192 A YEARS WEATHER.' 



Cornish hedgerows ! No words can fully describe them. 

 The rank verdure on them defies description. A strip of bordering 

 ground carpeted with buttercups, or silver-spread with daisies — 

 the common and the dog kinds — helps one better to see them. It 

 gives the distance. But who can describe the blending of flower 

 colours, or the struggle for existence ? The picture was made by 

 most favourable June weather, which intensified a struggle keen 

 at all times. How pretty the flowers were ! The blue-buttoned 

 sheep's-bitj the deep yellow bird's-footj red campions, white 

 umbels, o'erhung with scented honeysuckle, wild rose, and elder. 



It was not an exceptionally dry June. Our average rainfall at 

 Truro is 2-39-inches, and this month we had 2-86-inches, which was 

 over the average of the last ten years, and below the average of the 

 preceding thirty years There was this peculiarity about the month, 

 that it iollowed a very cold May month ; it opened with warm rain, 

 and then we had nearly three weeks of dry weather, which got 

 hotter and hotter until it reached with us, 82 degrees in the shade 

 and 1 1 2 in the sun. Plant life received an impetus, rarely equalled, 

 in this brief period. Although we had rain — in some cases scarcely 

 measurable — on thirteen days, the bulk of the rain fell on four days, 

 on the first, I'oj on the third, "545 sixth, ■ ^g ; and 30th, •38-inch, 

 or 2 "5 1 -inches out of the total month's rainfall of 2"86-inches. The 

 driest June for forty years here is June, 1887, cj-inch 5 the 

 wettest June, i86r, when 6"7i-inches of rain fell. 



We can now get our average half-yearly rainfall, and can see 

 at a glance how much drier this year has kept than last. The table 

 which shows the comparisons clearly, gives about 7i-inches less for 

 the first six months of 1891 than the same period in 1890. 

 40 years' mean. 1890. 1891. 



January 4'85-ms 5"62-ins 3"40-ins. 



February ... 3 -SB-ins 1-84-ins 0-22-ins. 



March 2-91-ins 1-87-ins 3-90-ins. 



April 2-61-ins 4-Ol-ins 2-48-ins. 



May 2-45-ins 5-06-ins 2-26-ins. 



June 2-39-ins 4-17-ins 2-86-ins. 



Total ... 18'59-ins 22-57-ins 15-12-ins. 



Finding that the observations of the weather, roo years ago, 

 excite much interest, I may say df June, 1791- that on the ist the 

 grass was at a standstill for want of rain ; a few days afterwards 



