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CONTRIBUTIONS TO PHENOLOGY (GIESSEN 1884). 



Translated By RUDOLPH ROSENSTOCK, B.A.Oxon. 



Under the above title are published two papers by Drs. Ihne and 

 Hoffmann, of Giessen, the former giving a historical review of the 

 progress of vegeto-phsenological observation in Europe, the latter a 

 scheme for making and recording such observations, together with a 

 detailed list of results obtained by this method from different 

 localities in Europe. 



In Dr. Ihne's paper each country is reviewed separately, and in 

 each case a complete bibliography of the subject is appended. As 

 some account of what has been done in our own country in this branch 

 of plant science, may be of interest to many readers of the Naturalist, 

 I have taken leave to make a brief abstract of Dr. Ihne's review. 



The earliest observations on record are those carried on by 

 Marsham at Stratton in Norfolk, from 1735 t0 I 797> some of which 

 were first published in the Transactions of the Royal Society for 

 1735. They are, however, unimportant. In 1762 Stillingfleet, a 

 direct follower of Linnaeus, the founder of phonological science, 

 published in the second edition of his micellaneous tracts a series 

 of valuable observations from the same locality. The observations 

 of Gilbert White, of Selborne fame, extend over 25 years (1768- 

 1 793)5 an d were published in 1795, after his death, by Aikin, in the 

 Naturalist's Calender. In the case of some species, average data of 

 the various phases of plant-life are recorded ; with others, only extreme 

 data are noticed. They were all republished under the title of 

 Naturalist's Calendar, in Markwick's edition of White's works, 1804, 

 in which were also included the editor's own observations at Catsfield. 

 In Bell's edition of the Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne, 

 London, 1877, the Naturalist's Calendar forms a special section of the 

 first volume. 



From 1780 to 18 10 T. F. Forster made observations at Wal- 

 thamstow, near London. These were continued until 1830 by his 

 son, T. Forster. They are referred to by the latter in several of his 

 publications, and were published in a collected form in 1838, under 

 the title of 'Calendrier des Moyens Temps de la Floraison, in 

 Quetelet's Correspondence Mathematique et Physique de l'Observa- 

 toire Royale de Bruxelles.' 



In 1828 the Magazine of Natural History, then conducted by 

 Loudon, issued a scheme for taking phaenological observations ; and 

 to the agency of this journal we owe the institution of regular 



May 1886. 



