280 FIRST APPEARANCES OF BIRDS, INSECTS, ETC. 



BOTANICAL NOTES. 



PROFUSION OF FURZE BLOOM. The bloom of the common 

 furze (Ulex europceus} is generally, during the spring, a striking 

 and beautiful sight on the commons, heaths, and hills in the 

 Isle of Purbeck, and particularly so in special years ; but in 1903 

 it was in far greater profusion than I have ever seen it before, 

 and the effect was indescribably lovely and brilliant, arresting 

 the attention of every passer-by. Not only were numbers of 

 the bushes almost entirely covered with flowers, but the 

 individual flowers, owing to their abundance, were, in very 

 many cases, so closely crowded together that they formed a 

 compact mass round the enclosed large woody stem, totally 

 hiding it, throughout almost its entire length, as well as all the 

 attached spines with the exception of the extreme tips of the 

 longest of them (E. R. B.). 



VEGETATION DAMAGED BY SEVERE LATE FROSTS. A series 

 of exceptionally severe frosts in the middle of April caused 

 terrible damage to trees, shrubs, and plants, both in shrubberies 

 and gardens, and also in nature, killing, as though by fire, not 

 only leaves, flowers, and buds, but also much of the younger 

 wood of the stems. Near water the effects were, of course, 

 especially noticeable, even such hardy things as common sallows 

 suffering so severely that their young shoots, stems and all, were 

 completely killed. Such results will cause no surprise when it is 

 mentioned that during the night of April i6th the thermometer, 

 at a few feet above the ground, fell to 20 degrees F. at Holme 

 Priory, in Purbeck, while on the previous night the minimum 

 was only 2 degrees higher! (E. R. B.). 



GENERAL NOTES. 



REMARKABLE FALL OF DUST. During the earlier part of 

 Sunday morning, February 22nd, 1903, with a south-west wind, 

 a strangely yellow fog prevailed at Corfe Castle, but towards 

 noon some drizzling rain fell and deposited some yellow dust 

 or rather mud, as' it was then on the surface of the earth, and 

 by 12.30 p.m., or perhaps a little earlier, the peculiarly yellow 



