Edenbridge. 



August 7. — Althaea rosea in full flower in several varieties, 

 crimson, rose-colour, and yellow. 



August 9. — Small meteor seen ; these phaenomena abound 

 particularly in August. 



August 10. — Much sondercloud early: warm day, with 

 clouds at night. 



August 11. — Beautiful crimson sonderclouds and wane- 

 clouds at sunset. 



The Pomona is backward ; plums begin to ripen, and to- 

 gether with apricots are very lew in number. Raspberries 

 and strawberries are nearly gone. Currants were late this 

 year, but decline early, and ripen very badly. The wheat, 

 oats, and all kinds of grain are very late ; nor has the harvest 

 yet commenced here, not a single field being cut yet. The 

 bat seen flitting about tonight till very late. 



August 1 2. — Fungi begin to appear. Agaricus integer already 

 grown in three varieties, the gray, the brown, and the crim- 

 son. Agaricus aurantius is also plentiful, as are Boletus luteus 

 and B. bovinus. 



August 13. — I ascertained today, as I have on several oc- 

 casions lately, that the direction of the wind above, even only 

 300 or 400 feet from the ground, differs from the wind imme- 

 diately blowing over the surface of the earth. By tying a 

 kite to the back of another when 300 feet of string were out, 

 and then letting the second or lower kite have about 600 feet 

 of string, I caused the upper one to ascend very high, and 

 it got a direction somewhat different from the lower one, the 

 former indicating a wind from S.S.W., the latter W.S.W. and 

 sometimes S. W. according to the height ; so that I conceive 

 the wind fluctuated gradually according to the altitude, or 

 else blew in a sort of ascending spiral. Kites thus attached 

 to each other will ascend to a prodigious height, and may be- 

 come good indicators of wind. Seven or eight may be flown 

 alternately 300 feet above each other. 



Ih.rtfifld. Aug. 13,1824. T. FoRSTER. 



