200 



phularia aquatica, to be in flower this day ; all ascribed to July by 

 the Floras I have examined. 



Rub us Wahlbergii splendidly in flower, allied to R. dumetorum, 

 which is also now fully in flower. 



June 23. — The flowering of the various forms of bramble, perhaps 

 more than anything else, proves the great acceleration that vegetation 

 has received this year. July and August are the general times of 

 flowering given by Mr. Babington, and it is seldom that any of the 

 species flower in June except R. csesius, dumetorum, and sublustris. 

 Yet this day I observed nearly every recorded form in full flower ex- 

 cept R. fruticosus ; while caesius and dumetorum were abundantly in 

 flower in May. 



June 26. — Rubus fruticosus (discolor, Bab.). — The uppermost 

 flower in numerous panicles expanded this day. This is the latest to 

 flower of any of our Rubi, and in backward seasons does not expand 

 its petals before August. This is the earliest date I have ever ob- 

 served it. I should remark that the uppermost flowers of the panicle 

 in brambles always expand first, and of course first exhibit fruit ; so 

 that representations of ripe fruit on lower branches with flowers above, 

 as in the Eng. Bot. figure of glandulosus, and that of Koehleri in Rub. 

 Germ., are incorrect. The lower branches of the panicle are indeed 

 often in flower when the upper are in fruit. 



My flowering indications here end, as I think I have brought for- 

 ward instances sufficient to prove my case, though more might have 

 beeu given, and probably others have been presented to observation in 

 localities different to my own. 



I would observe, in conclusion, that in comparing my notices with 

 the months of flowering given in the Floras of Sir W. J. Hooker, Mr. 

 Babington, and Dr. Steele, of Dublin, I have not the slightest inten- 

 tion to "hint a fault" at the labours of those learned systematic 

 botanists. I wished to establish an acceleration in the flowering of 

 many of our wild plants this year, and there appears certainly a 

 seasonal disci'epancy between us in many of the instances which I 

 have remarked upon. Perhaps there is more than this, and I almost 

 think that greater precision might attach to the indications of flower- 

 ing by the prefix of beginning, middle, or end, to each particular 

 month, as the case may be. Doubtless it requires a different eye in 

 some respects, and perhaps a mind somewhat differently moulded, to 

 observe living objects abroad and describe at home from specimens ; 

 and the technical botanist, in his nice discrimination of species and 

 varieties in his library, must trust to the mems. of his friends, in many 



