148 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [June 



nor at the sub-arctic type of vegetation which flourishes around 

 us. It is well known that humidity, in its influence over the 

 distribution of Arctic plants, in a limited degree represents cold. 

 But when a climate is both cool and moist, as ours is, it presents 

 a double attraction to these little northern adventurers. 



Having seen what a chilling effect these south-west winds, with 

 their accompanying fog and rain, have at the coast, let us now 

 follow the same breezes into the interior. 



As soon as the fogs pass the coast, they are rapidly absorbed 

 by the atmosphere (expanded by warmth radiated from the 

 heated earth), and may be traced in their progress inland, in the 

 long banks of cumuli-clouds which hang over the southern hills ; 

 and are finally dissipated entirely in the onward progress of the 

 southerly winds, which now possess nearly the original warmth 

 and most of the moisture that they had when first they began 

 their journey from the Gulf Stream. Now pre-eminently invigo- 

 rating and refreshing, these winds course onward toward the 

 shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, stimulating the growth of 

 many species of plants, which cannot abide their chilling 

 influences at the coast. As may be inferred, they bear a very 

 diflFerent reputation along the Gulf from that which attaches to 

 them with us. In spring and early summer, they blow down the 

 valleys of the Miramichi, and other streams debouching on that 

 coast, as warm breezes, prevalent during the night and morning, 

 giving a great stimulus to vegetation; but in the evening they 

 are pushed back, or forced upward by a strong, cold wind from 

 the Gulf, but lately relieved from its wide fields of floe-ice. The 

 latter (N. E. winds) often blow with much violence about 4 or 

 5 o'clock in the afternoon, and such is their chilling influence, 

 that flowers which have been in bloom in Fredericton for a fort- 

 night are (about 1st June) only opening their petals on the 

 Miramichi. There is nearly the same diiference between St. 

 Jiohn and Fredericton at this period, although the first flowers of 

 spring, such as the Mayflower, Epigoea rtpens, usually opens 

 with us a little in advance of their time of flowering at the 

 capital. The advent of spring is undoubtedly first felt at St, 

 John, but the increase of fog and chilly winds in the month of 

 May checks the gi'owth of plants with us, while the very same 

 winds give an increased impetus to their growth and expansion in 

 the interior, where, at the 1st of June, vegetation, in its summer 

 development, is a fortnight in advance of the coast, and subse- 

 X ntly much more. 



