Abstract
MR. J. EDMUND CLAKK'S important paper on “The History of British Phenology” (Quart. J. Roy. Meteorol. Soc., 62, January 1936) comes at a time when the six hundred or so phenological observers organised in Britain by the Royal Meteorological Society are beginning their annual observations on the dates of flowering of plants, song of birds, appearance of migrants, butterflies, etc. In Great Britain organised phenology dates from Gilbert White's classic eighteenth century observations. The Royal Meteorological Society's phenological reports were begun in 1875 by the Rev. Thomas A. Preston, of Marlborough School, who made about 20,000,000 calculations. From 1889 until 1910 Edward Mawley organised them with 22–23 observing stations watching 50 plants, 14 birds, 6 insects and frog spawn. From 1911 until 1913, Messrs. J. E. Clark and R. H. Hooker were responsible, in 1914 Mr. Clark, and from 1915 until 1920 (during which year 5,000 reports were tabulated) by Messrs. J. E. Clark and H. B. Adames. For the last five years, Messrs. J. E. Clark, I. D. Margary and C. J. P. Cave have been responsible for them, and in 1930 as many as 18,000 records were tabulated. Critics of the exhaustive series of statistics and maps published annually in the Phenological Report will probably, after the half century of work is reached, appreciate their value in that the deductions are already proving useful for farm and garden crops.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Forty-Six Years of Phenology. Nature 137, 489 (1936). https://doi.org/10.1038/137489b0
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/137489b0