232 
PHENOLOGrICAL PHENOMENA IN 1884 . 
year appearing in May. Here there appears to be a recovery from 
the retarding effect of the cold weather of April, which lasted to 
the close of the first week in May, when a warm, bright, and very 
dry period commenced. Our Royston observer says that “ following 
the remarkable frosts and cold winds of April, this proved to be 
one of the warmest and driest Mays known for many years, and 
the severe check to vegetation was more than counterbalanced by the 
stimulus of the hot sunshine of May; but the horse-chestnut (20) 
and some other species never quite recovered from the severe effects 
of frost just when they had reached the budding stage.” 
The first 5 species for June averaged 1 day early and the next 
5 species 4 days early, all flowering as usual within the month. The 
sudden retardation, after an average for 4 species near the end of 
May of 8 days early, is remarkable; for there does not appear to be 
anything in the weather to account for it, June having an average 
temperature and humidity and but little rain. The last week was, 
however, much warmer than the earlier part of the month, and 
although during this earlier part vegetation was not so forward 
generally as it was a little before and after, still it was in advance 
of the average date. 
The 5 species for July which usually come into flower in June 
averaged 7 days early, and the 5 which usually flower in July 
4 days early. July was a warm month, but the species selected 
for it would be influenced only by the weather of June or of a still 
earlier period. The warm and dry weather of the last week in 
June would appear to have had some influence in the acceleration 
of the period of flowering. 
The few records of species flowering later in the year are about 
the average dates; but the ivy (32), the only species in the list 
flowering so late as September, was out much earlier than usual. 
