16 
JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
mountain slopes, and frost will settle in the valley. In the lower 
and most exposed districts delicate flowers will be injured. 
Many plants that grow by the house or in other protected places 
will flourish and bloom all the winter. Along the foot-hills, at 
an elevation of from 400 to 1,800 ft., frosts will be very light 
or altogether absent. In the warmer foothill belts, oranges and 
lemons grow, and ripen throughout the winter. In the valley 
sunshine and shadow have been alternating. More rain falls 
here in December than in any other month, and yet there is 
considerable sunshine. There are about 300 sunshiny days in 
the year. Hail falls occasionally, but no snow, unless it be a few 
stray flakes, and they usually melt before the ground is white. 
No snow has been seen in the towns along the foot of the Santa 
Cruz Mountains for at least eighteen years. The thermometer 
has ranged between 34 and 58 deg. above zero except on nights 
when frost occurred. It seldom registers less than 30 deg. above 
zero, and the lowest temperature we find recorded for the past 
decade is 22 deg. above zero. 
In January the rainfall will not be as great as it was in 
December, and the wind will be less vigorous. Yet nothing can 
be said which will certainly indicate days on which rain will or 
will not fall. In January, too, the wind is more capricious. 
During more than half the year the wind is quite methodical, 
and compared with those which visit other States, very gentle at 
all times. On the mountain tops a breeze blows quite steadily 
from the north-west in the day-time, summer and winter, in¬ 
creasing in force, of course, during the latter season. In the 
valley, however, wind-currents are influenced by the local topo¬ 
graphical conditions, and are mild or strong without regard to 
the conditions prevailing upon the mountain tops. Ploughing 
and sowing continue, trees are being planted, and orchardists are 
still pruning. Grass is growing rapidly, and vegetables are 
coming in. Onions, lettuce, carrots, beet, cabbage, turnips, and 
radishes we have with us always. In this month, however, new 
potatos and green peas are first seen in the market. The mean 
temperature of the month is 43*3 deg., with 30 deg. and 56*5 deg. 
as extremes. Once during the past ten years the thermometer 
fell to 25 deg., above zero, of course. The temperature never 
reaches zero in the Santa Clara Valiev. 
In February there will be less rain and more sunshine than 
