ARTICLE IV. 
OBSERVATIONS ON WEATHER AND PLANTS, 1906. 
By G. U. Hay. 
May 1. — An unusually mild winter was followed by cold 
backward weather through M'arch and April. January and Feb- 
ruary were almost without snow in St. John, and the surrounding 
country. The last part of January, and nearly all of February 
were generally mild and warm, with occasional cold snaps. On 
Friday, February 2nd, a party of newspaper men chartered a tug 
and went to Carter’s Point on'the St. John River, fifteen miles 
from the city, where the first ice was met with. During the 
severe frost of the few following days the greater part of the 
lower end of the river was frozen over. 
The St. John River was not open to navigation until the 18th 
April. 
Coltsfoot (Tussilago farfara) was found in bloom in Rock- 
wood Park, April 28th. It has been found blooming near St. 
John as early as the 28th March. 
Wild Garden, Lngleside. 
May 15. — All through April and the first half of May, cold 
rainstorms prevailed with occasional warm days. The sun’s rays 
penetrated but slowly into the earth where the frost had gone 
unusually deep, owing to cold snaps and absence of snow. This 
kept farming operations back. 
Alder and poplar catkins were observed discharging pollen 
April 2 1st. The fields at this date were unusually brown and 
bare, with a little snow and ice in the woods. May 5th — Red 
maple, leather- wood (Dirca palustris), white hepaticas, and a 
few white violets (Viola blanda) in bloom. On May 7th — a cold 
and heavy rain of twenty-four hours’ duration was followed by 
a spring-like afternoon, so balmy and rare in this inclement season 
that it gladdened everything having life, but wintry rains and 
repressing chills followed. May 9th- — A few fawn lilies (Adder’s 
tongue), strawberry blossoms, white violets, mayflowers, the 
latter in full bloom in open woods and quickly dropping their 
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