291 



VIII. — A Calendar of Natural Periodic Phenomena : Tcept at Bodmin 

 for the year 1870.—% Thomas Q. Couch, M.R.C.S., F.S.A. 



" II semble, en effet, que les phenomenes periodiques forment, pour lea 

 etres organisus, en dehors de la vie individuelle, une vie commune dont on 

 ne peut saisir les phases qu'en I'etudiant simultanement sur toute la terre." 

 — Quetelet. 



N.B. — The names printed in Italics indicate plants and animals 

 marked for special observation. 



fl., means flowers ; fol., foliates ; defoL, defoliates. 



The time of flowering is to be noted when the flower is suffi- 

 ciently expanded to show the anthers ; of foliation, when the leaf- 

 bud is so far open as to show the upper surface of the leaves ; of 

 fructification, at the period of dehiscence of the pericarp, in de- 

 hiscent fruits ; and, in others, when they have evidently arrived 

 at maturity ; of defoliation, when the greater part of the leaves 

 of the year have fallen off". 



The spring of 1870 was generklly cold and dry, with occasional 

 frosty mornings until late; and, as a consequence, the grass was thin 

 and backward. Such a spring, followed by an exceedingly hot 

 and arid summer, was very disastrous to agriculture. Hay was a 

 lighter crop than I have ever noticed, many farmers being unable 

 to cut any, and there was scarcely more than a quarter of the usual 

 yield anywhere, except in some of the better land resting on the 

 granite. The corn-crake was heard late, which I attribute to the 

 stunted grass not giving it the usual shelter. This bird, as well 

 as the cuckoo, arrived in very scanty numbers. Three or four 

 rainy days in the/middle of May made a wonderful advance in 

 field and garden ; but the dry cold weather so injured the wheat, 

 that in some places it was ploughed down as hopeless, and the 

 ground sown with barley. At harvest the wheat crop was thin ifi 



