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METEOROLOGY IX REFERENCE TO HORTICULTURE. 
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Lippia reptans, Kunth. Creeping Lippia. — Nat. Ord., Yerbenaceae. — Syn., L. sti-igulosa, Marions and 
Galeotti. — A spreading suffrutieose perennial, with rooting branches, obovate cuneate sharply serrate leaves, and 
ovoid, or at length subcylindrieal, heads of flowers, which are white, changing to rose, and ultimately to red. 
From South America, widely distributed, growing in humid places. Cultivated in the Botanic Garden of Berlin. 
Didymocarpus crinita, Jack. Hairy Didj'moearpus. {Hot. Mag., t. 4554). — Nat. Ord., Gesneraceae S Cyrtan- 
dreoe — Syn., Henckelia crinita, Sprengel. — A dwarf herbaceous stove plant, interesting from the velvety richness 
of its foliage. The stem is short, erect, bearing opposite broad lanceolate, serrate leaves, which are hairy, and 
on the upper side of a dark coppery green, with a velvety lustre, on the lower side rich purple red. The flowers 
are white, with a yellow throat, funnel-shaped, with a ventricose tube, two inches long, and a spreading limb 
nearly an inch across ; they grow from two to five together in the axils of the leaves, on longish stalks. From 
Pulo Penang. Introduced in 1846. Flowers in summer. 
Epidendrum ANTEXNirERUir, Lindley. Antenna-bearing Epidendrum (Paxt. Fl. Gard., i. 184). — Nat. Ord., 
Orehidaccoe § Epidendrese Lceliadai. — An inconspicuous stove orchid, with oblong coriaceous leaves, and a slender 
flower stem, bearing a few small flowers not at all showy, but curious from the remarkable lengthening of the 
filiform petals, which resemble the feelers of some insect. This lengthening is said to be an after-growth, the 
petals being short before expansion. From Xalapa. Introduced to the French gardens before 1850. Flowers 
in winter. 
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METEOROLOGY IN REFERENCE TO HORTICULTURE. 
By Mr. J. TOWEES C.M.H.S., &c. 
1 \ IV. have of late years been mystified by certain writers who affect to discern and predict the state of 
U*f the weather by the " aspectal" position of the planetary bodies, (in which term are included the 
sun, and our own satellite, the moon). Astronomers have for years dismissed from their calendars 
most of those aspects which the planets assume in consequence of their orbital movements, retaining 
those of opposition and conjunction only. We question not that a mutual " disturbing'" influence may 
exist between the heavenly bodies ; but when almanacs, and other productions of a more fugitive 
character affect to foretell coining events, and to interpret those already bygone, from the position of 
the planets in their aspects of trine, quartile, sextile, — we look with suspicion upon such performances, 
and are apt to deem their object as more closely allied to astrology than to philosophy and true science. 
Every gardener is interested in the weather : in each department of his profession he is, or ought 
to be, conversant with the effects of solar light ; the power of heat under cover, or in the full exposure 
of the open air ; the effects of rain in respect to quantity, its seasonable supply or redundance ; and 
now, at this precise period, the critical state of the weather brings us to the consideration of the 
Equinoxes — those two periods when the sun shines perpendicularly upon the equator, illuminating the 
whole hemisphere of the globe, so as to produce equal (or nearly equal) day and night throughout 
the world. 
A writer is authorized to quote from himself without incurring a charge of plagiarism ; I therefore 
venture to cite the following lines from my "Naturalist's Calendar for March" in the Domestic Gar- 
dener's Manual : — 
" The vernal equinox takes place during this month, and experience seems to authorize the conclusion, 
that, according to the character which the weather assumes about that period, the succeeding summer 
will, in all probability, be either wet or dry. Kirwan and others have given rules founded upon 
repeated observations, from which some probable opinion may be formed; — thus Kirwan said, ' If there 
be a storm at south-west or west-south-west, on the 19th, 20th, 21st, or 22nd of March, the succeeding 
summer is generally wet Jive times insix.' It appears to me to be placed beyond doubt, thai, if north or 
north-west winds prevail on or about the period of the equinox, that is, from about the ltSth to the 25th 
of the month; and especially if the barometer be high, and its mercury convex, that the succeeding 
summer will generally be dry. If, on the contrary, south or south-west winds prevail, if the weather 
be rainy and the mercury falling, the succeeding summer will, with greater probability, be wet. Will 
it be too daring to conjecture that, at the two periods when the ecliptic coincides with the equinoctial, 
the sun influences the electricity or the electro-magnetism of the earth, so as to induce a character or 
modification which shall predominate during the greater pari of the following half-year." 
To this effect 1 expressed myself in the year lS.'JO, and now. after twenty-one years' experience, — 
to say nothing of the extensive observations of others lonjj; before my own commenced, I see no reason 
to retract a sentence from what I then wrote. 
Within a few weeks past, Baron Reiehenbach's admirable researches on magnetism have been 
studied,- and this work merits the best attention of every meteorologist Chemistry, some time since 
adopted the word Actinism, in reference to the decomposing influence of liybt. The Baron has. 
