322 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
words of a gardener well known in an English Midland county) 
" the most abnormal and backward March of any experienced for 
upwards of thirty years." 
The mean results for Wisley are given in the following table : 
Mean temperature of the air in shade .... 38-2° 
Highest ,, 57 0 on the 17th 
Lowest ,, 20 0 ,, 9th 
Lowest „ on the grass . . . . -9° 9th 
Number of nights of ground frost . . . . . . .27 
Mean relative humidity of the air at 9 a.m. (complete saturation being repre- 
sented by 100) 88 per cent. 
Rain fell on 18 days, to the total depth of 1-65 in. (equivalent to about 
8 gallons of water to the square yard). Heaviest fall on any day 0-31 in., on 
the 6th. 
The prevailing winds were from between south-east and north, but at the 
close of the month they were westerly. 
The average velocity of the wind was 7 miles an hour. 
There were 69 hours of bright sunshine, equal to 19 per cent, of the greatest 
possible amount. 
There were 7 days on which no sunshine was recorded. 
April. — The abnormally wintry character of the weather, which 
had prevailed with scarcely any interruption since the closing days 
of November, did not undergo any real change of type until April 
was nearly ended, so that it may fairly be said that winter had lasted 
for five consecutive months — a period of quite exceptional length. 
Throughout this long interval a large body of air (technically known 
as an " anticyclonic centre," or " area of high-pressure ") had per- 
sistently maintained itself over the Atlantic, to the west and south- 
west of the British Isles, whilst " depression centres," with their attend- 
ant sequence of winds drawn from the cold regions of the North Atlantic 
and Arctic oceans, had followed each other in quick succession along 
an easterly track, skirting the area of high pressure, and passing 
more or less over the British Isles, bringing with them the Arctic 
weather we had to endure. But quite at the close of April the 
long sequence came to an end with the shifting of the anticyclonic 
centre eastwards, actually over the British Isles ; and with this 
movement there came a welcome rise in temperature everywhere, 
the thermometer at Wisley showing on the morning of the closing 
day of the month a reading 20 0 above most of those that had been 
recorded there during the first fortnight. The mean temperature 
for the month was, however, very low, and this continued cold, 
following upon the unusually severe and persistent cold of the earlier 
months, seriously retarded all garden work and growth. At Wisley 
it was estimated that all growth was five weeks later than usual, and 
Narcissi and other bulbs which usually flower in March did not begin 
to do so until the close of April, whilst even then no fruit-tree buds 
had opened. But from all parts of the country there came similar 
reports, e.g. from Middlesex, " latest spring for at least 25 years " ; 
At depth of 
1 ft. 2 ft. 4 ft. 
Mean temperature of the soil at 9 a.m. . 
Highest 
Lowest 
39-2° 40-2° 41 0 
42 0 42 0 42 0 
35° 38° 40 0 
