METEOROLOGICAL SUMMARY OF 1848. 
25 
But where a nursery of this kind does not lie at a convenient distance, one in which the 
system of frequent, almost yearly, transplantation is regularly practised should be used ; 
as the practice of annual transplantation nearly compensates for the effects of a too rich, 
close, or deep soil. 
To secure the possession of healthy and well-grown plants, care should he exercised in 
the selection of the stock for planting. In many of the nurseries near London, and, conse- 
quently, in most of the newly-planted places around London, the trees most used are from 
eight to twelve feet high, miserably deficient in branches, and altogether very defective as 
specimens. We could indicate more than one large public place in which the trees 
employed are of this description, and their present appearance is most deplorable, while 
they cannot ever be expected to make good specimens. 
In a future article we shall describe more minutely the process of planting, and the best 
trees to select. 
METEOROLOGICAL SUMMARY OF 1848. 
By G. J. Towers, Esq. 
At the commencement of a new year, it will not be irrelevant — perhaps the reverse — to review the 
chief phenomena of a year, which, to say the least of it, has been extraordinary in its course. The press 
bears consentient evidence of the fact ; and every one who takes a decided interest in the weather, and 
its results, appears to entertain a similar opinion. Without dwelling on the astounding revolutions on 
the continent, and the very recent discovery of the Californian “ El Dorado ” (a country, by-the-by, 
which has been precious to the Botanist), we only name them, as adding to the catalogue of mysterious 
events which will illustrate the chronicles of 1848. 
The phenomena that will form the subject of this first article of the year 1849, will be found to have 
borne chiefly upon Agriculture and its cereal productions ; yet they cannot fail to be interesting to the 
general cultivator, inasmuch as the presence or absence of light, its reflection, refraction, and other 
modifications, through the medium of various kinds of glass, must produce corresponding effects. Local 
differences will exist at all times, and our readers therefore should be enabled to compare the facts which 
we lay before them, as selected from a series of observations taken in Surrey, at no great distance from 
the metropolis, with those which have been made in the northern and eastern counties. They will, 
perhaps, be found, generally, to accord with the registers of the district south of the 52° of latitude, 
with few exceptions. 
January, 1848, might be considered a fair month for Horticulture and Agriculture. It commenced 
with four fine and sunny days, the first of which dawned with 1° of frost. A small quantity of rain fell 
in the nights of the 2nd and 3rd. The 6th was sunny, but clouds and gloom followed till the 13th, 
when some rain fell. The 14th was foggy throughout. The 16th and 17th were fine. On the 18th, 
which was rather frosty, with light haze, a beautiful double, lunar-halo (pareselene), adorned the heavens. 
The inner one, not far from the moon (then within two days of full), was richly tinted with blue and 
orange ; the outer was pale, but completely circular : it enclosed the moon and its inner halo, also the 
planet Jupiter, — both being then in the sign Gemini. The wind was S.E., but it veered to R.E. 
Yapour abounded, clouds formed, and dark, gloomy weather, with very little sun, continued till the 
end of the month. The average temperature of all the nights was found to be 31° and a very small 
fraction ; that of the days’ maximum, 34'6°. The only period of keen frost included the 25tli — 28th 
days, when the night of the 28th marked 14°, i.e., 18° of Fahrenheit. There were, in the course of the 
month, twelve days of north and north-east wind ; six of south-easterly; three of south; and four from 
south to west. The gardener’s attention was of necessity kept alive, by the low temperature of the 
month ; but he had little difficulty to contend with, unless the absence of solar light might be viewed 
as such. The new theory, which, since the demise of its great originator, Mr. Knight, has been rapidly 
gaining ground, has instructed the practical man to lower his night temperature, and at all seasons to 
follow the indications of nature, by avoiding a strong forcing heat, when there is a deficiency of solar 
power. 
February commenced well : the three first days fine, with sun, but the wind changed to west by 
south, and there followed six days gloomy throughout ; much rain fell, and the temperature was 
extremely mild, 42° to 50°. Subsequently there were six fine days, without rain. All the others were 
rainy, so that the month might be considered decidedly wet. On sixteen days the wind came from 
south to west ; — on six, at distant intervals, from west to north ; — on four, from north, and on the 
remaining three, from north-east. The barometer was generally low and fluctuating, and the average 
temperature of the entire period was about 42° 8 cents. 
VOL. I. — NO. I. E 
