INTRODUCTION. 



temperature for the three winter months is o°7 lower, and for the three 

 summer months 2°"3 lower, than Greenwich ; while the rainfall is 9"i3 

 inches greater than at Greenwich. As will be seen by the table at page 

 xix., the first blossoming of plants is a little earlier at Marlborough (on an 

 average of twenty years) than in the rest of the country, as represented 

 by the average of ten years' observations collected by the Phenological 

 Committee ; but in a large number of plants the dates are so nearly alike 

 as to suggest that the differences are chiefly due to different methods, or 

 to slight errors of observation. The chief value of the Marlborough 

 observations consists in their having been made under the same con- 

 ditions and in a uniform manner, and by a large number of persons 

 trained in the same school of observation. 



The following data refer to Marlborough, where the meteorological aijd 

 biological observations were made : — 



Place : Marlborough. 



Longitude, l''43"W. ; Latitude, Sl'as'. 



Area of observation : a radius of 6 miles. 



Geology I Surface : about r/oot of soil. 

 I Subsoil, &c. : chalk. 



County or district : Wiltshire. 

 Elevation above sea, 400-600 feet. 

 Distance from the sea-coast, 50 miles N. and 



£. of English and Bristol Channels. 

 Natural f Downs (pasture), arable, a.ni/orest 

 features 1 (no mountain, swamp, or moor)- 



Works of reference to locality ; 



-Birds of Marlborough. By E. F. im 

 10, 



