295 
IX.—A Calendar of Natural Periodic Phenomena: kept at Bodmin . 
for the year 1873.—By Tuomas Q. Coucn, F.S.A. 
“Tl semble, en effet, que les phénoménes périodiques forment, pour les 
étres organisés, en dehors de la vie individuelle, une vie commune dont on 
ne peut saisir les phases qu’en l’étudiant simultanément sur toute la terre.” 
—Quetelet. 
N.B.—The names printed in [falics 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 Meteorological peculiarities of this year will be elsewhere 
treated of in the Journal, and will aid in showing some of the causes 
of the advancement or retardation of its Natural Periodic Pheno- 
mena. The time is not come for generalising on all our facts 
recorded, and the delay is even of advantage, in making general- 
isation more precise. 
The significance of the comparative abundance or rarity of 
species in our yearly record cannot be over estimated, and in this 
I have been much assisted by my friends Mr. Richard Tellum, of 
Tregawne, and Mr. Richard Olver, of Trescowe. I cannot better 
illustrate the value of such facts collected by intelligent observers 
than by the translated words of Professor Quetelet :—“ The phases 
of the existence of the minutest plant-louse, of the paltriest 
