FLORA OF NEW BKUNSWICK. 



193 



The average temperatures of the diifereut seasons for five years at the principal 



meteorological stations near the coast, are as follows : — 



AvEBAGB Temperatures. 



Spring. 



Point Lépreux 43.6 



St. .Tohii ' 46.9 



Chatham 47.3 



Bathur.-t 48.3 



Dalhousie 45.1 



SlM.MEP,. 



55.5 

 58.7 

 Ul.L' 

 64.4 

 59.4 



Al'tu.mn. 



35.6 

 34.9 

 30.9 

 32.8 

 27.7 



Winter. 



Year. 



23.5 

 23.1 

 16.9 

 17.1 

 13.8 



39.9 



40.9 

 39.1 

 40.6 

 3G.5 



These low temperatvires in spring and autumn, combined with the moist sea-breezes, 

 and the cold rains and fogs, account for the climatic conditions which have induced so 

 many Arctic adventurers to linger along our shores. 



In drawing up the following list of New Brunswick plants which have also been found 

 within the Arctic Circle, the writer has adopted J. D. Hooker's division of the Arctic 

 regions into five districts, for the purpose of shewing the extensive area over which the 

 species have been distributed. The number of Arctic Scandinavian forms is a very 

 remarkable phenomenon. No other flora is so widely distribiTted. It girdles the globe in 

 the Arctic circle, dominates over all others in the north temperate zone and intrudes con- 

 spicuously into every other temperate flora, whether in the northern or southern hemi- 

 sphere, or on the mountains of tropical countries. Three-fifths of the species and almost 

 all the genera of Arctic Asia and America are found in Lapland, thus making the whole 

 circumpolar flora one general botanical province, which is subdivided merely for the pur- 

 poses of comparison. The Scandinavian flora is evidently of great antiquity, and must 

 haA'e covered the Arctic regions previous to the Glacial period. It was then driven south- 

 wards in every longitude, and on the return of a milder temperature, the survivors 

 migrated backward to their original homes, carrying with them some of the ancient 

 natives of the southern mountains which they had invaded, and leaving behind in every 

 favorable locality, stragglers or whole colonies to reveal the story of their invasion. An 

 examination of the list is fitted to produce the impression that our flora is of a much more 

 boreal character than we previously suspected. 



The five districts into which the circumpolar area is divided are the following : — (1) 

 The G-reenland district. (2) The Arctic European, extending eastward to the Gulf of Obi. 

 (3) Arctic Asia. (4) Arctic "West America, extending from Behring Strait to Mackenzie 

 Eiver. (5) Arctic East America, including all the regions between the Mackenzie and 

 Baffin Bay. 



The principal works consulted for the Arctic European flora are Wahlenberg's "Flora 

 Lapponica." Fries's " Summa Vegetabilium Scandinaviœ," and Hooker's "Floras"; and 

 for Arctic Asia, Ledebour's " Flora Rossica." The works treating of the flora of Greenland 

 and America, are too well known to be mentioned. 



Sec. iv, 1887. 25. 



