84 The Ottawa Naturalist. [Aug. 



\\c rray honour him slill further hy endeavouring to maintain 

 and advance those sciences to the promotion of which so much of 

 his Ufe Vvas so enthusiastically devoted. 



Dr. W. D. T.eSueur, Hon. Secretary of the Royal Society, 

 in paying his tribute to the late Dr. Fletcher said that tlie cere- 

 mony in which we are engaging to-day, the duty we are fulfilling 

 towards the memory of our departed and deeply-lamented friend, 

 is one in which the Royal Society of Canada may very fittingly 

 take a part. It was early in the history of the Society at its 

 third annual meeting in the year 1.885 that the name of James 

 Fletcher was enrolled in its list of members. His zeal and his 

 attainments as a practical botanist and entomologist had already 

 attracted the attention of the leading men of Section IV, the 

 Section devoted to the biological sciences; and they gave him 

 a waim v^elcome to their ranks. It is almost needless to 

 add that he did not regard his election in the light of an idle 

 decoration; he saw in it rather a call to work and duty, and he 

 took at once an active part in the labours of his Section, of which 

 nine vears later he was elected President. The address which 

 he delivered in that capacity dealt with the subject of practical 

 entomology. The turn of his mind w^as at all times practical. 

 He was one of those men who see things to do, and who do them. 

 He was not a man to undervalue or depreciate scientific theory, 

 but his talent lay rather in the region of the visible and tangible. 

 The living, breathing world was his domain. He had the quick 

 eye, the retentive memory, and, above all, the responsive, 

 sympathetic heart. 



In the year 1901 we find him reading a paper before the 

 Society on "The Value of Nature-Study in Education." This 

 was a subject after his ow-n heart. He could not understand 

 education apart from nature-study. 



His executive abilities were quicklv recognized, and for 

 many years he filled most efficiently the office of Honorary 

 Treasurer. In the year 1906, he succeeded Dr. S. E. Dawson, 

 then elected vice-president, in the more diiiEicult and laborious 

 ofifice of Honorary Secretary. Here his talents of industry, 

 tact and management found abundant exercise. The office had 

 previously been held but by two individuals, Sir John Bourinot 

 for the first twenty years of the Society's existence (1882-1902), 

 and Dr. Dawson for the four succeeding years. These were the 

 distinguished predecessors in whose steps he had to walk: and 

 it was agreed by all that, in his hands, the best traditions of 

 the office were fully maintained. He worked while it was day 

 faithfully and well. Feeling testimony is borne to his services 

 and character in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of Canada 

 of last year: and in the galaxy of noble men whom that Society 





