58 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



June. — ^This was a very dry month in all parts of the kingdom, 

 except the highland districts of the western seaboard, and it was also 

 fairly sunny. There were a few strong winds, but they affected chiefly 

 the western districts, as the centres of disturbance to which they were 

 due travelled along tracks well to the north-west of our islands, and 

 therefore over the greater part of the kingdom it was a month of fine, 

 dry weather. In many parts of England less than half an inch of 

 rain fell ; and over the country generally, excepting only the north- 

 western Httoral, the fall did not exceed an inch. Over Wales, Ireland, 

 and Scotland it was larger, but still abnormally small. At Wisley 

 bright sunshine was recorded every day, and to the amount of 14 hours 

 on three occasions, but at several places the records were less than 

 this and somewhat below the normal June amount. There were again 

 several severe thunderstorms, and in some of them damage w8.s done 

 to trees and to cattle. The mean temperature was rather above the 

 average over the eastern parts of the kingdom, and somewhat below 

 it in the west. There were a few very hot days in the middle of the 

 month, when the thermometer rose to 84° at Wisley, and again during 

 the last three days, when the maximum reached 78° ; but all through 

 the month the nights were warm, and there were no ground frosts. 



The Wisley records give : 



Mean temperature of the air in shade . . . • 58*7° 



Highest „ ,, „ . . . . 84° on the i6th 



Lowest 40° ist 



Lowest „ on the grass ..... 30° ist 



Number of nights of ground frost . . . . . . . .1 



Mean relative humidity of the air at 9 a.m. (complete saturation being re- 

 presented by 100), 72 per cent. 



Rain fell on 6 days, to the total depth of 0-62 in. (equivalent to about 3 

 gallons of water to the square yard). Heaviest fall on any day 0-34 in., on the 

 2oth. 



The prevailing winds were south-westerly and westerly. 

 The average velocity of the wind was 6 miles an hour. 



There were 219 hours of bright sunshine, equal to 45 per cent, of the greatest 

 possible amount. 



There were no days on which sunshine was not recorded. 



July. — ^This was an exceptionally cool and dull month, and also 

 an unusually dry one. Scarcely anywhere did the thermometer rise . 

 to 80°, and in some places it did not reach 70°, but over the country 

 generally the daily maxima ranged between 60° and 70°, with 

 correspondingly low night minima, and the monthly mean temperature 

 was therefore well below the average. The rainfall was altogether 

 abnormal, and large areas of the kingdom were subject to a drought 

 which would have been far more severely felt had the temperature 

 been normally high. There were, however, again some thunderstorms 

 of exceptional severity, and one which passed over Sussex on the night 



Mean temperature of the soil at 9 a.m. 

 Highest 



Lowest ,, ,, 



At depth of 

 I ft. 2 ft. 4 ft. 



60-4° 58-3° 56-0° 



64° 60° 58° 



57° 57° 55° 



