250 MR. T. SOUTHWELL ON MR. MARSHAM S “INDICATIONS OF SPRING.” 
its occurrence. Turning to Mr. Preston’s valuable Meteorological 
Notes this is fully explained, for I find that January was an 
unusually warm and sunny month, with no snow and little frost, 
and the Crocus was in bloom on the 12th. February was dull and 
stormy, but very mild, with rain and S.W. winds; like weather 
prevailed during March and tlie first three weeks of April, this 
covered the period of all but two of our observations, which were, 
as might be expected, earlier than the average; but on the 21st of 
April the type of weather changed entirely, and a cold, wet, and 
stormy period continued till the end of the month, this accounted 
for the late arrival of the Cuckoo, which lagged behind till the 
28th, and on the following day a furious and destructive gale from 
IS.W. occurred ; the unfavourable change was not of long duration, 
but the result was that the Hawthorn, which showed leaf at the 
unusually early date of the 23rd of February, did not bloom till 
the 3rd of May. 
1 883. — The Sycamore distinguished itself this year by coming 
into leaf on the 25th of February, being the earliest of 108 obser- 
vations, the mean of the whole of which is April the 3rd, on which 
day it is recorded on five occasions. It is one of the earliest of our 
forest trees, but as I have already explained, I am inclined to think 
the circumstances which led to the event were exceptional. The 
year was not an unusually early one, 8 of the observations being 
earlier, and 10 later than the average; the Birch, Mountain Ash, 
Oak, Beech, and Chestnut all came into leaf about the normal time, 
the Ash rather earlier than usual, and the Sycamore was the only 
remarkable exception. The character of the weather during the 
Spring I have already referred to. 
1884 was a very early year; 18 of the phenomena were earlier 
than the average, and only 4 later. The previous Winter had 
been very mild, and January also proved exceptionally warm ; 
February was dry and mild, the only cold spell coming at the end 
of the month, which, however, lasted a very short time. In March 
was experienced almost Summer weather, and it was not till the 
8th of April, after the bulk of the phenomena had been recorded, 
that ungenial weather with N. and N.E. winds set in and continued 
till the 9th of May. Of the 4 occurrences, which were rather 
later than usual, all but the flowering of the Snowdrop (16th January, 
one day late), a mere matter of situation, were such as generally 
