A year's weather. 189 



It is many long years since Cornwall so much needed " the 

 April showers to bring forth the May flowers." The chief rainfalls 

 were, with the exception of a little in the middle of the month, at 

 the very entrance and exit of April. The few true April showers 

 — mixed rain and sunshine — which fell, were chilled by cold winds, 

 which prevented much of the good the warm spring rain does. 

 They came easterly with surprising continuance. 



It was interesting at times to notice how floral nature struggled 

 to get out of the bondage. Here one saw a little beech under the 

 shelter of some bigger tree, shoot forth its whole array of yellow- 

 green leaves, whilst a sister tree on the edge of the self-same coppice 

 awaited sullenly the advent of the warmer weather. The primroses 

 felt this struggle keenly, yet under the meanest protection they 

 overran the walls and meadows. This year this pretty plant will 

 be at its best in May. In early April I botanised in a sheltered 

 nook, where the lesser celandine, primrose, violet, ground-ivy, and 

 others were in flower, and the bees were almost as plentiful as 

 blossoms ; and the worker bees were savage with the rifled flowers 

 they visited. April must have been bad for bees, Apis and Bomhus. 

 The barometer stood nearly 30-inches (29-926), but the ther- 

 mometers, on some days, indicated great ranges of heat and cold. 

 The average greatest heat was 56-4, the average greatest cold 39-4 

 degrees, an average difference between hottest and coldest aspects 

 of J 7 degrees. It was a dry April, its rainfall of 2'48-inches on 

 thirteen days compares favourably with the 4-inches of rain last 

 April, and the forty years' average of 2 '61 -inches. We had a little 

 hail on the 3rd, frost one night. 



The apple, cherry, and plum trees came into flower in sheltered 

 places, the hawthorn, sycamore, and horse-chestnut came into leaf. 

 On the 14th the swallow was seen in Ladock valley. The cuckoo 

 was heard at Trenowth, Grampound road, on the 21st, at Cuckoo 

 Bottom, Besore, Truro, on the 24th (a day late) Evidence here 

 too, of the westerly distribution of "the harbinger of spring. ' 

 The average rainfalls to date are as below : — 



40 years' mean. 1890. 1891. 



January 485-ms. 562-ins 340-ins. 



February ... 3-38-ins 1-84-ms 0-22-ins. 



March 2-91 -ins r87-ins. 3-90-ins. 



April 2-61-ins 401-ins 2-48-ins. 



Total ... 13-75-ins 13-34-ins 1000-ins. 



