OBSERVED IN HERTEORDSHIRE IN 1884 . 
231 
which may he mentioned the violet (10), the primrose, and the 
stock, were very prolific in bloom. A blackthorn (27) was observed 
in full leaf at Rothamsted. The wheat plants and winter oats 
were particularly strong and healthy, with dark green foliage.” At 
Hertford “ many plants, as the dandelion, primrose, and Veronica 
Buxbmmii , had not left off flowering in January, and others, as 
Anthriscus sylvestris , were stimulated into abnormal flowering.” 
At Royston “the cold winds which prevailed during February 
somewhat checked the early promise of January, and at the end 
of February vegetation was not so forward as might have been 
expected.” 
Of the species for March, the 6’ flowering within the month 
averaged 8 days early, and the 4 usually flowering in April, 13 
days early, two of these appearing before the end of March. The 
weather in February, though mild, was colder than in January, the 
difference being chiefly in the lower minima of February. This 
appears to have somewhat retarded the state of forwardness in 
March, until towards the close of the month, by which time the 
warm period prevailing between the 13th and 20th produced its 
natural result. 
Of the species representing April, 4 which usually flower within 
the month averaged 13 days early, and 6 which usually flower in 
May only 3 days early, two of these appearing in April. The last 
ten days in March were cold, and very little rain fell, but the first 
nine in April were warm. This cold dry period in March does not 
appear to have produced any retarding effect upon vegetation, 
unless the great retardation at the end of April is due in some 
measure to it; but there is a more immediate cause for this in the 
very cold period prevailing during the last three weeks of April, 
the mean temperature of which was lower than that of January or 
March and very little higher than that of February. Our observer 
at Royston says that April was ‘ ‘ an extraordinary month, with 
nothing to record between the opening and closing weeks. With 
the rain and sultry weather for a day or two at the beginning of 
the month vegetation went forward with leaps and bounds, only to 
meet with such a severe check as is fortunately not often experienced 
in April. In one night (18th) and in succeeding nights between 18th 
and 24th the frost carried everything before it, and thousands of 
pounds were lost to the fruit-growers in this neighbourhood 
(Royston). The budding horse-chestnut (20) and other trees had 
their leaves turned black and shrivelled up as if burnt. The 
appearance of the nightingale (95), cuckoo (102), and swallow 
(103) was delayed more than a week beyond the latest expected 
time, and the hawthorn (32), which would have blossomed with the 
arrival of the cuckoo but for this unseasonable visitation of frost, 
must now, except here and there in a sunny sheltered spot, be 
referred to the opening days of May.” 
For May the 6 species really coming into flower within the 
month averaged 6 days early, and the 4 usually flowering in the 
first three days of June averaged 8 days early, all of these this 
