54 The Ottawa Naturalist. [May 



eggs, might not be found still blooming at the beginning oi' De- 

 cember some very late fall in favorable situations. But the only 

 way to see our wild plants in bloom in the middle of winter is to 

 dig them up and bring them home in the fall. I have got sweet 

 cicely to bloom in this way, and my pupils were able to have 

 hepaticas and spring beauties in flower at Christmas-time, — a 

 charming little bit of the spring woods ! It can not be said of 

 all Canada, however, that wild flowers never bloom in February 

 in their own habitat; for on the British Columbia coast, under the 

 influence of the warm Pacific current, at Chilliwack and Van- 

 couver for example, spring opens in the latter part ot February 

 with the blossoming of willows and alders ; while on Vancouver 

 Island there is hardly any cessation of growth at all during the 

 winter, and a great many species of wild plants may be found 

 blooming in February. 



That seeds long dormant should suddenly germinate and 

 grow luxuriantly when the trost cover is removed, is doubtless 

 due to the great amount of heat, and possibly light, necessary to 

 the germination and growth of these plants — an amount that does 

 not exist in the shade of the poplars, spruces and pines. When 

 these trees grow up again, the heat-loving willow-herb and 

 golden-rod, blueberry and raspberry die away, leavmg their seeds, 

 or in some cases the roots, to represent them and to assert their 

 rights when the proper heat-stimulus is again present. The need 

 of oxygen for the germination of the seed is also a factor here. 

 The clearing away of forest cover allows a freer circulation of air, 

 and the oxygen in *he air has a better chance to come into contact 

 with the dormant seeds. 



Finally, it would appear from this study that the vegetation 

 of a given region would be just as true a criterion of its climate 

 as the climate would be of its flora They are converse proposi- 

 tions. And plant-growth, being really the resultant of the com- 

 plex conditions making up what we call imather, is thus a very 

 simple and beautiful index of the progress of the seasons. 



February, 1904. 



