74 Canadian Record of Science. 



would receive credit as the first observer of it for the year. 

 The observations will be accurate, as the facts will have to- 

 be demonstrated by the most undoubted evidence, such as 

 the bringing of the specimens to the school when possible 

 or necessary. 



" To all observers the following most important, most 

 essential principles of recording are emphasized : Better 

 no date, NO iiECOiiD, 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 might also be recorded, but within a 

 parenthesis to indicate the peculiarity of some of the 

 conditions affecting their early appearance." 



The tendency to error is quite observable in a study of 

 the whole of these schedules. The most serious is char- 

 acteristic 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 send- 

 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 sch(jol 

 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. 



