XXY. 
REPORT ON PHENOLOGICAL PHENOMENA OBSERVED IN 
HERTFORDSHIRE DURING THE YEAR 1884. 
By Johk Hopkihsoh, E.L.S., E.G.S., etc. 
Read at Watford , 24 th March, 1885. 
The systematic observation of Phonological Phenomena, which in 
1875 received considerable impetus in this country from the scheme 
then formulated by the Meteorological Society of London and 
adopted by our Society,* is now attracting considerable attention on 
the Continent of Europe. Drs. Egon Ihne and Hermann Hoffmann 
have recently published a work on the subject,! the first part of 
which, by Dr. Ihne, is a History of Phenological Observations in 
Europe, with a catalogue of the publications in which they are 
given, and the second, by Dr. Hoffmann, Phenological Observations 
made [in Germany] in the years 1879-82. Dr. Ihne, in his 
Introduction, says that in 1882 he resolved to commence the work 
of drawing up a Phenological Map of Europe. He soon found that 
materials were plentiful, but dispersed in many publications, the 
titles of which did not indicate that they contained phenological 
observations. This induced him to make a catalogue of all publica¬ 
tions on phenological phenomena, and a complete list of the works 
in which they are contained. He was astonished at the abundance 
of the observations which for more than 100 years have been made 
in all parts of Europe. Eor every country he gives a brief survey 
of the history of phenological observations, and a list of the works 
on the subject arranged in chronological order. 
The earliest phenological observations recorded by Dr. Ihne are 
those made in this country by Marsham, who commenced to observe 
the dates of flowering of plants in the year 1735 at Stratton in 
Suffolk, and published his “ Indications of Spring ” in the 4 Trans¬ 
actions of the Eoyal Society’ in 1789. Stillingfleet’s observations 
made at Stratton in 1755 are, however, catalogued first, having 
been published in his ‘ Miscellaneous Tracts relating to Natural 
History’ in 1762. Amongst the most recent observations those 
made by the members of our Society are duly referred to. As an 
illustration of the thoroughness of Dr. Ihne’s work, and its value to 
those who wish to know what has been done for any particular 
locality, I may mention that 315 places in Great Britain where 
phenological observations have been made are enumerated, the 
index giving the years of observation at each place (to 1882) and 
reference-numbers to the publications in which the observations are 
to be found. The following localities in Hertfordshire are thus 
indexed, with a reference-number to the notice which is given (on 
pp. 98, 99) of my own annual reports in the ‘ Transactions ’ of our 
Society, and to the notice of the Bev. T. A. Preston’s reports in 
* See 4 Trans. Watford Nat. Hist. Soc.,’ Vol. I, Part 2, p. 83. 
f ‘ Beitrage zur Phanologie.’ 8vo. Giessen, 1884. 
