STUDY OF PHENOLOGICAL PHENOMENA IN AUSTKALIA. 157 



A PLEA FOR THE STUDY OP PHENOLOGICAL 

 PHENOMENA IN AUSTRALIA. 



By J. H. Maiden, Government Botanist and Director of 

 the Botanic Gardens. Sydney. 



[Read before the Royal Society of N. S. Wales, September 1, 1909.~] 



What is Phenology ? The word is from the Greek and 

 means the science of " appearances," — first appearances. 

 The derivation is from faweiv to show, and few dictionaries 

 contain it. Webster (Supplement) says that the word is a 

 contraction of phenomenology and defines it as "the science 

 which treats of the relations between climate and the 

 phenonema of animal and plant life, such as the migration 

 and breeding of birds, the flowering and fruiting of plants." 



It is for a meteorologist to dwell upon the importance of 

 these observations to meteorology. They have been 

 proved to be most useful in a country like Britain, and I 

 believe they will be found to be much more important in 

 Australia. An annual report of phenological observations 

 has appeared for many years past in the Quarterly Journal 

 of the Royal Meteorological Society of London. Instruc- 

 tions to the observers who supply the observational 

 material for the report are contained in " Hints to Mete- 

 orological Observers," a book of instructions issued by the 

 Society. The reports give for different districts in the 

 British Isles the date of first flowering of 13 uncultivated 

 plants. The society also records observations in regard to 

 animal life. 



Mr. E. Mawley, who manages this branch of the Society's 

 work, points out that it is preferable to have a small number 

 of plants for observation and a large number of observers, 

 than a large number of plants and, in consequence, a small 



