during the past Winter, 377 



16. ; Eranthis hyemalis (a troublesome weed in the vineyards 

 and olive grounds), Feb. 19. ; ^yacinthu5 racemosus (which 

 here replaces the hare-bell of Britain), Feb. 23.; pilewort, 

 March 2. ; violets (which are more abundant about Florence 

 than I ever saw them anywhere), and primroses (less common), 

 March 5.; i/elleborus viridis and Anemone hortensis (both 

 very common at the foot of the Apennines towards Fiesole), 

 March 1 5. ; /^inca major, March 24. ; iaurus nobilis, March 

 28. — Standard peach and almond trees : a few flowers un- 

 folded, March 9., but not generally in blossom until March 

 15., when, mixed with the blue-green olive trees, they made a 

 glorious show ; blackthorn, March 1 9. ; pear and plum trees, 

 March 27. Vine buds still apparently quiescent at the end 

 of March, and, owing to the unusually backward spring, the 

 pruning then not entirely finished, though the risk of the vines 

 bleeding must be considerable, as the peasants seem well aware, 

 judging from the five or six pruners now often hard at work 

 in one vineyard. 



Vanessa Atalant«, C. album, and other common butterflies, 

 on the wing early in March. Bats flying, more or less, nearly 

 all the winter, and often long before dusk. Lizards, of several 

 species, swarming, from the beginning of March, by hundreds, 

 on every bank. A tortoise, about 8 in. long, of a species com- 

 mon in Germany and Italy, kept in a neighbouring garden, 

 awaked from its winter's sleep, and appeared above ground 

 March 26., and was brought to us still encrusted with the earth 

 out of which it had made its way. A single swallow was seen 

 by my eldest son, March 1 6., but from that time none were vis- 

 ible till March 29., when they appeared in considerable numbers. 



General Remarks. — The natives of Florence concur in 

 calling the past winter the most severe which they have ex- 

 perienced for thirty years; yet, comparing it with my own 

 recollections of former ones, of which six were spent in De- 

 vonshire, it has been the pleasantest I ever passed. The north 

 winds from the Apennines, at its commencement, were high, 

 and most piercingly cold, but afterwards the air was generally 

 calm, and its coolness tempered by a bright sun, so as to be 

 extremely agreeable ; and the spring has been still more de- 

 lightful, no rain, except two or three showers not sufiicient to 

 lay the dust, having fallen from Feb. 21. to March 31., of 

 which thirty-eight days, the whole, with the exception of five 

 cloudy ones, has been one uninterrupted period of sunshine 

 and balmy breezes, mostly from the south-west, and quite 

 equal to the finest May weather in England. Rain, however, 

 now begins to be much wanted. I am, Sir, &c. 



Florence, April 2. 1830. V^. Spence. 



Vol. III. — No. 14. c c 



