PKELIIINAKY LIST OF THE PLANTS OF NEW BRUNSWICK. 



Compiled by Rev. James Fowler, M.A. 

 With assistance of Members of N. B. Natural History Society. 



HISTORICAL NOTE. 



THE writer has been unable to obtain any published information 

 on the Flora of New Brunswick of earlier date than 1862. 

 The name of the Province occurs a few times in the works of Pursh, 

 Hooker, Gray and others, but only in connexion with the distribution 

 of some particular species of plant. During the above-mentioned 

 year there appeared " A Description of the Forest and Ornamental 

 Trees of New Brunswick, by D. R. Munro, St. John, N. B." As 

 the author proves himself innocent to the last degree of all knowledge 

 of Botany, his descriptions are simply amusing exhibitions of the 

 power of imagination. 1 On February 12th, 1864, Prof. L. W. Bailey 

 read an interesting paper entitled "Notes on the Geology and Botany 

 of New Brunswick " before the Natural History Society, which was 

 subsequently published in the Canadian Naturalist for April of the 

 same year. The author describes the character of the country from 

 the mouth of the Tobique to its source, and thence down the Nepisi- 

 quit to Bathurst, giving partial lists of the plants met with on the 

 route. The reading of this paper gave an impulse to the Botanic 

 talent of the Society, and at the following April meeting (April 8, 

 1864) Mr. Robert Matthew read a "List of the Plants of New 

 Brunswick," but, unfortunately, it was never published. (See Bulle- 

 tin Nat. Hist. Soc, I, p. 18.) 



J He describes three species of Oak, two of Elm, three of Beech, and 

 three of Ash as being abundant. His Bilberry (Vaccinium) grows into 

 a tree thirty feet and upwards, and Dogwood (Cornus Florida) is abun- 

 dant, attaining a height of thirty feet. He finds two species of Moose 

 Wood — the Round-leaf and the Notch-leaf Moose Wood. 



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