190 



Vinca pervinca minor. By the walkside behind Bellsize House, 



Hampslead, towards Tottenham Court Road. 



Urtica pilulifera. About the walls of Yarmouth, in Norfolk. 



Ulmus minor folio angusto scabro. In the road between Ipswich 



and Colchester. 



William Pamplin. 



45, Frith Street, Soho, 

 24th June, 1848. 



On the Acceleration of the Frondescence of Trees and Flowering of 

 British Wild Plants in the Spring of 1848. By Edwin Lees, 

 Esq., F.L.S., &c. 



It must be admitted that in all our Floras there is a looseness in 

 the indications of the times of flowering of the plants described ; so 

 that in many instances, as in Francis Moore's time-honoured predic- 

 tions of weather, where rain was announced " the day before or the 

 day after " such a date, so in the works referred to, the month before 

 or the month after would really suit just as well as the time stated. 

 In fact, precision has been somewhat neglected here, and I believe 

 that Mr. T. Forster is almost the only author* who has come directly 

 to the point, by stating in the Flora Spectabilis and Rustic Calen- 

 dar of his ' Encyclopaedia of Natural Phenomena,' the precise times 

 of plants beginning to flower, full flower, and end of flowering. Some 

 years since, indeed, the amiable and observant naturalist the Rev. W. 

 T. Bree, gave specimens of a ' Calendar of Coincidence,' in Loudon's 

 ' Magazine of Natural History,' with a view to connect the flowering 

 of plants with the appearance of birds, insects, &c. I have long made 

 memoranda of the same kind, but I believe nothing complete has yet 

 been published. 



The alternations of temperature and changes of weather in the va- 

 riable climate of England, no doubt render positive exactness impos- 

 sible, and therefore I presume the average time of flowering is struck 

 with respect to our native plants, and that is what is intended in all 

 the Floras, whether general or local. But as this is often but a kind 

 of guess-work, I am inclined to think it would be better to denote the 



* If this has heen done to any extent by other botanists, I beg they will impute 

 my omission of their names to ignorance of their labours. Mr. Forster has further 

 worked out the subject in his ' Perennial Calendar,' and I have aimed at its develop- 

 ment in the ' Botanical Looker-Out.' 



