24 



The Canadian Field-Naturalist 



[Vol XXXVI 



sooner or later in the spring the flowering com- 

 mences. 



Continuity of flowering has taken place for 

 nearly four years, without cessation, in some of 

 the arbutus trees I have observed at Cadboro Bay 

 and other points on the Coast. The illustration 

 given in Fig. 3 shows the ripening berries of the 

 earlier blossoms and the new flower buds of the 

 autumn, picked from the same tree at Cadboro 

 Bay, on 2nd November, 1920. 



Many trees, such as willows and alders, develop 

 catkins during the autumn, the willows of the 

 higher and drier areas commencing in November 

 and those of the colder swamps not until April or 

 May. The flowering dogwood (Cornus nuitallii 

 Aud.) often also has an amount of continuity in 

 blossom. Two sets of flowers may occur in a 

 season. Floral buds, too, can develop in the late 

 autumn and persist all winter. To my mind, 

 however, there is a difference between this and the 

 arbutus, for in the latter species there is no resting 

 period between successive periods of flowering, 

 whereas in the willows, alders, dogwood, etc., there 

 is. 



As will be seen by the letter and table of temper- 

 ature kindly supplied to me by Mr. F. Napier 

 Denison, Superintendent for British Columbia, 

 Dominion Meteorological Service, Gonzales Hill, 

 Victoria, B.C., and printed below, the weather 

 conditions have been somewhat abnormal during 

 the last four years. Mr. Denison's idea about the 

 tempering effects of winds blowing off tidal waters 

 is borne out by the fact that the floral buds on 

 arbutus trees near the shore withstood the tem- 

 peratures given by Mr. Denison while those 

 farther inland were cut off by the frosts. The 

 dogwood also suffered inland but near the sea was 

 uninjured. 



Victoria, B.C., April 15th, 1921 

 C. C. Pemberton, Esq., 

 Sayward Building, 

 Victoria, B.C. 

 Dear Sir: 



In reply to your letter of last December and 

 enquiry of recent date respecting climatic condi- 

 tions at Victoria during the past few years, I 

 take pleasure in enclosing you a table bearing on 

 this subject for 1919, 1920 and to March, 1921, 

 and monthly normals for precipitation, tempera- 

 ture and sunshine. 



You will note from the enclosed that in 1919 

 the summer and winter were abnormally cold and 

 particularly in November and December. In 

 1920 the rainfall was abnormally light in February 

 while from the early summer to the close of the 

 year it was unusually heavy; and again in January 

 and February, 1921, the rainfall was abnormal. 



I am inclined to think that why the Arbutus 

 grows so well about Victoria is on account of the 

 tempering effect of the winds usually blowing off 

 the tidal waters of either the Strait of Juan de 

 Fuca, that is, from the southwest in summer, and 

 across the Strait of Georgia from the north in 

 the winter. 



It may interest you to know that the annual 

 amount of bright sunshine here is more than in 

 any part of the British Isles, even including the 

 Channel Islands. 



Trusting the enclosed information may be of 

 some service to you, 

 I remain 



Sincerely yours, 



F. Napier Dennison, 



Superintendent in B. C. 



(See top of page 25 for Meteorological Table.) 



A Remarkable Specimen. 

 The arbutus pictured in Fig. No. 4 is a curiosity. 

 Its life history as revealed by its growth-form is 

 an enigma. There is the long root — or stem — 

 stretching across a pocket of soil in the top of a 

 cliff of rock and bending at one end over the edge 

 of the cliff and then making a curve up and out 

 into a normal shaped tree. The cause of this 

 very unusual method of growth is difficult to 

 ascertain. The district in which the tree is 

 situated is one of those settled and populated 

 early in the history of Victoria and I enquired 

 from the older inhabitants of the locality for any 

 particulars of the early life of the tree but could 

 gain no information. No one seemed to have 

 noticed it and no data as to fires or other destruc- 

 tive agencies could be obtained. The appearance 

 at "A" seems to indicate that at one time there 

 was a vertical shoot at the point. In fact, it 

 looks as if there had been a good sized tree and 

 that from it a root had descended in the direction 

 "D" toward the lower ground. If this were so, 

 then the piece "A"- "B" - "C" would have been 

 another root mostly on the surface but with a 

 short portion covered with soil at "B" and hanging 

 over the cliff at "C." As can be seen by the 

 illustration, the stem of the tree existing at "C" 

 when the photograph was taken really commences 

 to be a true stem at the point "C". The stem, 

 or root (whichever it is), "A" - "D", "A" - 

 "B" - "C" has the appearance of having suffered 

 great ill-usage. It is decadent throughout its 

 length except where the small portion at "B" 

 is covered with soil. This covered up part proved 

 on examination to be vital and in good condition. 

 These circumstances have led me to believe that 

 an original stem at "A" may have become des- 

 troyed and, in consequence, an adventitious 

 shoot had subsequently sprung from the over- 



