APPENDIX B CXXI 
Their reports on the probable mistakes made by some of the observers, 
with suggestions for improvement in the schedule, etc., were published 
in the April Journal of Education, 1901. 
The following paragraph is taken from the directions printed on 
the schedules to show the care taken to have accurate data: 
‘To all observers the following most important, most essential principles 
of recording are emphasized: Better no date, NO RECORD, than a WRONG ONE or 
a DOUBTFUL one. Sports out of season, due to very local conditions not com- 
mon to at least a small field, should not be recorded except parenthetically, 
The date to be recorded for the purposes of compilation with those of other 
localities should be the first of the many of its kind following immediately 
after, etc. For instance, a butterfly emerging from its chrysalis in a sheltered 
cranny by a southern window in January would not be an indication of the 
general climate, but of the peculiarly heated nook in which the chrysalis was 
sheltered; nor would a flower in a semi-artificial, warm shelter, give the date 
required. When these sports out of season occur, they may also be recorded, 
but within a parenthesis to indicate the peculiarity of some of the conditions 
affecting their early appearance.”’ 
The following comments were made after the study of such sche- 
dules from 1892 to 1899, in the Canadian Record of Science, Volume 
VIII., No. 2, pages 73 to 84: 
“The tendency to error is quite observable in a study of the whole of these 
schedules. The most serious is characteristic of the solitary observer who 
goes out for his walk of observation perhaps not more than once or twice a 
week. His plants appear to flower by weekly or semi-weekly spurts; and if 
certain plants are rare in his locality he may not see them in bloom until, may 
be, more than a week after they have been in full flower. In the school 
observations this tendency to error is entirely eliminated, for numbers of 
individuals are daily wandering to and from school every day with their eyes 
open for everything, especially when the discoverer of each new phenomenon 
for the season wins a credit of some kind before the whole school. 
“Again, the tyro botanist is at a disadvantage, for he does not know 
where to look for the rarer species, and when he accidentally comes across 
them they may have {been in flower for some time. It is very likely that the 
average dates of the flowering of plants in Nova Scotia in the various coun- 
ties may be slightly affected by this source of error, the counties having the 
oldest and most enthusiastic botanists appearing to be earlier in season. This 
may account for the unexpectedly advanced position of Pictou county in the 
table. 
“Then there is the accident of local land inclination or shelter, for the 
warm intervals on the southern slope of the hill is earlier than the northern 
slope. To estimate these local effects, the schedules from each county in Nova 
Scotia from this year forward are to be classified into localities: (1) on the 
coast, (2) low inlands, and (3) highlands. 
