BOTANICAL NOTES FROM SOUTH BEDS 
268 
BOTANICAL NOTES FROM SOUTH BEDS, 
WITH VOUCHER SPECIMENS FOR 1887. 
Earliest observed Dates of Flowering. 
Name. 
Dates. 
1885.* 
Dates. 
1886.* 
Dates 
1887. 
As¬ 
pect, 
1887. 
Situation, &c. 
Tussilago farfara. 
Feb. 8 
Mar. 3 
Feb. 5 
S.W. 
Railway bank. 
Corylus avellana. 
„ 1 
Feb. 14 
«» 6 
N.E. 
Hedge bank. 
Poten. fragariastrum .. 
Mar. 15 
Apr. 4 
„ 13 
S.W. 
Hedge bank, one 
blossom. 
Mercurialis perennis .. 
Jan. 4 
Feb. 14 
Mar. 13 
N.E. 
In 1887, inflores¬ 
cences and foliage 
were noted Feb. 6, 
but no blossoms in 
the same station 
till March 13. 
Petasites vulgaris .... 
April 3 
Apr. 7 
Mar. 20 
Open 
Boggy meadow, 
several plants well 
open. 
Ranunculus Ficaria .. 
Mar. 8 
Apr. 4 
Mar. 20 
Open 
With the preceding 
Salix caprea. 
» 8 
„ 4 
„ 27 
n 
Hill top. 
Caltha palustris . 
„ 27 
„ 4 
Apr. 3 
M 
Boggy meadow. 
Cardamine hirsuta .... 
„ 27 
— 
» 3 
S.W. 
River bank. 
Viola odorata . 
— 
Apr. 4 
„ 3 
J 5 
Hedge bank. 
Anemone nemorosa .. 
Mar. 15 
„ 4 
„ 3 
Open 
Coppice. 
Nepeta glechoma. 
April 3 
„ 23 
„ 8 
S.W. 
Hedge hank. 
Viola Riviniana . 
Mar. 29 
— 
24 
S.E. 
Ditto. 
Pruuus spinosa. 
Apr. 12 
Apr. 23 
„ 24 
S.W. 
Hedge. 
Orchis mascula . 
May 5 
May 16 
May 7 
Open 
Coppice in Herts. 
Rnillfl. nntfuis . 
Apr. 25 
21 
,, 7 
S. 
Open 
Hedge bank. 
Meadow. 
Cardamine pratensis .. 
— 
„ 7 
Stellaria holostea .... 
„ 26 
— 
„ 7 
S.W. 
Hedge bank. 
Ranunculus auricomus 
„ 28 
Apr. 23 
„ 7 
Ditto. 
Adoxa Moscliatellina .. 
Mar. 22 
— 
7 
> > 
Ditto. 
Geranium Robertianum 
May 28 
May 23 
„ 29 
s. 
Ditto. 
Crataegus monogyna . . 
„ 17 
„ 23 
June 4 
S.W. 
Ditto. 
* See “Midland Naturalist’’ for 1885 and 1886. 
Leafing of Oak and Ash. 
Oak trees were not in leaf till the last week in May, and ash trees 
till the first week in June. This is now the eighth season in which 
these two kinds of trees have maintained the same sequence in 
foliation, that is, in the districts of S. Beds, and N. Herts., where the 
observations have been made. There have been occasional exceptions 
owing to constitutional variations ; sometimes a very vigorous ash tree 
may be as forward as a weakly oak; but it is no exaggeration to.say 
that ninety-five per cent, of oak trees are in leaf earlier than the asli 
trees in the same situations. This statement does not take long to 
write, hut the observations on which it is based are to be numbered by 
thousands, extending over the last eight seasons, and have been made 
