252 BULLETIN OF THE NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 
the summary that follows. The spring that promises well in 
February and March is tolerably certain to be delayed into the 
latter part of May or even June. This, with the prevalent cold 
east winds that continue into late spring, account for the late 
average opening of plants in southern New Brunswick in com- 
parison with the more western sections of Canada, remote from 
the polar currents of the ocean and from prevalent east winds. 
No attempt has been made to average the time of opening of 
the leaves on our deciduous trees or shrubs. Generally speaking, 
the leaves of the fetid or skunk currant are among the first to 
unfold, followed closely by the small native mountain fly honey- 
suckle (Lonic era canadensis ) . The birches, maples, amelanchier, 
cherries, put forth their leaves nearly together, the white birch 
leading; the poplars and elm are a little later; then the oaks and 
the ashes, the latter the most tardy except the acacia. This, with 
the black ash, retains its leaves longer than the others in autumn. 
Among ferns the little woodsias are the first to unfold their 
fronds, followed by the bladder fern and other smaller species, 
whose habitat is usually on rocks, more or less exposed to the 
sun. The tender fronds of the cinnamon fern are very suscep- 
tible to early frosts. On the night of June 6, 1905, a severe frost 
quite destroyed all the young fronds of this fern. 
In the following list the name of the plant is followed by 
the average date of its opening. The dates that come after are 
the earliest and latest of its appearance. One flower was not 
in general deemed sufficient to make a date, but several are 
included in those first seen. 
The spring of 1902, which leads all others in the “earliest” 
opening of flowers followed a remarkably open winter. The St. 
John river that year was clear of ice on the 27th of March — the 
earliest on record. The spring of 1907, which marks the greatest 
number of “ latest ” openings, was very backward with frequent 
snowstorms in March and April ,and wet cold weather through 
May and June. 
