126 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. vii. 



provements taking place in this vicinity are producing great 

 changes in the flora, causing the disappearance of many rare and 

 beautiful species, and the introduction of hardy and noxious 

 weeds. As lime goes on, the houses, creeping out block by block 

 from the narrow area enclosed by the walls in olden times, fill up 

 the vacant lots and fields. By degrees new drains and tunnels 

 are drying up the pools where the jjondweeds grew, and duckweed 

 mantled the surffice o'er with green, and the swamps and ravines 

 DO longer afl'ord the moist and shady home for the orchids and 

 moccasin flowers of former years. Further away from the 

 din of busy industry, the farms and market gardens are rapidly 

 encroaching on the woods and copses, while these again are being- 

 robbed of their pristine character by the constant incursions of 

 men and cattle, and thus, soon, the lover of flowers may look in 

 vain for our sweet-scented pyrolas and slipper-plants, and be 

 forced to say in the words of the old Scottish song, 



" The flowers of the forest are a' wede awa'." 



So rapidly is this process of encroachment on rural parts going 

 on, that sometimes plants essentially of the country and fen, are 

 surrounded and imprisoned by the advancing lines and forming 

 squares of houses. Thus, specimens of the marsh five-finger, and 

 buckbean or swamp gentian, and other swamp plants, could be 

 seen only a year ago growing in a boggy lot between Richmond 

 square and the Ft.R. track. The following are some examples 

 which occur at the moment, of particular localities where some- 

 what uncommon species of plants may be found : Orchis specta- 

 hiUs, ravine head of University street ; Viola Selkirkii, amongst 

 loose rocks at the base oF the east end of the Mountain ; Viola 

 sagiftata, rising ground back of Hochelaga village ; Viola lanceo- 

 lata, near Mde. Bruueau's, Montarville ; Atragene Americana^ 

 brow of mountain above Ravenscraig, and summit of Beloeil 

 mountain ; Uvularia sessili/olia, top of the Mountain, above 

 Terrace Bank; Cratcegus oxi/cantha, the English hawthorn, St. 

 Helen's Island ; Claytonia Virginica, woodland at the base of 

 the east end of the Mountain, near the cemetery fence; Aralia 

 trifolia, swamp in the cemetery; Aspidium fragrans, exposed 

 rocks near the lake, Beloeil Mountain. 



These may furnish some localities new to many collectors in 

 this neighbourhood, and other localities of somewhat rare species 

 will be furnished in future numbers. Any one making known 



