242 
E. MAWLEY—PHENOLOGICAL PHENOMENA 
The coltsfoot was eleven days late, the wood-anemone ten days 
late, the blackthorn thirteen days late, the garlic hedge-mustard 
five days late, the horse-chestnut one day early, the hawthorn 
thirteen days late, and the white ox-eye six days late. 
As had been the case in the previous five years, the spring 
migrants arrived behind their average dates. The swallow was 
one day late, the cuckoo three days late, the nightingale four days 
late, and the flycatcher two days late. 
The wasp made its appearance twenty-one days late, the small 
white butterfly seven days late, and the orange-tip butterfly nine 
days late. 
The Summek. 
This season proved on the whole warm, dry, and exceptionally 
sunny. Taking the three months separately, June was cold and 
very dry, July very hot and at its close exceptionally wet, while 
August was chiefly remarkable for its many cold nights and 
moderate rainfall. Unlike the two previous quarters there was 
a splendid record of sunshine. 
The yield of hay was very good, and was gathered in in excellent 
condition, and with but little interruption from rain. The dry 
weather in June and the three weeks drought in July, accompanied 
as the latter was by great heat, although favouring the hay harvest, 
proved very trying to all the growing crops, and particularly to the 
roots and late-sown corn, while the pastures became quite bare. 
Relief came in the last week in July, when the rainfall was very 
heavy. Coming as these rains did after nearly three weeks of 
unbroken heat, rapid growth was consequently made, and from 
that period there was no check; for during the cooler weather in 
August the roots and also the grass made good progress, so that 
the pastures were soon clothed with abundant herbage. As the 
cereals were hastened into maturity by the forcing weather in July, 
the corn harvest began earlier than usual and was carried out with 
scarcely any interruption at all, and in an exceptionally short time. 
September is usually regarded as the harvest month, but last year 
nearly the whole crop was got in before the end of the previous 
month. 
As had been the case in the field, so was it in the garden. Good 
growth was made both in the kitchen and flower garden, and in 
the latter the flowering season was all that could be wished until 
the drought and hot weather in July began to make itself felt, 
when the progress of all vegetation was arrested until after the 
wet period at the close of that month. 
Mr. Willis reports that at Harpenden the first wheat-ear was 
out of its sheath on June 21st, which is later than in any of the 
previous twelve years. 
He further expresses the opinion that up to the blooming time 
of the wheat there was a capital promise of a successful harvest, 
but that the excessive drought in June (I conclude he means July) 
caused a stagnation in growth. Several crops, he says, did not 
