JJurbcck SHiR) Jfloiocr* in December. 



By EUSTACE R. BANKES, M.A., P.E.S. 



T would probably be almost an insult to the 

 feelings of every one to refer to the miserable 

 apology for a summer to which we were treated in 

 1888 ; but certainly no less remarkable, though 

 decidedly more enjoyable, than that almost un- 

 precedented period of continuous rain, were the 

 exceptionally mild autumn and winter which brought the year to a 

 close. Few indeed, if any, of us will need to be reminded of the 

 wonderful variety of plants which were still in bloom and adorned 

 our gardens throughout November and December; but to those 

 who had the chance of observing them the profusion of wild 

 flowers which brightened up the fields and hedgerows during those 

 months was even more astonishing, and furnished a striking proof 

 if proof had been wanting of the excessive mildness of the 

 weather and the almost entire absence of frost at night. This 

 sudden contrast to the very low temperature which had prevailed 

 up till that time was the more unexpected from the fact that, even 

 at Greenwich, frost was registered on every single night during the 

 iir>t throe weeks of October ! But at length the long spell of cold 

 cuinti to an end, the last week in October being a little more than 

 G degrees in excess of the average, and the improvement was 

 continued throughout November and the earlier part of December. 



