52 The Ottawa Naturalist [May- 



only in April, I find that the chief blossoming--time for our flower- 

 ing plants is the end of May and the beginning of June. During 

 the last third of May and the first third of June I found 136 plants 

 coming into bloom, or exactly 68 for each period. This is about 

 40% of the whole number found blooming before the end of June. 

 In every ten-day period before this, the numbers gradually increase 

 towards this climax, while they fall off" thereafter. I found no 

 violets come into bloom after May and very few of the lily and 

 lily-of-the-valley families ; they are found from the middle of April 

 on. On the other hand the St. John's Wort family, which belong 

 to the same order as the violets but have a different habitat, come 

 into bloom in July. The poppy family has some April representa- 

 tives. The poplars and willows, elms and maples bloom early ; 

 indeed most, if not all, of our trees are in bloom before June. The 

 irises and orchids do not bloom before May. The order of the 

 Ranales and the rose order begin to bloom early and furnish a 

 great number of species, perhaps 80% of their number, throughout 

 April, May and June, beginning with the hepatica, our earliest 

 flower. Much the same may be said of the cress or mustard 

 family (which begins with the cut-leaved toothwort) and the heath 

 order (beginning with the trailing arbutus, almost, if not quite, 

 as early as the hepatica) though they are not quite-so abundant in 

 the beginning. The cress family may nearly all be found in bloom 

 before the middle of June, while quite a number of the heath order 

 bloom in July. The pink family and the umbel order have each 

 only one representative in the latter part of April, viz., the 

 larger mouse-ear chickweed {Cerastium vidgatam) for the former, 

 and the dwarf ginseng for the latter ; but soon after they 

 become very abundant, especially the umbel order. The more 

 highly developed plants seem to be, as a rule, poorly represented 

 in the spring, being largely summer bloomers, which would sug- 

 gest that their greater complexity required time to unfold. I refer 

 to the primrose, borage, mint, potato and figwort families, the 

 gentian order, and especially the great order of the Campaniilales 

 which includes the num.erous Composite family. Of the Ruhiales 

 I round only one species of galium blooming in May, but six in 

 June ; mitchella repens also is not found till towards the end of 

 June ; but the honeysuckle family, while furnishing but one plant 



