846 



is more like a list of autumnal plants protracted in their blooming, 

 than of vernal ones which have come prematurely into flower. In 

 elucidation of this view, I may observe that a considerable number of 

 the plants belong to the Compositae, and the greater part of this order 

 are autumnal ; and I may also mention that, in the large open field 

 opposite to the burying ground at Wandsworth, there was, at the 

 beginning of the month, a great number of Ranunculus bulbosus in 

 bloom ; but these have gradually decreased to the present time. By 

 the side of the same field, on a sheltered bank. Ranunculus Ficaria 

 grows ; but, although this is one of our earliest plants, and a purely 

 vernal one, it is not yet in bloom. 



" The present season may be considered as the mildest since the 

 commencement of the present century ; and I can only find one 

 instance of anything like it in the records of the last. The Rev. Ste- 

 phen Hale, in his * Statical Essays,' fourth edition, 1769, vol. i. p. 

 69, publishes an account (which he had from Philip Miller) of the 

 winter of 1724, in which occurs the following paragraph : — ' The Spring 

 was so forward in January that the Snowdrops, Crocus's, Poleyan- 

 thns's, Hepatica's, and Narcissus's were in flower, and it was remark- 

 able that most of the Cauliflower Plants were destroyed by the mil- 

 dew.' Now, I think we may infer from this, that the weather was 

 something like what we are experiencing in the present season, for, if 

 there had been a few sharp fi-osts in November or December, 1723, 

 the mildew would have been materially checked, if not destroyed. 



" Ranunculus bulbosus 

 „ repens 



*Alyssum maritimum 

 Capsella Bursa-^astoris 

 *Brassica oleracea, var. Cape brocoli 

 Sinapis arvensis 

 Raphanus Raphanistrum 

 Sisymbrium officiuale 

 *Cheiranthus Cheiri 

 *Viola odorata 

 „ tricolor 

 Malva sylvestris 

 Cerastium vulgalum 

 Stellaria media 

 *Hypericum calycinum 

 Arenaria rubra 

 Geranium moUe 



Geranium rotundifolium 

 * „ nodosum 

 Ulex europaeus 



„ nanus 

 ^thusa Cynapium 

 Anthriscus sylvestris 

 Galium Aparine 

 Erigeron Canadensis 

 Senecio vulgaris 

 „ Jacobaea 

 Bellis perennis 

 Chrysanthemum Parthenium 

 Anthemis Cotula 

 „ nobilis 

 Achillea Millefolium 

 Sonchus oleraceus 

 Leontodon Taraxacum 



* Cultivated. 



