The importance of observations on the annual progress of vegetation is obvious, and, as connected with agriculture, gardening, &c., eminently useful. Comparative observations acquire a particular degree of interest, when made by skilful observers, at the same time, but at different places. Dr. Bigelow, of Boston, issued a circular, proposing that such contemporaneous observations should be made in the spring of 1817; and I wish that his request may have been attended to, when the collection of those observations may afford valuable materials for an American Calendar of Flora. The blossoming of plants is easily watched, but their foliation and budding ought not to be neglected. Having been prevented, by various causes, from keeping an exact record of the progress of vegetation near New-York in 1817, I submit an accurate journal which I had kept the year before, at Philadelphia, in which I hope that some interesting facts may be noticed. Dr. Benjamin Barton has published a sketch of a Calendar of Flora for Philadelphia, in his Fragments on the Natural History of Pennsylvania; by comparing it with mine, many material differences may be traced, which evince a gradual change of temperature, although the spring of 1816 was remarkably cold and late. The greater quantity of species observed by me may, besides, render this journal a sort of vernal Flora of the neighbourhood of Philadelphia; and many species found by me are not to be met in the _Flora Philadelphica_ of Dr. William Barton. _February_ 20. The _Hyacinthus orientalis_ begins to show its flowers, and on the 24. In full blossom, as well as _Convallaria majalis_, in rooms. 25. The grass begins to look greenish in some parts. 26. Seen the first larva of insect in a pond. 27. The _Motacilla sialis_, or bluebird, is heard for the first time. 28. The first shad (_Clupea sapidissima_) is taken in the Delaware, while on the same day, the first smelt (_Salmo eperlanoides_) was taken in the Raritan, at New-Brunswick. _March_ 1. The _Tulipa gesneriana_, and _Hesperis matronalis_, are in blossom at the windows: the suckers (_genus Catostomus_) appear in the fish-market. 2. The catkins of the _Alnus serrulatus_ begin to swell. 3. Those of _Salix Caprea_ begin to appear. 4. The grass looks green by patches in the country. 5. The leaves of _Veronica officinalis_, _Plantago virginiana_, _Saxifraga virginica_, &c. are quite unfolded. 6. The new leaves of _Kalmia latifolia_ begin to appear. 7. The spathas of _Spathyema fetida_, or _Fothos fetida_, begin to appear in blossom. 8. The _Alnus serrulatus_ is in full blossom. 10. Found several mosses and ferns in blossom; these last were covered with capsules or old fructification: they were _Asplenium ebeneum_, _Aspidium marginale_, _Asp. acrostichoides_, _Polypodium medium_, N. Sp., &c. 11. Seen the first spider, in the country, brown, oblong, walking. A fall of snow at night.