576 Weather at Florence 



east or east, and the upper, as indicated by the course of the 

 clouds, directly west. The highest wind was on Jan. 2., 

 when, from five to eight p. m., it blew almost a hurricane. 



Dryness of Air. — The superior dryness of the air in Italy 

 in summer, compared with that of England and many parts 

 of the north of Europe, is well known : but I was not aware 

 that the difference is equally striking even in the rainy part 

 of winter, judging, for want of a better hygrometer, from the 

 condensation of moisture on the inside of windows in rooms 

 without a fire ; which I have always observed to be very con- 

 siderable in winter, both in England, and also at Brussels 

 during a three years' residence there, whenever a cold night 

 succeeds a rainy or warm day, the condensed moistuj-e often 

 even running down to the floor : whereas at Florence, under 

 precisely similar circumstances, I have never but once observed 

 more than a slight condensation in the middle of the panes, as 

 if breathed on, even in rooms with a north aspect ; and only 

 once during the frost, any appearance, and that but slight, of 

 that thick crust of ice formed on the inside of the panes in 

 England and at Brussels whenever a hard frost sets in. Among 

 many other proofs of the greater dryness of the air in winter, 

 one is afforded by the profusion in which grapes are to be had, 

 at less than twopence a pound, at the corners of every street, 

 up to the end of March, quite free from all mouldiness, though 

 cut full four months, and kept merely by being hung at the 

 top of rooms without a fire. 



Progress of Vegetation^ 8fC. — The effect of shade, in prevent- 

 ing, or rather neutralising, terrestrial radiation, was very strik- 

 ingly exhibited in the Cascine (or park) at Florence, Jan. 22., 

 after the second and longest frost. While all the rest of the 

 surrounding exposed grass looked bare and withered, that 

 under a group of old evergreen oaks had made a shoot of 

 from 1 to 2 in., and was of a fine vivid green, distinguishable 

 at a great distance. Groundsel, the daisy, shepherd's purse, 

 Veronica arvensis. Calendula arvensis, &c., in flower the whole 

 winter, their blossoms expanding, during the frost, on bright 

 warm days. — Leaves hcdf-expanded, of elder and weeping 

 willow, March 7. ; hawthorn, March ] 2. ; Cratae'gus Pyra- 

 cantha Lin. (which, with blackthorn and Paliurus australis, 

 chiefly forms the hedges round Florence), March 25. ; elms 

 (the lower branches), and Liriodendron Tulipifera, March 27. ; 

 Paliurus australis, March 30. — Wild plants in Jiower,, as 

 under : — O'xalis corniculata, January 28. ; Crocus biflorus ? 

 (which covered a grass field of six or eight acres as profusely 

 as Colchicum autumnale does some English meadows), Feb. 



